Add to playlist: the coffee-shop charms of Jordan Patterson and the week’s best new tracks

<p>The North Carolina-born singer’s breezy, earnest music recalls the various delights of the Lilith Fair cohort. Just be careful how you search her name</p><p><strong>From </strong>North Carolina, US<br><strong>Recommended if you like </strong>Fiona Apple, Anaïs Mitchell, Indigo Girls<strong><br>
Up next</strong> New album The Hermit out now; touring the US with Jens Lekman in November</p><p>Jordan Patterson’s name is unfortunately so close to that of a certain conservative Canadian author that Google suggests autocorrecting your search results when you look her up. The 23-year-old US songwriter couldn’t be much further from his brand of hypermasculine evangelism. Her debut album, The Hermit, recalls the rich 90s scene of offbeat North American female singer-songwriters who would go on to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/24/sarah-mclachlan-interview-lilith-fair-better-broken-disney">share the stage at Lilith Fair</a>: Shawn Colvin’s acoustic breeziness, Fiona Apple’s earnest blues, Indigo Girls’ strident joy. (Similar era, very different scene: Patterson’s voice has an expressive skippiness that also channels Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins.) Her songs – and I say this as the greatest compliment – could easily have lived on the soundtrack to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/oct/07/rapid-fire-chats-wisecracks-and-pancakes-how-gilmore-girls-became-tvs-greatest-mother-daughter-duo">cosy mother-daughter drama Gilmore Girls</a>. Fittingly, God wonders whether she should have a baby, and Hey Mama pays tribute to her own mother, pairing the scrappy triumph of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ with impressionistic vocals that feel like a singer nudging her way towards revelation.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/oct/10/add-to-playlist-the-coffee-shop-charms-of-jordan-patterson-and-t