Patrick Park
Come What Will

The album I'm writing about has been worn out from listening to it repeatedly in the car during my solo trips through the hills of Piacenza. And not just the disc, but the packaging too!

One fine spring day in 2011, I entered my trusted record store and found an album with a particular photo printed on the cardboard cover prominently displayed.
I was captivated by that photo, which reminded me so much of the black and white one on the cover of Springsteen's Nebraska. So I asked the shopkeeper what album it was.

Even the shopkeeper hadn't heard of it, so he took the CD off the shelf (the only copy available in the store? In my city? In all of Italy?), put it in the CD player, and we listened in reverent silence.

The sound of four stick clicks to keep time is heard, and then Patrick Park enters the scene first with his acoustic guitar, played in a manner halfway between classical rhythmic strumming and an arpeggio, a style that immediately reminded me of Neil Young. After a couple of bars when he starts singing, I instantly realize this guy is serious.

He doesn't even make it to the chorus before the CD is already out of the stereo, back in its case, and in my hands as I head for the exit after paying.
The cardboard cover is that touch of finesse that immediately brings to mind the concrete life of those who work with boxes and cartons, like a courier or a worker who packages their products in a dirty, smoky factory, just beyond the guardrail of the greenish highway portrayed in the photo. Or maybe it's just a cheaper way to package a CD for a singer-songwriter from a semi-unknown label even in his own country, Badman Recording Co.

Once the case is opened, you can see the singer-songwriter sitting in his armchair, dressed exactly as you'd expect. It's a very interesting graphic work, maybe not entirely original but definitely impactful. Reading the list of those who played and worked on the album, you immediately notice the number of instruments played by the artist: the sound of the album is full without overdoing the complexity of the arrangements, making it easy to listen to.

I recommend listening to the album to all folk lovers, perhaps without too many expectations, and to those who appreciate evocative packaging.