Rebecca Patek

I know Rebecca Patek though Anna Moss.  After my travels down south, I headed west.  Though I was born in the South and lived in New Mexico, I’d never spent much time exploring the great in-between of the state of Texas.  I knew Austin was a music hub so I asked Anna if she knew musicians there. She gave me several names, and one of them was Rebecca. When I asked where in Austen I might find her, Rebecca told me she was actually in Bastrop. Well, right outside of Bastrop. She lived with Melissa Carper, another musician whom Anna suggested might also want to tinyboatsession. It was a fortuitous two-for-one.

I’d never heard of Bastrop, Texas, and had no idea what to expect.  Growing up in New Mexico my thoughts of Texas are from its flat desert side. Bastrop and its surrounding countryside reminded me of savannah interspersed with pines and hardwoods and in the spring heat and humidity felt like an almost subtropical sediment-rich Colorado River.

Rebecca and Melissa lived outside of town, past a few dirt roads lined with wildflowers and a farm. They lived a short walk from the river.  We couldn’t quite get the trailer down to the edge of the water without getting stuck.  Fortunately, there was a little bridge five minutes away where we put in behind some Boy Scouts launched a canoe trip.

We rowed upriver and around a bend to a cottonwood falling over into a beautiful background arch that provided a bit of shade and a place for chirping birds and rustling leaves to play back up while she sang country songs about fishing, love, cooking, and being together. Instagram: @rebeccapatek