Sarah Patrick releases debut LP

Sarah Patrick releases debut LP

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/0zvohfQRnMef6OrgmOR4Br

2018 has ushered in some of the most pragmatic and well-thought out albums that pop/rock has seen in the last decade, and among them a very significant trend has been undeniably noticeable; we’re emphasizing more on lyrics and artistic identity more now than we have in half a century. A big part of that focus on persona has been the emergence of a revolution in confident female singers and songwriters who have been radically changing the definition of feminism in the art world. This is already a time where we’re seeing artists take more and more control over their medium from the labels and promoters who have played politics with the industry going back to the beginning of vinyl records, it’s exciting to see women playing such a key role in the reshaping of our industry’s landscape. One of the more notable artists in this insurgency of talent that I’ve heard this year is aspiring country star Sarah Patrick, whose rookie album The Woman I Am will see release this summer and already has an ocean of anticipation swirling around its impending impact.

Sometimes, we as an audience defiantly decide that we need to hear something different from what we’ve become accustom to over the course of a generation. Like the Beatles championing the British Invasion or Nirvana breaking alternative rock into mainstream radio airplay, it comes suddenly and is usually predictable based on the sort of stagnation in the music business that typically forms every 20 years. But other times, in a trend that is almost never recognized for its importance, we get a legion of artists who are more devoted to revival than they experimentation. We shouldn’t be so quick to railroad these artists, after all, isn’t the nature of revival so much more cathartic and freeing than that of actual “throwbacks” and “retro” attempts at relevance? Revivals are celebrating the spirit of a genre that has faded from the commercialized state we’re in today, which is really exactly what Sarah Patrick is doing with The Woman I Am. She isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or change the parameters of country music, she’s trying to wake up the sleeping ghosts of outlaws and poets once thought long dead. That isn’t a cover artist, that’s someone who cares about keeping a tradition alive.

Country music can be protest music just as much as punk rock or folk can be. Music that rebels against any sort of status quo or metaphorical ceiling created meant to hold us back from the freedom that we truly deserve is protest music. While I’m not saying that The Woman I Am is a flat out attack on the male-dominated Nashville establishment, it’s hard not to applaud its inspired, woman-empowering prowess that it radiates in all 12 of its tracks. It could turn out to be the album that country needs right now to stay apart of the larger conversation in pop culture, and even if it isn’t, it is a fun slice of classic country that women and men alike can enjoy alike.

Michael Rand