Ahead of Two True Loves, the new album from Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus, I sat down with Jim to find out how the past year has been for them, what we can expect from the new release, and delved into Jim’s literary and musical inspirations.
Hi guys. Last time we spoke, you had Harbortowne out, so what has changed for you? If anything, in the previous year or so?
Jim: Well, mostly I’ve been writing songs and recording them. The Performing Songwriter is always in a strange position. There’s the writer, and what is current to me, and there’s the performer, who’s playing songs from a year ago, when I recorded them. All summer, we’ve still been leading with Harbortowne songs because it’s our “current” album, yet those songs are a couple of years old. Anyway, Ron (Flynt) and I have demoed over 30 songs for 2026’s album and maybe ’27 too.
We also have two good electric bands together, one in Austin, and one in Maryland, where we lived over 30 years ago and still have a fair crowd.
And with the new album ‘Two True Loves’ out soon, what can the listener expect from it?
Jim: Like Big Red Gibson, it has electric guitar and drums, the “rock” side of our folk-rock sound. What I’m writing about is pretty much the same: plans falling apart, the battle between art and love. No overt political songs, but a lot that have social awareness embedded in them, starting with the simple desires in “I Want It All”.
Some of these songs originated in my past. The original “Leave Me Alone” was my response to punk in the mid-‘70s and was the first song on our 1986 EP with Edge City. Originally, the lyrics began: “Everybody’s always telling me/ What they think I ought to do/ Get my shit together/ Get my ass on back to school.”, “Hard Times” was co-written with Edge City drummer Lew Morris, and sadly, we didn’t have to update many of the lyrics. The arrangement is very different, however.
“Nothing at All” was the “B” side of our first single, though with altered lyrics. Both “Annabelle Lee” and “I Want It All” were part of our sets in Maryland, though we never released recordings of either. I’ve enjoyed co-writing with my younger self, and not just because he doesn’t argue with me. He had great ideas and didn’t always know how to execute them. Instead of inventing prompts, like many songwriters do, I have a folder called “Orphan Lyrics” with ideas I’ve been collecting since I started writing songs. The listener can also expect to hear gorgeous harmonies from Sherry, BettySoo, and Ron. I’m a huge Byrds fan, and we aim for a Byrds-like sound.
Opening track, “I Want It All,” is a very aspirational song, advocating a better world for the next generations to inherit. Is this a response to the difficulties that the U.S. is facing, or is it just a more general expression of optimism?
Jim: I started that one in the early ’90s with Mookie Siegel, who has since joined the David Nelson Band, toured with Bob Weir, and is a major figure in the Bay Area Deadhead scene. This is a very different arrangement, and the lyrics have been edited a lot, but when I first played my idea for the song, Mookie said, “Sounds like you just want a decent life”, and that’s true. I don’t see it as optimistic. I think it’s sad that people don’t have basic things in life. And though the current American difficulties seem so large, it’s still the same song. Another point of the song is that people think they need so much to live, but it really doesn’t take that much to be happy.
Can you tell me a bit about the writing and recording of the album, including the highs and lows, challenges, and triumphs?
Jim: Honestly, we didn’t have many lows. I’ve worked with Ron Flynt since 2007, and we’ve figured out how to get the sounds we want. The hardest part these days is picking from the number of songs we demoed for the album (25 for this one). Ron always says, “Somebody’s favorite puppy’s gonna get drowned”.
We picked an actual band to back us, all friends of ours for years, and all currently backing Walt Wilkins regularly in addition to their other gigs, and there’s something to be said for using a band that plays together regularly. Scrappy on guitar is not just great, but he plays something that surprises me on every song. And you can’t find a better rhythm section than Ron and John Chipman (Scrappy and John also play together in The Resentments, which have played every Sunday night at The Saxon for three decades). Other highlights include BettySoo, especially on “Hard Times.” BettySoo has been on all our post-pandemic albums (four) and used to play accordion and sing in our acoustic band.
Are there any particular messages found in the album or conversations you are trying to start with the audience?
Jim: I don’t think I’m much on ‘message’ albums. As much as I love Bob Dylan, I wasn’t a fan of his anti-war songs. “Blowing in the Wind” is really the only one that still holds up for me, and that’s because of “How many times can a man turn his head/ And pretend that he just doesn’t see?” which resonates with me and is the kind of ‘message’ I’d like to pass on. I write songs on a more personal level, songs about ‘ordinary’ people confronted with extraordinary problems. Or maybe just ordinary ones. I used to say I wrote about people at crossroads, not dead ends, though that’s changed somewhat as I’ve gotten older and seen more and more friends remain at “dead ends”. Sometimes I’m writing to their kids, telling them it doesn’t have to be that way.
We also have a lot of fans who are on, let’s say, the other side politically. I don’t see how you could listen to my music and be that way, so I’m having a conversation with those people, not as in an actual conversation, but just telling stories that might influence what they’ve been thinking.
Your music has always been rich with literary inspiration. Who are some of the writers whose echo can be heard in the songs?
Jim: I loved 20th-century American Literature, and though I had loved music since I discovered it on WOLF in Syracuse, NY, in 6th grade, I didn’t sing or play an instrument until I was 20, but I was already a writer. I love Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Salinger, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, John O’Hara, Ross MacDonald, Anne Tyler, most of Stephen King (the master of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances).
Also Mark Twain, though he was a century earlier. And one Britisher, not really a great writer, but inspirational for me nonetheless, J.R.R. Tolkien, who I read at the perfect time for me, when I was 16 and looking for something to believe in. Again, he uses the ordinary man (Hobbit in this case) in extraordinary circumstances to perfection. His band of friends matched my own. And the idea that there are things you have to do whether you want to or not has always stayed with me.
And what about musically speaking?
Jim: I listen to a lot of music, though most of it filters through a certain period, probably 67-‘70. I went backwards through the thread to Muddy Waters (Stones), Chuck Berry (Stones and Beatles), Buddy Holly (Beatles), Elvis (Creedence), and many, many more. I’ve also followed that thread forward to the songwriters and bands today that inherited that sound.
As far as playing, I never really did covers, but Dylan, Neil Young, and the Rolling Stones were major influences, a lot because their songs were simple and I could figure them out. My own songs are simple, at least the rhythm part. I always love the way Van Morrison would write these simple G-C-D songs, but the music around those chords was transformative.
Finally, did you ever find out what happened to Laurence Beall?
Yes, I located him a couple of years ago on FB (Of Course). He lives in Florida and I sent him a demo of ‘his’ song a while back. He said he played it for four friends, and they all said the same thing: “Damn!” I’m hoping to tour Florida and see him before too long. Laurence is very much a real person, but the Laurence in the song is standing in for all those people (including me) who leave home to make it in music, and are rarely heard from again, no matter how well they do in their new town.
Thanks as always for the catch-up, best of luck with the new album and everything else in the future.
