Patrick Spencer speaks with Sad Mag about bringing music to the people in Sad Mag Issue 4, launching this Wednesday, August 4. Check out a sneak peek of this article by Justin Mah.

I really like old traditional folk songs: there’s a song called “Red River Valley”—it’s an old bedtime story-type song that’s been around for more than a hundred years. I notice when I play that song—and I play it in my own way, kind of upbeat—it doesn’t sound like an old folk song, but at the same time, people over fifty years old, for instance, will recognize it and will stop and listen and will say, ‘Hey, I really liked hearing that, I haven’t heard that song since my grandmother used to sing it to me as a child.’

—Patrick Spencer, as told to Justin Mah.

Photo: Jonathan Taggart