From North Carolina, US
Recommended if you like Fiona Apple, Anaïs Mitchell, Indigo Girls
Up next New album The Hermit out now; touring the US with Jens Lekman in November
Jordan Patterson’s name is unfortunately so close to that of a certain conservative Canadian author that Google suggests autocorrecting your search results when you look her up. The 23-year-old US songwriter couldn’t be much further from his brand of hypermasculine evangelism. Her debut album, The Hermit, recalls the rich 90s scene of offbeat North American female singer-songwriters who would go on to share the stage at Lilith Fair: Shawn Colvin’s acoustic breeziness, Fiona Apple’s earnest blues, Indigo Girls’ strident joy. (Similar era, very different scene: Patterson’s voice has an expressive skippiness that also channels Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins.) Her songs – and I say this as the greatest compliment – could easily have lived on the soundtrack to cosy mother-daughter drama Gilmore Girls. Fittingly, God wonders whether she should have a baby, and Hey Mama pays tribute to her own mother, pairing the scrappy triumph of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ with impressionistic vocals that feel like a singer nudging her way towards revelation.
