“When I start writing a song, it always sounds like a Hank Williams song in my head. When I’m done with it, though, it’s something completely different,” says indie singer-songwriter Patrick McLaughlin with a good-natured laugh. True to the carefree whims of his creative process, Patrick’s eclectic sophomore solo album, "Just Like The Record" (Bolt Records), is a soulful, genre-busting collection of fine indie-Americana songcraft.
The album title speaks to the guitarist/producer/composer/singer’s playful stage banter quip after he drastically re-imagines a classic song onstage. He’s a masterful roots and blues guitarist with a widescreen musical perspective that reaches well beyond preconceived boundaries. His artistry draws from rock, jazz, soul, indie-rock, and R&B. Patrick is also a thoughtful songwriter, serve-the-song musician, powerful vocalist, and an accomplished producer. All these facets—plus years of live performance, sharpening his chops—come together on the Columbus Ohio-based artist’s stunning new album, "Just Like The Record".
“I make it a rule for my latest record to never sound like my previous one. This album was built to sound different. None of the songs sound the same, and I love the idea that each song is a stylistic surprise,” he says.
Patrick is an inventive and seasoned roots rock musician. His artistic fingerprint recalls Americana songwriter innovators such as Tom Petty, Keb Mo', Bob Dylan, Steve Cropper, John Hiatt, and Chris Stapleton. He has earned plaudits from Blues Matters, Thrust Magazine, and won the Columbus Music Awards “Album of the Year.” Select performance highlights include appearances at popular festivals such as Navasota Blues Festival, Texas; Foothills Music
Festival, Ohio; Big Bend Blues Festival; and Creekside Blues and Jazz Festival. Previously, Patrick released his self-titled solo debut in 2011.
Prior to his solo career, Patrick cut his teeth as a young man playing with well-known blues vets such as Richard P. Boals and the Soals and Kathy Wolfe and Wolfhound, among many others. In these contexts, he’s played with and opened for artists such as Damon Fowler, Kinsey Report, Gene Walker, Rick Derringer, Robert Cray, John Hammond, B.B King, Guitar Shorty, Anthony Gomes, and Betty Lavette, among many others.
Patrick was born in Columbus, Ohio into a musical family with impeccable taste. His paternal grandparents ran a successful 50’s and 60’s show band called “Sugar and Spice and the Studebakers,” and his maternal grandfather and grandpa’s brothers played bluegrass. “I learned my first chords following along with my grandfather as he played old country songs,” Patrick recalls.
Patrick’s first proper music lessons were on the piano when he was 3 years old, but he quickly moved to anything with strings attached. “I would even attach rubber bands to a plastic ball bat,” he says chuckling. At the age of 9, Patrick started playing guitar and taking lessons, and he devoured everything guitar-related he could get his hands on, from Dylan to Metallica. He progressed quickly, and soon went from the school talent show stage to playing with local blues legend Richard P. Boals at the Dolphin Lounge Monday Night Blues Jam. He eventually joined Richard P. Boals and the Soals as second guitarist, and started a career as a nationally touring
musician.
During this formative time, Patrick learned what it took to be a musician. Richard P. Boals and the Soals recorded three records on the Growlin’ Bare label; played over 250 dates a year across the country; and moved home bases often, living in Columbus, Ohio, Boulder, Colorado, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. And he did all of this before he was 21.
Patrick then returned back to Columbus as an in-demand musician playing 6 nights a week. He played with Kathy Wolfe and Wolfhound around this time, started his own band, and hosted several weekly jam sessions. But it was the freedom of being a solo artist that gave him the most joy.
"Just Like The Record" is a culmination, so far, of a creative journey. It captures the many facets of Patrick’s artistry at a high level. Each song builds excitement by using various stylistic textures allowing the listener to take part in a new encounter. The songs feature fresh collaborations and instrumentation, and some of Patrick’s finest songwriting.
The album opens with the organ-soaked Americana song “Big Sky,” a philosophical song on life perspectives that conjures The Band’s elegant earthiness. The funky “Bar Room Dream” is drenched in liquidy, wah-wah rhythm guitars, and features some tasty slow-burn soloing. The song is a wry observational track about that guy we know, putting on a show at the bar without formally being onstage. No doubt this track is informed by Patrick growing up in nightclubs as a young musician.
The inspirational, slinky jam “Everybody’s Broken,” showcases Patrick flexing some stingingguitar leads. This is a song of unity written before the pandemic. “It’s incredibly relevant now. It’s a song that makes us realize that we are ‘all in this together,’ and we will come out on the other side and be better than before,” he says. Patrick gets playfully nostalgic on the rollicking blues tune “Drive Me To Drink.” Just Like The Record finishes with the breezy instrumental “Island Neon” which evokes Booker T. & the M.G.’s in Key West Florida. Here, Patrick plays with smoldering restraint in the manner of groove king Steve Cropper.
Making "Just Like The Record" has been a powerful process. These are songs Patrick has saved up and been longing to share for years, but the recording sessions for them kept being delayed and complicated by the pandemic. “I’ve held onto these songs for so long, and I was just hoping they would finally see the light of day,” he shares. “With this record, I feel like I got some unfinished business done, and I’m already starting the next new record.”
