Singer/songwriter Patty Griffin grew up in the Catholic Church and wasn't really exposed to Southern gospel music.
But nearly a decade ago, she started getting into the inspirational works of the Staple Singers.
"I found when I listened to them, it made me really happy," Griffin said during a phone interview from her home in Austin, Texas. "So I became a die-hard Staple Singers fan."
Griffin's love for the Staple Singers got her a gig singing a duet with Mavis Staples on "Waiting for My Child to Come Home," on the 2009 gospel tribute album "Oh, Happy Day."
"I almost didn't do it because (Mavis) was such a master," Griffin said. "But I had to meet her and went ahead and did it."
The song caught the attention of EMI Records executive Peter York.
"He asked if I would consider doing a gospel record," said Griffin. "I thought it would be a really good project because I would have to do some learning."
The project, called "Downtown Church," became Griffin's seventh studio album.
Not only did Griffin have to learn how to sing gospel, she also had to learn how to reconcile her personal feelings to what she would be conveying in the songs.
"I consider myself to be a lapsed Catholic," she said. "Growing up, I didn't see women having equal time (in the church), and the patriarchal terminology was kind of hard to understand.
"(Recording the CD), I had to struggle with the language because a lot of the words were written in a certain language.
"I had to let go of my prejudices to sing these songs right."
Griffin confessed that she actually asked her producer, Buddy Miller, if she could rewrite the lyrics to "All Creatures of Our God and King."
"Buddy said, 'No way,' " Griffin said with a laugh. "That song is supposedly a direct translation of the St. Francis text. You wouldn't want to mess with the language, because they're the words he chose. And it's really emotion that he was trying to convey, which goes back to something I know really well.
"But it was scary to sing that way," she said. "I feel that somehow or another, I've made peace with the language on it."
Other songs on "Downtown Church" include Hank Williams' "House of Gold," Sullivan Pugh's "Waiting for My Child" and traditional tunes, such as "Move Up," "Wade in the Water" and "Virgen de Guadalupe," to name few.
When choosing the songs, Griffin said, she needed to feel "compelled to sing them."
"I tried to shy away from songs I didn't think my vocals could handle," she said. "I don't have the pipes to sing some songs in the black gospel tradition."
Griffin also included two of her original songs — "Little Fire" and "Coming Home to Me" — on the CD.
"I try to find an honest, emotional place to sing from," she said. "The songs had to mean something and tug at my heart strings, and the songs I wrote were created from that place and seemed like they belonged on the CD."
She and Miller recorded the CD in the chapel of the 150-year-old Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tenn.
"Shortly after it was built, the Civil War broke out, and it was turned into a hospital," Griffin said. "I've never seen anything like it in my life. It had an incredible vibe because of the history, particularly in the suffering that took place in there. And the stained glass was beautiful."
Griffin said there were a lot of homeless people at the church.
"The church is one of the leaders in helping the community get back on its feet," she said. "There was a soup kitchen and such. It was a very powerful place to be, let alone record a CD."
e-mail: scott@desnews.com
If you go...
What: Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller
Where: Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah
When; March 30, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $25-$30
Phone: 801-581-7100