JAMIE LAMMERS
JAMESTOWN – Patrick Dethlefs has always let his instincts guide him. While he found early inspiration as a young musician everywhere from Jimmy Page to The Allman Brothers, the Colorado native put most of his energy into original material.
“I don’t think I was a big learner of other people’s songs, even in the beginning,” Dethlefs says. “First getting the guitar, I think I just learned chords and put them together in a different way.”
His late dad, a guitarist and singer-songwriter, imparted a love of acoustic guitar from an early age. Given his first six-string at age 12, Dethlefs spent his foundational years finding his voice.
Ultimately, Dethlefs settled in the world of folk music. His deftness became evident by the time he won Best Song and Best Performance in Swallow Hill’s teen songwriting competition in 2009.
“I’ll just be playing around on my guitar, and then I’ll maybe find a melody and start kind of humming that over what I’m playing and then some random words will fall out, and I’ll kind of go from there,” the Denver resident says of his songwriting process.
Now Dethlefs is supporting his latest (pseudo) self-titled album, Patty. Recorded live over three days near his hometown of Kittredge at Cowboy Cowabunga studio in Evergreen, he says the new 11-track release came together organically.
“The only thing we added after the fact was the harmony vocals,” he says. “Everything else was completely live, and it’s a lot of acoustic instruments. We all played in the same room, and I didn’t wear headphones the whole time. It was really cool.”
For Dethlefs, music is connective. He hopes that those who pick up the new album or come to see his live performances take a line or two from his songs that resonate with them. After all, anyone can find things they connect to if they pay attention.
“I definitely think when I’m in the mode of songwriting, my ears are perked,” he says. “I’m listening to what other people say and thinking ‘Oh, that could be a line,’ or ‘I could steal that and put that in a song.’”
Patrick Dethlefs will be performing at the Jamestown Mercantile, located at 108 Main Street in Jamestown, on Thursday, November 20, 2025, starting at 7 p.m.
Editor’s Note: This article features additional reporting by Jezy J. Gray.