Patty Larkin / May 4th, 2008 / St. James Hall / Vancouver, Canada
Folk
music fans are a warm and an interesting a group of people, and so are the
artists whose music they enjoy. By the time singer/songwriter and musician,
extraordinaire Patty Larkin had finished playing the first song of her own
set, “St Augustine,” (from Red = Luck, 2003), the crowd which had
gathered for her May 4th concert, at St. James Hall in Vancouver,
were already in love with her. Larkin was in the Canadian city to promote and
perform several songs from her new CD Watch The Sky, recorded on
Vanguard Records.
With her long wavy red hair cascading past her shoulders, dressed in navy blue slacks, and a dark blue floral jacket, Larkin moved easily into a song from her 1997 CD, Perishable Fruit, a tune titled, “The Book I’m Not Reading.” The song is a musical metaphor for love and having someone to share it with. “The Book I’m Not Reading,” lends itself to showcasing Larkin’s beautiful, easygoing, vocals.
Patty Larkin is very good at engaging her audience both in conversation and through her music. She talked about this being the last night of a North American tour, which started in February, and how at the beginning of the tour her voice started to fail. She humorously described the progression of voice loss as at one point, sounding like Kim Carnes and at another; she resorted to her ventriloquist act. She told her fans, how prior to a show in California there had been a 5.2 earthquake, which she joked was good for ticket sales, because all of the people were fleeing their homes and came out to the concert. Prior to segueing into a couple of pretty tunes from her new CD, “Cover Me,” and “Dear Heart,” Larkin said, that all of her songs for this album had been written and recorded during her children’s nap times.
Her song, “Cover Me,” possesses the innocence and tenderness of a lullaby, while “Dear Heart,” is a gentle, reflective ballad, filled with symbolism. Using her thumb to pluck the strings of her fender guitar, Larkin demonstrated that she is equally at home with an electric as she is with an acoustic guitar. Considering that she played eleven different instruments while recording her CD Watch The Sky, I suppose that it should come as no surprise that she demonstrated her creative ingenuity on “Dear Heart,” when at one point she played her guitar using the bow of a violin.
Folk artists have never been shy about providing social commentary through their lyrics and Larkin is no exception, evidenced by her song, “Birmingham,” which addresses the great American dream, which does not always end up being so great. “And you’re damned if you do / And you’re damned if you don’t / So you get yourself a job / Just to take something home / Now there’s food on the table / But nothing’s left over / In Birmingham.”
Other highlights of the evening included her partially improvised lyrics for the song, “Traveling Alone,” in which she incorporated several references to the sights and sounds of Vancouver, and “Good Thing (Angels Running).” She introduced the later tune, by relating a conversation that she once had with her mother, who said, ‘Patty can’t you ever write anything happy,” to which she replied, ‘No mother, I am a folk singer. I write about death, train wrecks, and boats sinking.” She told the audience, that “Good Things (Angels Running),” managed to please both her mother and her, because it is a happy song about sad things.
With most artists, it is easy to pick out their greatest strength, but that is not easily accomplished with Patty Larkin, because she excels as a storyteller, a musician, and as a singer. She is comfortable with her audience, and keeps her fans engaged throughout her concert.
Patty Larkin’s concert was hosted by Rogue Folk, her also promoting the May 15th Norah Rendell and Brian Miller concert, as well as the May 22nd performance by Denmark’s Harald Haugaard (fiddle) and Morten Alfred Hoirup (acoustic guitar).
Reviewed by Joe Montague
All photos by Joe Montague-Protected by Copyright©
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Reviewed May 4th, 2008
Riveting Riffs wishes to thank Rogue Folk for making it possible for us to review this Gig
