Patrick Ames - Slow Dip Ahead (self-released)

What would you expect someone brought up in a house full of Motown and Puccini, Glen Campbell, pop radio, and choir music to sound like? Well, if there is a natural sweet spot between such a mix and match and merging and melding, then you can be sure that Patrick Ames has passed through it and everywhere else.

After briefly dipping his toes into musical waters in 1976, it wasn’t until 25 years later that songwriting really took off for him. Although his performing world today is one based around smaller, more intimate experiences, mainly found around the San Francisco Bay area, drawing on his career in book publishing means that his songs feel like the perfect counterpoint between fine literature and seductive melody. Perfect for such up close and personal settings.

Unburdened by existing musical templates or listeners’ expectations, the rules of any particular genre, or the flow of fad or fashion, his music balances accessibility with a wonderful, unconformist vibe. His latest album, Slow Dip Ahead, is the perfect example of this adventurousness, this sonic restlessness, this mercurial and marvelous experimentation with sound and style. The result is classic sounds in a forward-thinking setting.

For every raw, rock ‘n’ soul groover such as “Bop Bop Buddha,” there are dark pieces of subdued sensuality, such as the Nick Cave-infused “The Lonely Lie.” And if songs such as “I See the Window” wander fractured Waitsian soundscapes, those such as “Somehow I’ll Find A Way” are gently funky and reflective, autobiographical (I think) and brilliantly pop-aware.

Singer-songwriters might be two-a-penny on the current scene, you know, the ones I mean, gap year troubadours and three chord strummers, but musical documenters, sonic archivists, and graceful diarists such as Patrick Ames are a rare and valued breed indeed.