Esme Patterson | photo by Jeremy ZImmerman for WXPN | jeremy-zim.com

Before she embarks on a summer-long national tour, Esme Patterson shared a video for “No River” off of her latest We Were Wild LP. The Denver musician strikes a balance between idyllic and realistic as she declares the “flaws” that make us human.

If you thought Patterson was admitting defeat, though, when she acknowledges that humans are lacking certain traits when compared to mighty rivers or immovable mountains, listen to the music: it’s confident, poppy and ultimately euphoric. As she tells NPR, in the acknowledgement that we are not immortal comes the freedom to live in the moment and not take things for granted.

“It’s about the freedom that we can find when we surrender to the realization that we are mortal…. By understanding that we are dying, we also understand that we are alive in this very moment. I wanted to represent these themes visually in the music video: the strength and vulnerability of the body, the circadian rhythm of life, the dance with nature, life as a dance.”

Esme joins us at Wiggins Park on Saturday, July 23rd for the XPoNential Music Festival; tickets and information can be found here. Watch “No River” below, and revisit her Non-COMM performance from last month here.