Patrick Ames changes course with his new single Somehow I’ll Find A Way — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The tale of a songwriter writing a song about quitting songwriting while driving home from a gig he just quit, Somehow I’ll Find A Way is a playfully wry look at the life of a struggling artist on the endless road. Stripped down, deceptively breezy and unabashedly vulnerable, this bittersweet single is Patrick’s first release since his acclaimed 2022 album Harmonium.
Hailing from the heart of California wine country, Ames is a man who plays to his own inner muse, revealing a complex set of inspirations and incantations from the eclectic songwriter. One can expect more than a dash of the raw, dark, and mournful, along with hopeless romance, artistic conviction, and a fiercely in-the-moment, DIY approach where the recording style is both instrument and live-ness detector.
Ames is passionate about many things. Writing/literature is a passion. Lyrics and poetry are passions. Melody/guitar/music writing is a passion. Nature and wine country are passions. Spirituality and inner connection, passion. Psychological pursuits, passion. Anything activist or community-related are passions. Knowledge, education, are passions. Ames smiles, “Wine makes you passionate.” So did his upbringing.
“My mother sang opera and also in the church choir (I’m a choir brat). My very older brothers listened to 1960s hits and bands, and my father to Pop radio. We were close to Detroit, so it was Motown, Motown, Motown, or Puccini. And for some reason I knew who the songwriters were, like Holland-Dozier-Holland. Then Glen Campbell broke through and I remember adoring him. He had a TV show. He had a guitar and he wrote songs! I still think his Wichita Lineman is extraordinary.”
Ames started writing songs in 1968 when he was 14 years old. He inherited a guitar and dozens of classic albums from his older brothers who went off to college. An avid songwriter and performer during his own college tenure, he went into book publishing after attempting the music circuit in 1976. It would be 25 years before he would play seriously again. “I bought my son a cheap Fender and amp. He didn’t like it. I loved it. I cranked it up and played with abandon. And then it all came back, in spades.”
Now, in his early ’60s, Ames has decades of word-smithing under his belt. Through a series of experimental EP and LP releases, including Four Faces, Like Family, Affettuosos, Standard Candles and All I Do Is Bleed, he has established his personal signature with a gravelly, heart-on-the-sleeve voice box and carefully considered lyrics.
“I tell stories, so lyrics and music come hand in hand. It usually starts with a musical riff and then I match that riff with some kind of striking lyric. So I have a musical riff and a lyrical riff. Then, as a story, I let those two fly together and piece the story together.” For example, his last EP release came with a doozie of a title: All I Do Is Bleed. When asked about the meaning, Ames smiles, “Passions can overwhelm you.”
Much like Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen, Patrick’s lyrics reveal at times a wry black humor and matter-of-fact delivery. Lines like “While you were making babies I sat on the sofa all by myself. While you were making babies I decided to go down and visit Hell” illustrate this knack perfectly.
Ames lives in a Napa vineyard where he writes, records, and plays for the grapes at practice time. “Lots of people love wine and the world of wine (tasting, collecting, etc) but few people get to live in the vineyard. I live in one, and it is hauntingly beautiful. It’s not like a cornfield … the vineyards are pampered and coaxed to produce, and the way they are watered, pruned, and picked is special. The land can be remotely wild, filled with animals and critters, and it can be very rural living there. The music that I write, and play, is not so much Americana as it is what I call Wine Country music: it’s a mix of heady folk, basic rock, classic Motown, and choral music with an artistic and intellectual bent. Best heard with a glass of wine.”
Check out Somehow I’ll Find A Way above, sample more sounds from Patrick Ames below, and make your way to his website, Facebook and Post.
