The market is flooded with Pattys and Pattis Patti Smith, Patty Griffin, Patty Loveless. Just casually trying to come up with the sheer amount that have enjoyed popularity yields a dozen or so examples Patti Page, Patty Smyth, Patti Scialfa. (If you think it's easy with just any name, try doing it with Fiona, Ani or Polly Jean.)
Such a logjam makes it all the harder for a female singer-songwriter named Patty to stand out in the crowd. But Patty Larkin has done quite well by letting her music speak for itself. From her 1985 debut "Step Into the Light" through her current effort "Regrooving the Dream," she has fashioned a truly distinctive voice in a songstress market brimming with Pattys.
Patty Larkin recently issued her ninth album, "Regrooving the Dream."
"It took me a long time to realize they weren't hiring someone else to sing just like Bonnie Raitt," Larkin recalls of her early studio days in a recent phone interview from a "friend's house" in Boston. "I kept thinking it was going to be tough because I was going to do a session and they might want me to sing a certain way. Then I realized that I have a musical take and imagination and approach to music that is unique, and that is what people are listening for."
Seeking a connection
With nine albums to her credit, and dozen of appearances on compilations and as a guest on other artists' recordings, Larkin has poured a lifetime of experience into "Regrooving the Dream." Recorded in the cozy environment of her own Cape Cod studio, the project allowed her to expand her acoustic vision into a collection rife with experimentation. The sequence of lengthy, emotion-drenched songs on the record, such as "River" and "Hotel Monte Vista," are broken up by a series of brusque instrumentals. "Random Play" is a 19-second tape loop of electric guitars that begins the disc, while "Sorry" is a minute-long acoustic riff that sleazes along like vintage Morphine. It's an effective way to recharge the interest of the listener instead of stringing together a dozen lyrical ballads. Larkin is still toying with applying the same tactic to her live show.
"The intent was I'd have some musical connectors that would make it almost a nonstop show," she says. "And I do have a couple different places where the instrumentals take over, but I think of the patter as the connector at that point, because I'm combining older and new songs."
And how comfortable is she at providing witty stage patter?
"It's part of what I do," she replies. "And humor is a big part of it. I have a batch of songs that are 'humorous' that are probably 10 years old or more now. I haven't written anything in the last 10 years that's like that, but they really help the show along and help connect me with the audience. In lieu of that, I like to make these comments on life."
It's that audience connection that invigorates Larkin, and what inevitably draws comparisons to fellow singers such as Ani DiFranco or Tori Amos artists whose fans often feel like they're part of a communal experience than an anonymous concert.
When: 7:30 p.m. today
Where: Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.
Ticket information: 865-3655
"Sometimes it gets me closer to the audience to not have my road manager or even a soundguy there that I know, then the relationship is even stronger," she says. "It's sort of the elemental folk or elemental troubadour story songs you want to turn the whole place into your living room."
Schoolhouse rock
While growing up in Wisconsin, Larkin's parents first awakened her musical curiosity through piano lessons. By her teens, she had dumped the Suzuki Method for the Paul Simon method of acoustic guitar playing and songwriting. After earning a degree in English Literature at the University of Oregon, Larkin headed out to Boston to study jazz at the esteemed Berklee College of Music and "get serious" with the craft.
"It gave me a sense of musical stability," she says. "It made me very marketable in terms of I was able to teach guitar and take stuff apart for students. This idea of spending your whole life and not being musically trained hadn't really occurred to me. I thought it would be better to have that net, just in case.
"I've been lucky, because I've been able to do my own music. But (music schooling) really helps in communication with other musicians and in grasping the concepts a little quicker. Sure, there's a whole world out there that is well beyond my grasp, but at least you can know what you don't know."
Though the material on "Regrooving the Dream" maintains that tenuous balance of being accessible without coming across as simplistic, it does present Larkin a wide palette with which to paint her subtle styles of groove-oriented folk. It also allows her the freedom to explore other instruments. In addition to her acoustic and electric chores, she adds lap steel, bass, octave mandolin and harmonica to the recording and occasionally to her live performances.
"(I'm) probably the most comfortable at acoustic guitar," she says. "But anything with strings on it is kind of fair game. I love working the mandolin in. And being from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I had to get an accordion in there somewhere."
After the current tour concludes at the end of March, Larkin will go back in the studio where she plans to demo material for her Vanguard Records label by May or June. She is also eager to work on an album compilation of women guitarists that she wants to tie in with a charity.
"Musically, I feel I'm getting better," Larkin confesses. "I hope so. People I trust tell me I am. And I guess I would really feel badly if I fell short somehow. I feel that I do improve. And my comfort level as a musician who is playing in the studio is getting better and better or higher and higher. What does a comfort level do to improve? Does it rise? That sounds like anxiety."
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