A few days ago, Shaffer unveiled Patience’s final single, “Anyone,” a song that glows with optimism and self-assurance. “Most of my music reflects indecision, fantasy, conflict, obsession with elsewhere…I really live in that limbo,” she explains. “‘Anyone’ is like the antithesis of all that. It’s me saying, I know exactly what I want this time and nobody can stop me.” The track’s warmth and hopefulness are tempered with a touch of melancholy — “It actually breaks my heart to listen to, because nothing is permanent. It makes me think about the way the sky turns sort of yellow and glows really beautifully right before a storm.”

The song’s sense of lightness is heightened by Lucy Liyou’s graceful piano work. “I can’t really talk about this song without mentioning Lucy,” Shaffer adds. “I think this song especially is totally transformed by her presence. The piano adds a sort of ecstatic levity to the melody that is so perfect.”

On Patience, Devin Shaffer leads a group of gifted collaborators for the first time, including Liyou on piano, Sarah Galdes on drums, Marilu Donovan on harp, and Mari Rubio on pedal steel, through a collection of delicate, introspective folk songs that search for peace in the unknown. It’s her most grounded and confident work to date, yet still full of wonder and emotional depth.

To celebrate the release, Devin Shaffer will perform with a full band for the first time ever on December 5 at The Hancock in New York City, joined by Alice Does Computer Music and Cassandra Croft. In the meantime, stream Patience below.

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Now, Shaffer has officially announced her second studio album, Patience, out November 7 via American Dreams. Written between 2021 and 2023 during her move from Chicago to New York, the record explores uncertainty and surrender as guiding principles. “I keep thinking about this idea that once you think you’re on the path, you’ve lost the path,” Shaffer says. “There is no certainty, there is no knowing. It’s all about surrender.” For the first time, she also leads a full group of instrumentalists: Lucy Liyou on piano, Sarah Galdes on drums, Marilu Donovan on harp, and Mari Rubio on pedal steel, through arrangements that balance her tender guitar and voice with rich, shimmering layers. Both vulnerable and assured, Patience encourages listeners to find comfort in change rather than resist it.

The album’s lead single, “All My Dreams Are Coming True,” offers the first glimpse into that vision, dreamy, tender, and slightly sarcastic as one could wish. Alongside the song, Shaffer released a visualizer filmed by Kim Upstill, Marilu Donovan, and Shaffer herself, an understated but evocative companion to a track that sets the stage for Patience.