Road-testing new material, Griffin's right on course

CAMBRIDGE -- "I'm sorry if I was rude to you at Pizzeria Uno," said former Boston waitress Patty Griffin at the Lizard Lounge on Tuesday. "I was sad."

Happily, Griffin figured out how to turn her sadness into verse and chorus, in the bargain becoming one of America's premiere singer-songwriters. She routinely performs for sold-out crowds at Berklee Performance Center and on the main stage at the Newport Folk Festival, but here she was -- in frizzy braids and tall boots, tiny in size and tremendous in talent -- road-testing new tunes in the stamp-size subterranean club where her friend and former drummer Billy Beard is the booking agent.

Griffin, now an Austin resident, performed most of the songs from her fifth studio album, "Children Running Through," which comes out next week, along with a handful of gems from her back catalog and a bitter, sweet cover of Sam Cooke's "Get Yourself Another Fool." She's a melancholy strummer, but glimmering just beyond the edges of Griffin's grad-level folk-pop is an eclectic assortment of musical references. She performed a pair of gospel tunes back to back: the graceful new meditation "Up to the Mountain," inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s last speech, and "Love Throw a Line," a raucous, soul-saturated appeal for human connection from 2004's "Impossible Dream."

The new song "Getting Ready" is a full-on garage-rocker, and Griffin scratched at her strings like they were the lover she's trying to leave. Her loose-limbed three-piece band cobbled a joyful noise for "Stay on the Ride," mashing tough riffs, cool grooves, ambient guitar fuzz , and spoken-word into a folk-funk racket. And of course there were the pristine, unflinching ballads that are Griffin's calling card: "Let Him Fly" (which has been covered by the Dixie Chicks, Linda Eder, and Jessica Simpson ) is now joined by "Burgundy Shoes," "Trapeze," "Railroad Wings," and "Crying Over."

Griffin -- a nimble, intense singer -- professed to be a mess of nerves, but no one would have guessed it. She owned every hard, tender note she sang, even the cracked ones. It feels premature to call Griffin an elder stateswoman at the age of 42, but her body of work will eventually, undoubtedly, assure her a place in the pantheon.

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com. For more on music visit boston.com/ae/music/blog.