Portland’s Earl Patrick has never been a stranger to transformation, but his latest album ‘Smooth Runs The Water’ feels less like a new chapter and more like a homecoming. With just his voice, a guitar, and the silence of a sleeping house, Patrick invites us into a deeply personal world where ten carefully chosen tracks aren’t just covers, they’re fragments of a musical identity rediscovered and reimagined.
Each song on ‘Smooth Runs The Water’ is delivered in live takes that capture not only performance but presence. There’s no studio polish, no over-layered production- just the warmth of wood, wire, and willpower. For an artist who spent two decades wrestling with nerve damage and self-doubt following a traumatic spinal injury, this is a reclamation.
The opener ‘House Carpenter’ feels like a séance. Channelling the spectral mood of folk revivalists and blending it with his own restrained intensity, Patrick brings fresh gravitas to a song older than most songbooks. His take on ‘Johnny 99’ sidesteps Springsteen’s signature grit, opting instead for something slower, darker, more desperate.
Then comes ‘Billie Jean’ reworked not for novelty but revelation. Stripped of synths and pop polish, the track emerges as a hushed blues-folk burner, uncovering paranoia and shame beneath the surface sheen of the original. It’s moments like this that showcase Patrick’s gift: not just technical prowess, but emotional translation.
Though the album is brimming with reverence for American folk traditions, it’s never imitation. Patrick’s interpretations feel lived-in, whether he’s channelling Woody Guthrie’s dustbowl directness or the precision of early fingerstyle giants. His guitar work speaks louder than words ever could. For someone who lost feeling in his hands, every note here rings with something more than sound. It rings with perseverance.
There’s a quiet defiance in this collection. These are songs Patrick learned long before his life changed in an instant, songs that sat with him through recovery and reinvention, songs that, until now, waited for the right moment to return. And return they have, not as echoes, but as new stories told through old words.
‘Smooth Runs The Water’ is a time capsule cracked open, a reminder that even after everything, music remains. And in Patrick’s hands, it becomes a lifeline once again.
