Patty Larkin performs at Hamilton Stage in Rahway October 24th

Patty Larkin redefines the boundaries of folk-urban pop music with her inventive guitar wizardry and uncompromising vocals and lyrics. Acoustic Guitar hails her “soundscape experiments” while Rolling Stone praises her “evocative and sonic shading.” She has been described as “riveting” (Chicago Tribune), “hypnotic”(Entertainment Weekly) and a “drop-dead brilliant” performer (Performing Songwriter).

Patty 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 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 in high school. 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, busking on the streets of Cambridge and studying jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music and with Boston area jazz guitarists.

Still Green, Patty’s 13th album, plays out in Technicolor sound images, a kaleidoscope of sun and sea that travels from the fluorescent-lit hallways of grief to the warm pull of love, family and nature. This collection of new songs chronicles Patty’s search for relief, respite and solace during a time when she lost both of her parents, and witnessed a sister suffer a serious health issue.

The album begins with “The Best of Intentions,” a song Larkin started before all of these life-altering events, and completed after them. The song is a bellwether for the record – it raises questions of belief and redemption, and leaves them unanswered for the listener. The man in the hallway is cleaning up grief/While travelers chase after time like a thief/With oversized bags, they wait for relief in the dawn/But The Best of Intentions all get up and leave before long. “It’s not a quick answer for me,” Patty says. “I was raised Catholic but once you start to ask yourself what you believe in, things get interesting real fast. What I want to walk away with and what I want to leave the listener with is a sense of hope.”

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! $25 in advance; $27 day of show. Can be purchased on-line at ucpac.org or at the box office. Union County Performing Arts Center is located at 1601 Irving Street, Rahway, NJ. Patty will be performing at the Hamilton Stage, 660 Hamilton Street, Rahway, NJ