Patrick Green

Green first recorded in 1992, garnering regional success with his remake of Larry Graham’s 1980 hit, When We Get Married. In 2001, he released The P.G. Man: Here Am I on the Malaco subsidiary Waldoxy; it showcases his vocals at their most emotion-packed and evocative, spiked by his unique gift for witty lyric imagery. On Sweet Patoo, he peppers his story about searching for a lost love with references to computer hacking and cloak-and-dagger intrigue while riding a popping, propulsive groove; Understanding finds him demanding respect from his lady in terms both street-tough and yearning; Girlfriend (co-written/produced by Mel Waiters) is a hard-edged, synth-toughened dispatch from love’s front lines. Green’s forte, though, remains his ballads—Gift of Your Love, his version of Willie Clayton’s One Last Kiss, et al.—on which he undergirds his callow-sounding croon with a grown man’s life-hardened determination to prevail.

— David Whiteis