Patty Griffin hails from Old Town, Maine, United States, next to the Penobscot Native American reservation. She is primarily a guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, with a distinctive voice. The youngest child in her family with six older siblings, she bought a guitar for $50.00 at age 16, and sang and played, but had no inclination at the time to become a professional musician. After a short marriage which ended in 1992, Griffin began playing in Boston coffee houses, and was scouted by A&M Records, who signed Griffin on the strength of her demo tape; however it was overproduced, so Nile Rodgers and A&M instead released a stripped-down reworking of her demo tape, as an album called Living with Ghosts. In fact, two of her first four albums were unreleased by A&M Records.

1998's Flaming Red was a departure from the acoustic sound of Living with Ghosts, with a mix of mellow songs with some rock and roll songs that border on new wave. The song "Tony" from this album is al