Tag: Rock and roll

Clark Paterson Explores Heartache and Humor in ‘Are You Lonely Like Me?’

‘Are You Lonely Like Me’ is Clark Paterson’s newest album. Photo: Broken Jukebox Media, used with permission.

New Album Alert: Are You Lonely Like Me? by Clark Paterson

Genre: Country | Folk | Americana

Listen/Buy: Are You Lonely Like Me?

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Clark Paterson returns with his deeply evocative new album, Are You Lonely Like Me? – a record shaped by hard years, dark humor, and the stubborn decision to keep moving forward anyway. (Broken Jukebox Media, 2026)

Written through heartbreak, illness, fatherhood, loss, recovery, and reinvention, the album feels profoundly lived-in. It is the sound of someone taking inventory of a life while still standing right in the middle of it. There’s loneliness here, but also resilience, warmth, and the crooked grin of somebody who’s survived enough to stop romanticizing the struggle.

Sound & Production

Produced by Eric McConnell and Shawn Byrne, the record leans into an aesthetic that feels timeless without becoming overly polished or trapped in nostalgia.

The production is cinematic and atmospheric, lush yet restrained, and loose in all the right places, with the kind of texture and imperfection that makes a record feel human. Old-school country soul collides with folk storytelling and flashes of punk spirit, creating a sound equally at home in:

  • A worn-in dive bar
  • An empty stretch of highway
  • A half-lit movie scene at closing time

The Songwriting

Written alongside longtime collaborator Mark Cline Bates, the songs explore memory, mortality, love, isolation, aging, and the uneasy comedy of being alive long enough to watch life humble you a few times.

Paterson possesses a rare ability to deliver hard truths without turning sentimental, balancing grit with tenderness and self-awareness with sharp wit. The humor never undercuts the emotion, it deepens it.

At the heart of the record is the title track ‘Are You Lonely Like Me?,’ an aching, beautiful song that quietly asks the question hanging over the entire album: not just whether we’re lonely, but whether we’re still capable of reaching each other through all the noise, damage, history, and hope we carry around.

Album Credits

Featured Personnel & Band

  • Clark Paterson – Vocals, Guitar
  • Sierra Ferrell – Backing Vocals on “Allergic To Work”
  • Abe Partridge – Recitation on “By God”
  • Mark Cline Bates – Vocals, Piano, Guitar
  • Luella Matthews – Backing Vocals
  • John McTigue III – Drums, Percussion
  • Billy Contreras – Fiddle, Piano
  • Brian Zonn – Bass
  • Ryan Norris – Synthesizer
  • Tony Crow – Piano, Organ
  • Eric McConnell – Bass
  • Paul Niehaus – Pedal Steel, Dobro

Songwriting Credits

  • All songs written by: Clark Paterson & Mark Cline Bates
    • Except “Allergic to Work” written by Clark Paterson
    • Except “There Is a Light” written by Morrissey / Marr

Are You Lonely Like Me? track list:

1. If I Didn’t Laugh (2:51)
2. It’s My Liver (3:03)
3. By God (3:05) *Featuring Abe Partridge
4. Hospital Bed (2:25)
5. My Last Hundred Bucks (3:01)
6. Put Me On A Train (3:02)
7. Allergic To Work (3:19) *Featuring Sierra Ferrell
8. Are You Lonely Like Me (2:41)
9. Make Love (2:23)
10. Farmhand (3:22)
11. There Is A Light (415)

New album release: Big Talk – Jarrod Dickenson

Big Talk is Jarrod Dickenson’s new album. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Jarrod Dickenson is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, originally from Waco, Texas, and now based in Nashville. His two albums, The Lonesome Traveler and Ready the Horses, along with his EP, Under A Texas Sky, have earned him critical acclaim and a devoted audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Not one to fear an exhausting tour schedule, Dickenson has entranced crowds all over Europe and the US and shared stages with such legendary artists as Bonnie Raitt, Don McLean, The Waterboys, Jools Holland, and Jimmie Vaughan. He has performed at prestigious festivals such as Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival. After a baptism of fire in the world of the major labels, Jarrod Dickenson now exists as a fiercely independent artist, a look that suits him well and allows his creativity to follow whatever path it damn well pleases. Nowhere is this attitude better encapsulated than in the bluesy rock and roll growl of his uncompromising new album Big Talk, released worldwide on February 3, 2023 via Hooked Records. (IVPR, 2023)

The hardships and infuriation of recent years have only added steel to the resolve of an artist already willing to do it the hard way, prepared to stand in the face of a music business that shows dwindling regard for the brand of artistry that first inspired him to pick up a guitar and sing for his life—and Dickenson laid it all out for the world to hear on Big Talk.

Fans can stream or purchase Big Talk and check out Dickenson’s collection of music videos: “With Any Luck,” “Prefer To Lose,” “Buckle Under Pressure,” and “Long Hard Look.” Limited edition Big Talk vinyl is available at Dickenson’s official web store.

This album represents Dickenson’s most direct and uncompromising body of songwriting to date and his decision to occupy the producer’s chair has injected Big Talk with a drive and coherence that compliments the muscle of its material. Furthermore, Dickenson has assembled a band of ferocious players to bring these songs to life with striking authenticity in a series of live sessions recorded to tape. Together they create that unmistakable sound that only comes from the assembly of talented players, in a room, having a blast and what better way to flip the bird at those dark entities that inspired the album’s creation than to rage with such joy?

If Dickenson’s previous works have ventured a foot into the territory of rock and roll, Big Talk plants a large flag. It is classic like Petty, gritty like Waits. There are McCartney-esque melodies and the blues get thrown down with a certain Rolling Stones swagger, and yet Jarrod Dickenson has crafted a sound that is all his own. Big Talk sounds for all the world like a man who has found his groove. Get the record, see a show, but just do not piss him off.

Big Talk track list:
1. Buckle Under Pressure
2. Born To Wander
3. Home Again (feat. Oliver Wood & Jano Rix)
4. Prefer To Lose
5. Bamboozled
6. With Any Luck
7. If You’re Looking
8. Long Hard Look
9. Don’t Deprive Me
10. Goodnight