PATTY LARKIN
Red=Luck (Vanguard)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Red=Luck is Patty Larkin's tenth album, and her third for Vanguard. If you don't usually browse the contemporary folk racks for listening material, though, it may be the first one you'll hear, and you'll doubtlessly find yourself backtracking through her impressive catalog when you discover the range of her talents.

That folk music label is becoming less and less relevant to Larkin's work, unless, as too often happens, you tend to lump all singer/songwriters into that category. She's a singer, for sure, with a solid, often bluesy, alto that moves comfortably into a higher register when the song calls for it. She's a songwriter, of course, of expressive, literate material with a strong pop sensibility and a frequent reflection of social consciousness. She's also an impressive instrumentalist, contributing guitars, bazouki, accordion, lapsteel, mandolin, harmonica and piano to the palette of sound that decorates this disc.

In combining those talents, she pushes her craft far beyond any of the stereotypical limitations of the singer/songwriter, though. Patty Larkin continues to grow in every aspect of her craft. Discovering Red=Luck will be your good fortune.

Track List:

All That Innocence * 24/7/365 * The Cranes * Children * Italian Shoes * Birmingham * Too Bad * Home * Different World * Normal * Red=Luck * Inside Your Painting * St. Augustine * Louder

© 2003 - Shaun Dale