CD Reviews

Patty Larkin

Watch the Sky | Vanguard

By JEFF TAMARKIN | February 26, 2008

3.5 Stars

Patty Larkin made this, her 12th release since the mid ’80s, a real solo album, sequestering herself in remote locations to build these dozen songs from the ground up. She layers all the vocals and plays all the instruments — a rack of acoustic, electric, bass, and steel guitars, bouzouki, banjo, drum loops, etc.; she also produced and engineered. Yet her music has never sounded more expansive and open-armed. Whether she’s addressing herself (in emotion-plumbing songs like the folky-funky “Walking in My Sleep” and the defiantly giddy “Hallelujah”) or an amorphous other (the whispery “All Souls Day,” the gutbucket blues-infused “Beautiful” with its dreamy epiphanies, the minimalist meditation “Here”), she reaches well beyond alt-folk and toward a new sophistication. Technology is befriended big-time — from the startling drum blast that opens lead song “Phone Message” to the multi-tracking that allows her to be her own band throughout — but never at the expense of her dazzling musicianship, honeyed, seductive vocals, or nuanced songwriting.

Patty Larkin + Emily Elbert | Me & Thee Coffeehouse, Unitarian Universalist Church, 28 Mugford St, Marblehead | February 29 | 781.631.8987 | Patty Larkin + Ellis Paul | Circle of Friends Coffeehouse, First Universalist Society Meetinghouse, 262 Chestnut St, Franklin | March 1 | 508.528.2541 | Patty Larkin | Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston | March 8 | 617.369.3300

Related: Creedence-meets-Waylon, Fall Books Preview: Getting booked, Ding Ho home, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Beverages, Food and Cooking, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 02/20 ] "Optical Noise: American & British Prints/Films from the 1960s-1970s: @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 02/20 ] Third Annual Providence Children's Film Festival @ Cable Car Cinema

[ 02/20 ] "The Providence Postcard Project" @ Brown University's Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

ARTICLES BY JEFF TAMARKIN

NEW YORK DOLLS | DANCING BACKWARDS IN HIGH HEELS | March 17, 2011
The new New York Dolls have now been around longer - and released more albums (three) - than the old New York Dolls, and they're commemorating that new longevity by letting go of any compulsion they may have still harbored to honor their designation as "punk-rock progenitors."

BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS | SCANDALOUS | March 09, 2011
The soul revival has been going on long enough now that maybe it's a not a bad idea to stop calling it a revival at all.

BRYAN FERRY | OLYMPIA | October 19, 2010
From the Kate Moss cover pic to the A-list of guest stars to the reunion with original Roxy Music members Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, and Andy Mackay, Olympia screams, "EVENT!"

OLD 97'S | THE GRAND THEATRE | October 12, 2010
When Old 97's are on — which they are most of the time on their eighth studio album — they're very, very on.

DAR WILLIAMS | MANY GREAT COMPANIONS | October 05, 2010
The companions of the title are Dar Williams's songs, which the singer-songwriter revisits here two different ways.