Today, Field Medic has released shared a new song titled “Let Freedom Ring 2.” Written in the wake of the white nationalist marches in Charlottesville and the events that unfolded in their aftermath, “Let Freedom Ring 2” reflects on the emboldening of open hatred in today’s social conversation. “The fact that white nationalists felt energized and justified in spreading hatred, and the president not even condemning them…” says Kevin Patrick who performs as Field Medic. “It’s scary to think about the increasingly bitter divisions between people in our country.”
“Let Freedom Ring 2” pays homage to the timeless folk songs of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie with its long-strummed chords and focused, repetitive rhyming. More stripped back than most Field Medic tracks with only guitar, a bit of tape hiss and loud vocals, the song’s message is front and center like so many of the issues affecting our lives on a daily basis.
All proceeds from sales and streams of “Let Freedom Ring 2” will be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Additionally, Field Medic has announced a summer tour that includes dates with The Neighbourhood and Health.
TOUR DATES:
4/6 – Denver, CO @ Odgen Theatre ^
4/7 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex ^
4/9 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo ^
4/10 – Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue Theatre ^
4/11 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom ^
6/12 – Boston, MA @ Middle East (Upstairs)
6/14 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
6/15 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
6/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ All Night Diner
6/18 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore ^
6/19 – Richmond, VA @ The National ^
6/20 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa ^
6/22 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall ^
6/23 – Clifton Park, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall ^
6/25 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall ^
6/26 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues ^
6/27 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s ^
^ w/ The Neighbourhood & Health
ABOUT FIELD MEDIC:
Field Medic is the lo-fi folk project of Kevin Patrick. His first release on Run For Cover Records, Songs From the Sunroom, compiles material he’s recorded and released over two years from a small sunroom in San Francisco which doubled as his bedroom. At eighteen, Patrick discovered the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who changed his perspective on what a song could be and led to him developing his own style which he describes as “freak folk/post country with an emphasis on finger style guitar and lyrics.”
Patrick initially embraced lo-fi because he felt that his home recordings were a truer method of expressing what he was creating than anything he could do in a studio. Drawing inspiration from new wave and rap, Patrick pushed the boundaries of what a folk song could be, incorporating new elements in each subsequent release from analogue drum machines to Casio keyboards to banjo. The immediacy of that recording process and the freedom of experimentation inherent within are central to Field Medic’s character, extending through his music to his freestyle, improvised mixtapes and his poetry.
The tracks on Songs From the Sunroom were recorded during a heightened creative period and released as an almost non-stop flurry of EPs, albums, and singles, all of which have been shared via Bandcamp since 2014. As Field Medic, Patrick has released every song he has ever recorded, a conscious decision summed up in his philosophy that “all expression is valid”. “I don’t believe in perfection, I learned that perfect wasn’t real” he explains, continuing “To me [the tracks on SFtS] aren’t demos, they’re the finished songs because no one was waiting on any other versions, so why would I?”
This past January, Patrick gave up his sunroom in San Francisco to travel around the country playing music. Along the way he has joined up with acts such as Pinegrove and The Neighborhood as well as appearing at Outside Lands 2017. The coming year will find Field Medic recording his debut full-length for Run For Cover Records and touring heavily.
FIELD MEDIC
SONGS FROM THE SUNROOM
RUN FOR COVER RECORDS
NOVEMBER 10, 2017
1. Powerful Love
2. p e g a s u s t h o t z
3. Me, My Gibberish & The Moon
4. Graffiti Paint
5. Neon Flowerz
6. OTL
8. Like A Feather or a Pawprint
9. UUU
10. Gypsy Dead Girl
11. Tombstone Poetry
12. Not A Normal Boy
13. Prowler
14. Fuck These Foolz That Are Making Valencia Street Unchill
15. It’s Still You…