Patty Larkin
Friday September 21, 2012
Showtime: 8:30 / doors: 7:30
Tickets: $20 advance / $25 day of show
Patty Larkin is part of the urban-folk/pop music phenomenon that spun off of the singer/songwriter explosion of the seventies, reinterpreting traditional folk melodies, rock, pop, bossa nova, drawing on anything from Dylan to Dylan. A self described “guitar driven songwriter,” Larkin has wound her way through soundscapes of evocative vocals, inventive guitar wizardry and imaginative lyrics. Her songs run inside and outside the box, from impressionistic poetry to witty wordplay.
In 2010 Patty Larkin releases a collectible collection of 25 love songs in celebration of 25 years in the recording industry. Here Patty has reworked 25 of her favorite songs in an acoustic, “unplugged” release, joined by friends along the way.
A follow up to her critically acclaimed WATCH THE SKY (Critics Choice-NY Times, Brilliant- Billboard), 25 is a one of a kind project that is at once intimate and universal, the voice of a generation of songwriters, simple and direct yet the touchstone of one woman’s song. Over her 25 year career, Patty Larkin has worked with some of the brightest stars in American music, honing a reputation as a “musician’s musician” along the way. On 25 Patty is joined by friends and cohorts, troubadours, renegades, humorists, folk philosophers, dreamers, realists, poets, bards. People who defined an era of music that blurred the lines between genres, and sprang from a grassroots love of song, pouring onto the airwaves in an organic, trickle down of musical styles.
This project evolved in much the same way, with Patty looking for a way to celebrate the quarter of a century anniversary of her first album with some friends. Each artist was contacted individually and asked to come on and sing with Patty’s unplugged versions of her most requested love songs. Some of the artists were on the road during the recording time and found recording studios wherever they landed, some were in the midst of new releases, some were in the studio working on their own projects, and some were just plain busy with the business of life. The fact that each of these gifted and talented artists found the time and space to lend such beauty to this collection speaks to the pull of friendship and music that has spanned the years. 25 is a moment, a pause, the snapshot of a career that continues to grow and evolve along a creative, adventuresome path.
Here’s to “25”, and 25 more.
PATTY’S ROOTS
Patty Larkin grew up in a musical and artistic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Descended from a long line of Irish American singers and taletellers, her mother was a painter, her sisters both musicians. She learned at a young age to appreciate the beauty and magic of the arts. She began classical piano studies at age 7, and became swept up in the sounds of pop and folk in the 60s, teaching herself the guitar and experimenting with songwriting. An English major, Larkin wrote songs throughout her high school and college career, starting out in coffeehouses in Oregon and San Francisco. Upon graduation, she moved to Boston and devoted herself to music, busking on the streets of Cambridge and studying jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music and with Boston area jazz guitarists.
TOURING
A musical omnivore lauded as an exceptional live performer, Patty Larkin tours nationally and internationally armed simply with her acoustic guitar and an expansive repertoire of original songs
AWARDS
Patty Larkin is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, recognized for her outstanding contributions to contemporary music . Over the years, other recipients of this prestigious honor have been Duke Ellington, Sting, Natalie Cole, among others. Patty Larkin has won an unprecedented 11 Boston Music Awards and is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnae Award from Berklee College of Music and “Patty Larkin Appreciation Day,” a proclamation by Boston’s mayor Thomas Menino.
