Watch the Sky

Patty Larkin

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 22, 2008)
• Original Release Date: January 22, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B000ZJ2ZN6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,025 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"Traveling alone is a wonderful thing," sings Patty Larkin on her first album of original material in five years. She means it. As producer, mixer, writer, and the only musician involved, Larkin embarks on as much a solo project as you can get. The veteran folkie plays everything from bass to baritone guitar, banjo, and bazouki on these 12 introspective tracks. Some, like "Hallelujah" and the opening "Phone Message," are driven by subtle, loping drum loops. Everything is overdubbed, including Larkin’s lovely, dusky singing, but there is never an insular feel to this atmospheric set. With its bubbling percussion, dissonant bluesy slide guitar, and spooky vibe, "Beautiful" tells of walking in a park with a somewhat ominous musical undercurrent to lyrics that infer, but don’t specify, impending danger. Larkin plays more conventional folk guitar on "Dear Heart," but on the most arresting songs, she pushes and prods the sound--and her layered vocals--in more experimental, less traditional directions. The tinge of Billie Holiday even creeps into her voice on "Walking in my Sleep," one of the project’s most compelling moments. This music demands time and attention. It unravels gracefully and gradually, repeated spins yielding previously hidden details that drift over the listener like a humid fog on a summer’s morning. --Hal Horowitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Better Then Her Previous Two Albums, February 9, 2008

By	Tom Caesar (Troy, Mi United States) - See all my reviews

I found this album an improvement over Patty Larkin's previous two solo albums and La Guitarra.

It still isn't up to the standard of her four Windham Hill albums and A Gogo. I still rank Perishable Fruit and Angels Running as among my favorite albums of all time.

I never warmed up to Regrooving the Dream or Red=Luck. After three listenings, I'm starting to like Watch the Sky.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite Larkin albums!, February 24, 2008

By	Bond... James Bond "007.5" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

I would include "Watch the Sky" right up there with "Perishable Fruit", "Strangers World", and "Angels Running" as my favorite albums. This new album certainly has a wider variety of song compositions and stylings than what she has released before. The electric Fender Telecaster is used more here, and some songs stray over into funky blues, Eastern European stylings (on the "Phone Message" composition), and other one-offs that she tosses into the overdubbings that make it, both with the interesting aural textures and quirky lyrics, a Patty Larkin song. More than any other of her previous releases, this album alternates between dreamy or haunting songs (like "Cover Me", "All Souls Day", and the "Bound Brook" instrumental), traditional folk, and what could probably be labeled more as "Adult Contemporary" (even though I am not really sure what that genre really encompasses). The folk purist might eschew the use of electric guitars on a folk album or (gasp!) the use of drum loops and electronic sound loops overdubbed together, but I do think that it all feels right at home here and I applaud Patty's experimental inclinations to stretch herself into different areas.

I just saw Patty play live here in town last night, accompanied by her acoustic 6-string, bazouki, and Fender Telecaster. When she started into her "Phone Message" song, first she started the triphop/trance drum loop, and when she started playing her bazouki before singing, it felt like the kind of hip instrumental that you might hear walking into a nightclub in Eastern Europe. When she picked up her Fender Telecaster to play the high-reverb slide guitar "Bound Brook" instrumental, she called it her "folk Fender", and towards the end of that piece, she actually picked up a violin bow and (tried to) also play the guitar with that. That did not work so well, but she chuckled afterwards and said that was her "Led Zeppelin impersonation". Again, I applaud her for experimenting.

The "Walking In My Sleep" song is also noteworthy in that it sounds less like previous Patty Larkin songs, and more like Billie Holiday meets Amy Winehouse.

After a 5-year hiatus, does this new album mark the beginning of a (even) more diverse, eclectic Patty? Will her next album even include accordion and some synthesizers in the overdubs? We'll see. But I do like this album, and it has grown on me with each repeated listening.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-rounded Americana, March 17, 2008

By	T. M. Orange - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Veteran singer-songwriter Larkin turns in an incredibly well-rounded effort here: Americana pop that stays true to its roots but also updates itself with some well-chosen synthetic beats. What's more, she wrote, played and produced everything you hear on this disc. And she scores on every count: the writing is more than competant, the production is crystal clear, and the playing is very accomplished -- for those keeping count, that's twelve different instruments she plays. Her singing voice is a strong alto, perhaps roughly the same range as Melissa Ethridge, but clear and without any faux-huskyness. Though this recording appears on Vanguard, a hallmark folks label, Larkin shouldn't be pigeon-holed: she blends elements of folk, roots and pop into something that is new and irredcuible to any of them. She shows up a lot of lesser talents (Sheryl Crow comes easily to mind) and holds her own in a long line of singer-songwriters going back to, whom, Joan Baez(?) and ahead from there to Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman and Lucinda Williams.