Still, it was clear that he viewed himself as fundamentally changed for the better, due to his newfound sobriety. The band sang about the Spanish Civil War and heroin withdrawal, waiting for a train-hopping friend who never arrives, and burning calendars to keep warm in the harsh Vermont winters. He wrote about his past with the same brutal honesty, while also integrating more political and philosophical references. Ramshackle Glory’s lyrics were as powerful and visceral as anything Pat produced as Johnny Hobo or Wingnut Dishwashers Union, but the music was cleaner and more professionally recorded. There was no substance to their worry, however. Some went so far as to be skeptical that he could make good music sober as unsavory a thought as that is, it makes sense, given that so much of his previous content had centered around portraying the daily reality of an addict.
Like a lot of his fans, I was unsure what this radical life change would mean for his material. So began the era for which he remains best known, and in which he achieved the most commercial success. Ramshackle Glory was made up of 12 members, whom he had met “wandering the desert”, and their music was still anarcho-folk-punk, but it would also address his experience with addiction recovery. With this came the birth of a new musical group, Ramshackle Glory, and the release of a new album, Live the Dream (Plan-it-X – PIX-095, 2012). He had moved to Tucson, Arizona after leaving rehab and was beginning a new stage of his career.
In 2011, he suddenly reappeared with an announcement on his previous band’s webpage. For almost three years the outside world heard no communication from Pat.