David Patterson
Selene
Shawn Mullins
 
 
 
 
 

 

Musician

 

Born:

Savannah, Georgia

 

 

Resides:

New York City

 

patterson7@mindspring.com

 
 

 

 

 

 

Mystical Musings:

by Bob Ruggiero

Atlanta singer / songwriter David Patterson considers himself a classical guitarist - and he's got the degree from the University of Georgia to prove it. But rather than shy away from the label in his more rock-oriented output, he embraces both labels equally.

" I don't see much of a contradiction between the two", he says. Some people get turned off by the word 'classical' because they think of symphony halls and their moms and dads in fancy clothes, but you can really bring it alive when you perform it.,..it's been taken to this musuem-style performance, and that's a pity."

Patterson will be performing a little classical, a little acoustic, and a lot of rock when he brings his eclectic band to Savannah to celebrate the release of his CD 'Selene', an acoustic and highly spiritual collection of tracks.

Much of the CD's lyrical content centers on Patterson's mystical musings and spiritual interpretation, a personal interest he's incorporated smoothly into his music. "It was more of a quest for spiritual fulfillment," he says of his initial efforts at exploring that world. "I was disenamored with the Christian mythology- although I did dabble in that- but equally applicable to my life were the myths from different legends."

 

Many of those legends are European in origin, and indeed, Patterson spent some of the happiest times in his life in the early eighties over there, busking in the streets of Vienna and making enough money to buy dinner, stay at a hostel, and go out for a few beers with his girlfriend. "Those experiences were amazing," he wistfully recalls today.

And though Patterson spent much of his youth living in Savannah, he moved to Atlanta in the mid eighties, often appearing in several bands at once ( today he's cut in down to three). It was there that he hooked up with Michael Lorant and the Indigo Girls' Jesus Christ Superstar: A resurrection project, which was released last year to critical acclaim. Patterson was part of "The Murray Head Orchestra ( a nod to the singer who portrayed Judas in the original production), which tackled some of the more difficult musical passages in rock opera.

"That was a seminal piece of music for me growing up and playing the guitar, so I jumped at the occasion!" he says. But when it comes to rock and roll, I grew up listening to everything that everyone else did, like the Police and the Clash.... the money I make playing in rock clubs isn't much, and it's not my bread and butter, I do it because I love it!"

 

reprinted with kind permission, the Creative Loafing, Savannah 1995