Biography

Jim Patton and his wife and musical collaborator Sherry Brokus make the kind of music that’s driven by both passion and purpose. They take sketches of everyday life and transform them into songs that ring and resonate in ways that are both mindful and memorable. Their third album since the Pandemic, Harbortowne, represents the folk side of the duo's folk-rock, where 2023's Big Red Gibson was a return to the rock side of the equation.

“The working title for the album was Pattonville, the result of a joke our friend and fellow musician Jeff Talmadge made,” Jim explains. “The characters in these songs are all derived from a world I've created in song. I originally wanted the album to be like Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg Ohio, or Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology — a series of seemingly disconnected stories about a town where I resided with characters could come and go from song to song. This isn't exactly that, though you can still see some of the remnants of that earlier idea.”

As a whole, the album marks a return of another sort — that is, to their sound as a folk duo. “Our first acoustic album was called Plans Gang Aft Agley, and that's still what I'm writing about, plans going wrong,” Jim notes. “Although I think this album takes a lighter approach to that than I usually do.”

Patton's new songs, while not directly addressing the pandemic, explore relevant themes of loneliness and dreams gone bad, and plans gone wrong, and how hard it is for two people to get along even when they love each other and have each other's best interest at heart. Harbortowne utilizes the same core band as their previous acoustic albums: Rich Brotherton (Robert Earl Keen), Warren Hood (Lyle Lovett), John Bush (the New Bohemians), BettySoo (James McMurtry) and producer Flynt (20/20). All except BettySoo have recorded with Patton and Brokus since 2007.

Jim and Sherry continue to reside in South Austin, playing a prominent part in a musical community shared any number of spectacular songwriters the two consider friends and collaborators. Since the pandemic, the pair have managed to release at least one album a year. “I think some of my best work has found its way to our last couple of albums” Jim maintains. “I play both live and in the studio with some of the most wonderful musicians in the world, all of which are wonderful people, as well."