American Kid, much of which Griffin says 'was written to honor my father,' returns to typical Patty Griffin territory, which is to say that it features a group of remarkably powerful, personal and unpredictable songs arranged and performed in a style that doesn't entirely repeat anything she's done on her previous albums while drawing on all of them.
Yet Griffin's catalog is among the most unified in modern popular music, because her singing is as unmistakable and inimitable as her songwriting.