“I think that folk music is storytelling that draws from everyday life. It is music that talks about everyday life,” says folk singer / songwriter Patty Larkin. “I decided way back twenty years ago, that to avoid talking about things with which I felt uncomfortable, or that made other people uncomfortable, would make people feel sad, or was politically oriented, was going to be a sin of omission. I was not going to avoid talking about issues that I felt were important.”

 

Larkin’s song, “The Streets Of Birmingham Are Burning,” was written to draw attention to the working poor in America, and particularly in the Alabama city of Birmingham. “At the time that I wrote it, I knew that it was the state where you could earn the least amount of money, and still pay income tax on it. (In the time that has passed) since I wrote it, I have learned more about Alabama, and the dire straits that the people are in.”

 

If you are a young reader, and grew up in the age of internet connectivity, Larkin’s next remarks may come as a surprise to you, “I look at folk music as storytelling. There is traditional folk music and non-traditional folk music. There is a songwriting tradition that brings up the good, the bad and the ugly. Way before the internet, there was somebody, who would come to town, to tell (through song) about a flood which occurred two thousand miles away. I think that some of that still goes on. You want to assume that it will be intimate in a way, and even if you are doing more pop oriented or updated versions of music, you are still looking for intimacy from your audience. You are asking people to be active listeners. It’s not just about partying, going out, and having a good time. You are asking them to think with you about something, whether it is something that they have never heard, or an issue.”

 

Patty Larkin is the beneficiary of a rich cultural heritage which includes, grandmothers on both sides of her family, who were pianists, one of whom played for silent films in Chicago and both of whom were involved with church choirs. Larkin has fond memories of house parties at both grandmothers’ houses in which singing was the primary activity. Her older sister Kathleen is an accomplished classical pianist and her mother has her paintings on display at several galleries. Larkin’s younger sister is a classical and Irish music musician, as well as a musical therapist.  Larkin credits growing up in such a stimulating environment and observing her family members’ discipline as they honed their crafts, as helping to instill in her the same type of work ethic, as she fine tuned her own music. Her family tree also includes farmers, union organizers and those who have been involved in the political process. It almost seems as though Larkin was destined to become a folk singer / songwriter.

 

Patty Larkin’s mother once asked her, ‘Can’t you write some happy songs once in a while?’ I asked Larkin about that conversation and she said, “When I listen to my songs, I realize that I am working through something, and sometimes when the songs come out, I don’t even realize that I have been thinking about this or that. It’s not like I want to mine the dark side for material. I think that it is more introspective or meditative in a way. Maybe some anger comes out too. I think that for my mother’s generation, music is thought of as being happy, and having a tune that you can sing. The idea of doing this music that is discordant or dark is unappealing to her.”

 

Elaborating further, Larkin says, “I went to this play and the whole point of it was, do you live in your darkness, do you thrive on it, to the point where it becomes its own living, breathing part of you, or do you keep it at bay and move to the right. I thought that was very interesting and I wanted to go home to write a bunch of happy songs.”

 

Both Larkin’s songwriting and her performances provide cathartic experiences for her, “When I haven’t done it (toured) for a while, or when I get back out doing gigs, I realize how much breathing that I do. It is a physiological act that makes me feel better. Sometimes I will feel that doing a show is the last thing that I want to do, and then things start to fall into place. There may be something in my own lyric that speaks to me that night. I think that songwriting can be somewhat euphoric. You are concentrating on something other than the daily process. You go into this place that is its own time.”