Frank Patrick offers a prayer for our fragile times in his moving single and video Mercy — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“It was not only important, but necessary to make an artistic statement on the current world situation from a personal perspective,” Patrick says. And Mercy does just that. In his emotionally charged song, the award-winning Toronto folksinger blends telling lyrical images, buttery guitar melodies, and Rebecca Campbell’s gorgeous harmonies to chronicles the struggles and sadness of pandemic life. He enlisted local producer and long-time collaborator Rob Greenway (aka brilliantfish) to not only play drums and keyboards on the special track, but to produce it, and create the video.
Patrick says Mercy was “written from one man’s observations, feelings and sense of loss about the complexities of the COVID-19 crisis by bringing it all down to one simple statement: Please tell me there’s still mercy here.” He wanted it to serve as a message of hope, despite the consistent sense of hopelessness that has loomed above us all in the last year.
The former frontman of the band Zombo Zombo, Patrick has toured Canada, the U.S. (including Hawaii) and Europe in the last decade, sharing the stage with everyone from Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cyril Neville and Kevin Breit to Timothy Leary. He released his debut solo album Worlds in Transition in 2006. His latest full-length Soul Medicine arrived in 2019.
All proceeds from Mercy will be donated to the frontline workers of Toronto. Check out the song above, hear more from Frank Patrick below, and connect with him on his website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
