Patrick McHenry

Here begins a slightly silly interview with Wayne Patrick (real name Patrick Wayne McHenry), lead singer/guitarist of the band that bears his name (sort of). I found him one lonely Monday evening at the Blue Spark and thought, “What the hell, let’s see what kind of alcohol he compares his music to.” (By the way it’s a nice red Merlot, since his music contains a lot of jazz.)

McHenry has been playing music since roughly the 4th grade, approximately one year after he discovered that he liked women. When his 4th grade sweetheart decided to start band, there was only one logical thing for him to do. So he picked up the clarinet and the rest is history.

“Clarinet?” I ask with a puzzled look.

“Fourth Grade,” he replies with a shrug.

“Touché,” I think to myself.

Since then McHenry has put the clarinet to rest in favor of a guitar and his voice. Vocally McHenry sounds like Colin Meloy from the Decemberists, if Meloy sang about love instead of how cool Europe used to be. While many of McHenry’s songs have a dash of melancholy, his voice contains optimism, and that makes me happy.

“I’m so positive,” says McHenry. “I sing about life and about the lost love of fictitious women. I definitely don’t write about my own life because it’s boring, so I live through my songs.”

As a nursing student at WSU-Spokane, he claims, “How interesting can my life be?” If McHenry had ever watched Grey’s Anatomy he would think differently – those characters get tons of action.

Musically the band’s sound is quite jazzy with a strong base of good ol’ rock and roll. Contributing to this sound is bass player Kori Henderson and drummer Brett Neste.

While Wayne Patrick (the band) hasn’t been together that long (summer of this year), they have been playing surprisingly consistently – two shows per month. But once McHenry’s school is over, they plan to hit the road in search of fame and fortune – preferably in a tour bus named “The Asian Invasion.”

“I always thought it would be a sweet band name back when I used to play punk-rock,” says McHenry, “And it will confuse the hell out of people.”

Wayne Patrick is performing on Saturday, November 25th at Caterina Winery with fellow local acts Karli Fairbanks, and Tokio Weigh Station. The all-ages show starts at 8 p.m. and cover is $4 at the door. You have another chance go catch Wayne Patrick on Thursday, November 30th as part of Rock Coffee’s “A Night of Cover Songs.” (Check out the accompanying box for more information.) Caterina Winery is located at 905 N Washington St, just across the river from the Big Red Wagon. They happen to serve a nice red merlot, so this might be good time to see if Wayne Patrick and merlot mix as well as he thinks they do. There’s a good chance he’s right.