Esme Patterson is a singer/songwriter with a knack for pairing airy, wry indie folk with tasteful Baroque dream pop. A founding member of the large, Denver-based folk group Paper Bird, Patterson launched her solo career in 2012 with the release of All Princes, I. Subsequent solo efforts We Were Wild (2016) and There Will Come Soft Rains (2020) saw Patterson adding billowing synths and jangly guitars to her sonic arsenal.

Growing up in nearby Boulder, Colorado, Patterson, along with her sister and bandmate Genevieve Patterson, grew up listening to old R&B records, coming to folk and Americana music later on. In collaboration with another sibling combo, Mark and Sarah Anderson, the two Patterson sisters formed Paper Bird in 2006, focusing on a mix of chamber folk and lush Baroque pop. The group went on to release several successful independent albums, tour frequently, and even score music for the Ballet Nouveau Colorado dance company. Although Patterson had occasionally performed as a solo artist, it wasn't until 2012 that she had accrued a group of songs she felt weren't fit for Paper Bird, and she set about making her first solo album, All Princes, I. Inspired by the loose fluidity of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Feist's Metals, the album saw her collaborating with fellow Denverites Nathaniel Rateliff and members of the Czars. In 2013, Paper Bird released their fourth album, Rooms, and Patterson also began writing material for her second solo album, a 2014 concept album called Woman to Woman, in which she retells stories from famous songs (Lead Belly's "Irene," Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," Elvis Costello's "Veronica," etc.) from the female's perspective. 2016's We Were Wild, with its springy garage-pop and retro-country feel, evoked artists like Caitlin Rose and Cat Power, while 2020's airy, synth-fueled There Will Come Soft Rains explored themes of love, relationships, and ecological disaster. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi