Whiskey Drown

Whiskey Drown
by: Tim Wardyn

Take the raspy British accent out of Liam Gallagher of Oasis and cross it with a criper and less-mumbled Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and you get the voice of Joe Patrick. His sincere alt-country fits right in with Wilco, Lucinda Williams and Kathleen Edwards, but his sound is more along the lines of Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo.

'Whiskey Drown" is Patrick's first studio work, but it sounds like he's a veteran. In essence, he is. He was in the Oklahoma City-based band Sugar Bum Fairy. They recorded one album before Patrick left the band to pursue a solo route in 1999. He recorded a live acoustic album, but it wasn't until last year that he went back to the studio to record three new songs.

The title track is like a long lost Uncle Tupelo song. With an undeniably catchy chorus, Patrick longs for a remedy for the "mental breakdown made for two in the whiskey bottle I've been swimming through." This sets the tone for the rest of the EP. Depressingly great lyrics combined with the upbeat countrified rock make for a paradigm that draws the listener in again and again.

Although two versions of "Crying Me to Sleep" equal half the record (and have twenty minutes of dead space in between) "Whiskey Drown" is an EP that any fan of alternative country must have, especially fans of Uncle Tupelo and their spinoffs.