Twenty years ago, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Earl Patrick broke his neck in a freak accident diving into a wave. His healing journey has been both harrowing and heartwarming. Patrick endured temporary paralysis, discovered true love, and experienced a profound shift in mindset.

“When I was younger, music was something I wanted attention for, and I was always chasing it,” the Portland, Oregon-based artist says. “After my accident, music took a backseat to family, being present, and enjoying life.”

For his new album, Smooth Runs The Water—his seventh overall—Patrick has finally made the record he intended to create before the accident. It’s a homespun collection of songs that inspired him as a teen when he first picked up a guitar. Each of the ten cover songs is captured in single and complete takes with just voice and guitar.

Patrick is a literate singer-songwriter and diversely accomplished multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar and flute, and grew up playing trombone. He earned a scholarship on trombone to Berklee College of Music, and, after taking a break, graduated summa cum laude with a degree in classical composition and voice.

Patrick has performed as part of church, jazz, and classical ensembles, and as part of indie bands and as a singer-songwriter. His creative work has taken him through New York, Nashville, Eugene, Tacoma, Portland, and Boston. To date, he’s released five solo records, and an album of a piano sonata which he composed during the pandemic and was recorded by Joy Novak.

As a composer and instrumentalist, Patrick has worked with experimental filmmaker and videographer Michael Pope (The Dresden Dolls, Ben Folds, Gene Dante & The Future Starlets) and filmmaker Andy Mingo. Mingo and his wife, nationally bestselling author Lidia Yuknavitch—whom Patrick studied under at Oregon State University—used some of Patrick’s music for early trailers for her memoir, A Chronology of Water. The movie has been optioned for film and is set to be the directorial debut from Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominee Kristen Stewart.

Patrick was born in rural Western Oregon, where he was raised on music from the folk revival of the 1960s. He first picked up a guitar at the age of six, and trombone and flute by the age of 12. By his mid-teens, he was gigging as a trombonist with big bands, small combos, orchestras, ska ensembles, and playing guitar in local indie rock bands before going to Berklee.

His life changed drastically in 2004 when, while vacationing, he dove headfirst into a wave with a rock hidden behind it. Upon collision, Patrick was instantly paralyzed from the neck down. His road to recovery included relearning how to walk and play guitar, but he never fully got back all of the feeling in his hands.

Despite this physical limitation, there are no dexterity deficiencies detectable on Smooth Runs The Water. Patrick’s Travis picking and fingerpicking are dexterous, precise, and lyrical throughout. The album boasts an eclectic assortment of tunes spanning folk, bluegrass, and pop across decades. “This is the music I first fell in love with as a kid. To this day, when I grab a guitar, this is the first music I play,” Patrick says.

He collected these songs over the years from family members, and through his own formative musical explorations. The lyrics on the songs have grown more resonant as Patrick gets older. “There is a melancholy feeling about change, and the passing of time in a lot of these songs,” Patrick explains.

Smooth Runs The Water commences with a brisk reading of the folk evergreen, “House Carpenter.” Patrick’s hard-driving acoustic guitar and emotive vocals here recall the Bob Dylan version he listened to as a teen. He reimagines Springsteen’s “Johnny 99” as a 6/8 waltz, and the way the lyrics are metered out lend it the feel of a classic work song.

Patrick’s version of “Billie Jean” is a revelation. He applies Travis picking to the song, creating a haunting interpretation that fits right in alongside some of the old timey songs. “I always heard that song as a blues,” Patrick says. He first learned Travis picking from his uncle, who was a working country musician and taught him “Living In The Country,” which he performs on the Smooth Runs The Water. “I played it so much. People would always say, ‘kid you have to play something else!’,” Patrick says laughing.

The album concludes with a winsome version of the work song “Take This Hammer.” Patrick first heard The Notting Hillbillies’ version from his dad, but his elegantly spare arrangement recalls versions by Odetta and Lead Belly.

Sessions for Smooth Runs The Water took place late-night in a spare bedroom in his family’s home after his kids had gone to bed and the traffic in the nearby street had died down. “I wanted to make this solo acoustic record for so long, but I lost confidence in my guitar playing after the accident,” Patrick says. “I can remember listening back to some of these takes in the dark while recording, and knowing I nailed the songs. I probably didn’t need to wait 20 years to do this.”