NORWICH – Award winning singer/songwriter Patty Larkin will perform at the Martin W. Kappel Theater in Norwich on Sunday, April 29 at 3 p.m. Sponsored by The Chenango County Council of the Arts, the performance will feature numbers from Larkin’s newest album Red=Luck.
A guitar focused singer/songwriter, Patty Larkin has immersed herself in a musical world that knows no borders. Her most recent solo release, Red=Luck, showcases a world where the ancient strains of modal folk meet brooding ambient noise. It is a world where Middle-Eastern flavored melodies collide with R&B, where joyous pop and somber reflection, playful eroticism and naked soul searching entwine. Here Larkin has created a world beyond her guitar that springs from the imagination, each song part of a tightly written song cycle cinema verite of challenging times. Red=Luck is the supremely assured work of an artist who has caught a near perfect wave: an artist whose influence becomes clearer with each passing season. While Larkin’s fine guitar work has been recognized by live audiences since her emergence on the acoustic music scene, it is her skills as a producer, soundscape artist and songwriter that have garnered accolades from fans and critics alike (Billboard, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair).
Born in Iowa, Larkin grew up in Milwaukee, in a family where music created generational bonds. “My grandmothers both played piano and when we would get together we would sing. I remember being small and standing underneath the keyboard while someone was playing barrelhouse blues and I felt like I had just seen God; it was a great sound to me.” After playing music on her own in her teens, first piano, then guitar, Larkin attended the University of Oregon where she earned a degree in English Literature. From there, she headed east to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Larkin thus honed both an incisive writing approach and a broad musical palette - her musical evolution had begun.
It has been a remarkable journey - originally hailed for her acoustic guitar wizardry and blazing wit, Larkin has never hesitated to expand her musical horizons. After a brace of albums for Rounder/Philo, her Windham Hill debut, the exquisite “Tango” (1991) is the apogee of her time in the Boston singer/songwriter scene. “Angels Running” (1993) and “Strangers World” (1995) have become perennial AAA radio staples; arguably the most incisive, artistically cohesive discs of the Lilith era. Larkin’s landmark “Perishable Fruit” (1997) and “Regrooving the Dream” (2000, Vanguard) rewrote the sonic and lyric rulebook for acoustic based songcraft. Percussive use of the lap steel (”slapsteel”), loops, samples - all found a comfortable place within Larkin’s songs; and with them, Larkin started riding the wave she now inhabits.
