Photo credit: Jana Leon
Descended from a long line of Irish-American singers and storytellers, music is the fabric of Patty Larkin’s life. Her mother was a painter, and her sisters both musicians, as were both her grandmothers, and the highlight of visits to their homes was singing around the piano with them.
“Our parents required us to study classical piano starting at age 7,” said Larkin. “I couldn’t wait to play, but I never practiced!” Her two sisters, she said, became successful on the piano – one playing jazz, and the other performing classical concerts at the age of 16. Her own life changed when she was 10 and her uncle gave them an inexpensive acoustic guitar for Christmas. “I couldn’t put it down. I learned as much as I could from friends, made up chords, began writing songs, and I’ve been doing that ever since.”
An English major, Larkin sang throughout her high school and college career, starting out in coffeehouses in Oregon and San Francisco. Upon graduation from the University of Oregon, she moved to Boston and devoted herself to music, playing on the streets of Cambridge and studying jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music and practicing with Boston-area jazz guitarists. She took vocal lessons and wrote her own songs.
“It was my goal to be able to play music for a living,” Larkin said. “To be able to be a performing singer/songwriter was my dream.” Her dream became reality with the release of her debut album, “Step Into the Light,” in 1985. And now, with the spring release of her 13th album, “Still Green,” the performer has no signs of stopping. Her career has been winding and colorful, filled with folk rock, poetry, jazz and the passion of songwriting.
“I learned a lot from playing backup guitar for an old-time fiddler, and singing in an acoustic blues band in terms of the pure joy of playing music live,” she said. “I played in a Celtic band on the streets of Cambridge when I first moved to town, and taught finger-style guitar at a place called the Guitar Workshop.”
There have been highs and lows along Larkin’s musical path, but the high moments have shined. “I think, in a classic sense, a high point was ‘Patty Larkin Day’ in Boston when I sang the National Anthem at Fenway Park. It was July, 1995. That was truly a moment. I felt like I was in a 1930s movie when I walked back to my seat and people were calling out my name, saying ‘Congratulations!’, ‘Way to go!’, ‘Nice job, Patty!’”
Another stellar experience, she said, was playing for a large audience in Italy. “I was in an acoustic guitar show at the 1,000-seat Performing Arts Center, in Genova. The place was packed. At the end of the show, a portly gentleman made his way towards the stage, took off his cap, threw it at my feet and cried, ‘Patty! Put it on!’ and I did. It sank down over my eyes for the encore. I wore that cap to Venice.”
Larkin lives in Wellfleet with her partner and two adopted daughters. She loves the creativeness that living by the sea evokes, and enjoys the activities that life on the Cape offers. Wellfleet, she said, has a lot of music in its landscape.
“I think if you can be in a place where you can view beauty 360 degrees around you, that’s a sacred place,” she said. “As a songwriter, I gain inspiration from being on the Outer Cape because of the history of artists and writers who have created here in the past and present day. In this part of the world, I’m able to silence the tape loop running through my mind when I come across an expanse of marshland at sunset on the way to pick up the kids, or a quiet cove edged by frost in winter, or…. 10 turkeys crossing Route 6 tends to snap you out of the windmill of your mind.”
One of Larkin’s favorite places to walk is out to the Outer Shore of Provincetown on Snail Road. “You get a sense of isolation within shouting distance of the highway. It’s a good place to take space, and to get a sense of space. Many artists before me have walked that trail and found a place to reset and create.
“There are many places on the Cape that I love,” she said. “How do I choose just a few? Woods Hole, the Brewster flats, Nickerson State Park, Sandy Neck, East Orleans, Pleasant Bay, Fort Hill in Eastham, the Audubon in Wellfleet, Great Island – it’s a never-ending feast for the heart and mind.”
She added that they got their resident shellfishing licenses, and went oystering for the first time recently. “We walked out onto the flats on the first day of spring, left with two buckets of oysters just as the full moon was rising. That’s my new hobby!”
Larkin is currently working on an album of poem songs – poems to which she has set music, with works by 10 amazing poets. The title, “Bird In a Cage,” is taken from a William Carlos Williams poem. It will be out this June.
“I continue to perform because there is magic to be had between an audience and a performer, and because when I write songs it’s like catch and release: songs want to be sung and heard,” Larkin said. “At its best, performance art makes a real connection with people, and that is why I do it. When it works, it’s exhilarating.”
About Ann Luongo
