By Leila Regan
When two major acts of the new year are playing right after you, there seems little or no chance to really be heard by the audience.
Taking the stage all alone with nothing but an acoustic guitar for his armor, Patrick Park slowly but surely began to win over a slightly rowdy full house waiting for main acts the Thrills and My Morning Jacket. Though he has been compared to Bob Dylan and other '60s acoustic icons, with his powerful voice and bitter lyrics he more resembles Neil Finn. Park's strong vocals, ringing out like a folk singer from Ireland's ancient times, bounce off the walls and command all to listen. And with brutally honest lines like "Try to forget how the world doesn't need you around" ('Honest Skrew'), one can't help but be entranced and taken with the heartbreaking performance.
With his fierce guitar plucking and strumming echoing the sweetness of Badly Drawn Boy, Park turns his one instrument into an intricate symphony of sounds to fill the room.
Up on the stage, alone and bare, he sounds more like an '80s British singer-songwriter who gives everyting he has and never quite gets his dues paid back. The voice that is so domineering and soulful sometimes gets close to breaking point when the high notes and emotion overcome him, but the strain only adds to the overload of feelings directed at every audience member.
The album itself, Loneliness Knows My Name, is sure to cause a stir, as it was produced by Wilco and My Morning Jacket molder Dave Trumfio. And being handpicked to open for Beth Orton on her 2002 U.S. tour has done no harm either.
By baring his soul, Park has learnt to be both warming and chilling at the same time. Hearts will be broken and mended by the sound of his voice, which is all any folk-cum-singer/songwriter can ask to do, and all that Park aims for. If any one of his songs were on a perfect soundtrack, it would nestle comfortably between an acoustic Red House Painters lament and a solo Neil Finn performance. Here's looking forward to that day when we find him on such a soundtrack.
www.patrickpark.net
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