By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

On the sonically stimulating “Watch The Sky” (Vanguard), her first studio album of new original material in a few years, out singer/songwriter Patty Larkin is back with what may be her most aurally adventurous recording. After devoting time to her pet project, the female guitarist compilation “La Guitara,” and settling in to motherhood, Larkin returns with a set of songs sure to dazzle and delight fans, new and old, especially in the way they blend the organic with the technological. I spoke with Patty on a wintry day, shortly before the Jan. 22 release of her new album.

Gregg Shapiro: Five years have passed between the release of 2003’s “Red=Luck” and your new CD “Watch the Sky.” That’s the longest stretch between full-length studio albums for you. What were you doing during that time?

Patty Larkin: Two years ago we released, “La Guitara,” a compilation album that took a good year and half to put together. It took a lot more time and space—and I’ve been touring the last couple of years—with that. Up until June (2007), say. So that really has been the push—to release that and get it out there. Of course, I had to write and record material (laughs). And my partner and I also adopted two small children. I finally got the space to write again and what not. So, that’s what took so long. But it probably will not be as long for the next one.

GS: I’m so glad that you mentioned “La Guitara.” One of the most notable things about the disc, on which you compiled the work of women guitarists, is the number of queer musicians, including Kaki King, Sharon Isbin, Mimi Fox and, of course, you. Did that aspect of the project surprise you at all?

PL: I suppose it did. We kind of, at one point, looked at each other and said, “Wow, there’s a lot of lesbians on this.” It just kind of kept happening (laughs). I think that everyone seems fairly well-adjusted (laughs). I don’t know why it would be other than that these women are complete masters of their craft, their art. They really are all at the top of their game. It’s pretty amazing to be able to play with them, hang out with them, and also, just as a female guitarist, to be their witness and to be able to talk to them about the ups and downs of what they’ve done. And the comparison between someone like a Muriel Anderson to Kaki King, in terms of what Muriel had to put up with, in terms of shenanigans and expectations, versus Kaki who just took the place by storm with full acceptance, and there you go. It’s interesting that way. Muriel has a story of playing a NAMM show—it’s the music manufacturers’ showcase, and she was at booth where she was going to be playing at 2:00, and at 1:00 there was going to be the most recent Playmate of the Month centerfold appearing to sign things. And people just assumed it was her. And she said, “No, that would be someone else” (laughs). Because, there she is playing this really amazing guitar music—“No, the Playmate doesn’t play like this. I’m not sure she can play guitar or if she’d like to.” There are all these awkward situations.

GS: The instrumental “Bound Brook” from the “La Guitara” disc appears on “Watch The Sky.” Was that the first song you wrote for “Watch The Sky” or were there others that preceded it?

PL: No, that was the first one. Really, I wrote it for the compilation disc and then I really want to put it on this to give people the little thread back to “La Guitara” and to keep playing it and be able to talk about the CD because it’s really close to my heart. And then, basically, I holed up in a friend’s barn and wrote for about five or six months.

GS: There is a marvelous, yet subtle, variety of styles on “Watch The Sky,” from the acoustic folk of “Cover Me” and “Dear Heart” to the Eastern instrumentation on “Phone Message” to the modern bluesy qualities on “Beautiful” and “Hollywood” and the old school soul vibe of “Walking In My Sleep.” Can you please say something about your musical explorations on the disc?

PL: I think that for me it’s all about jump-starting the inspiration. I’m listening to lots of different kinds of music, as usual. It’s interesting because I was writing in different ways, for me. Usually I sit down with a guitar and I write, then I play a guitar part that I sing over and that becomes the song. This time I did it very quickly. I wanted to get the ideas down very quickly, so I would write for a few hours and then I would come home and during naptime I’d start (laughs) recording stuff in my home studio. That’s kind of how it went. Some of it is generated off the musical tracks that I put down. Then I would take my laptop and go to a café and write for a little while. It’s just a different form of writing for me, but I think it comes from what I’m listening to and what I’m inspired by.

GS: “Hallelujah” sounds like it can be interpreted in more than one way. On first listen it sounds like a love song in which the singer is being warned against the potential pitfalls of a relationship. But then another way of looking at it, especially with the religious reference that the title and chorus “Hallelujah” implies, is that it might be about the kind of relationship that might be frowned upon by the religious right. Am I reading too much into it?

PL: Not at all! It’s about being a lesbian. I grew up Irish Catholic and two uncles were priests—one is still alive. My dad, my parents were very devout Catholics. For me it traces some of the formative years. You grow up and you’re told certain things. If you cross that line, it seems like are going to fall off a cliff. And yet, you don’t. And in many ways you are being true to yourself and who you are in the world. Eventually, the people who love you will accept you. They’re not going to be jumping up and down, but if they want you in their lives, there has to be a matter of acceptance on your own part and on their part. That’s really what it’s about for me.

GS: “Beautiful” sounds like a dream set to music, the way the lyrics describe what you were doing and the way the details shift. Was that the inspiration for the song?

PL: No. It’s really a personal day that I met my partner, really got together with my partner. A meeting of the minds, meeting in New York and realizing that we were very interested (in the other) and falling in love, I suppose. But that little “I think” is kind of conversational. That’s one that I wrote to the track that was streaming by, so there’s a little bit of stream of consciousness. I would write and then I would stop it and then I would re-write and record it as I was going, like a one-sided conversation.

GS: I asked that previous question because there is also the somnambulist in “Walking In My Sleep.” Have you ever set a dream to music?

PL: No, I haven’t. (“Walking In My Sleep”) is sung by a ghost that was in this place that I stayed (laughs). I have to get her name, because she’s a real ghost. I stayed at this B&B in western Mass. and as I was going to bed after my gig, I couldn’t get into my room so I went down to the bar and the owners were sitting there having a drink, and she said “Oh, you’re staying in number four, that’s blah-blah’s room.” And I said, “No, no you can’t tell me this is haunted. I have to change rooms.” So, I changed rooms and I was up almost all night with the lights on. That’s what that experience was about (laughs). It’s kind of surreal. It’s the voice of the ghost singing.

GS: One of the things that ties all the songs together is that there seems to be a recurring nature theme, on songs such as “Traveling Alone,” “Here,” and “Waterside,” for example. It’s sort of like a (lesbian poet) Mary Oliver CD.

PL: (Laughs) That’s so funny because I just saw her book in the store this morning and I want to get it.

GS: Is it important for you to make a place for nature in your work?

PL: I think it’s in my life. That’s the thing for me. It was interesting that when we did the photo shoot (for the album) the photographer said, “You’re so comfortable outside.” When I talk to my kids, and we talk about what makes us happiest, I always say, “Being outside.” That really is it for me. It features big in my life. I think, too, where I was writing this and walking and what not is part of that, too.

GS: We’re doing this interview just before the release of “Watch the Sky,” and with all the changes in the music industry, brought on by the iPod culture, how do you feel about that as a musician?

PL: I know. I just set aside this article in the New York Times about Radiohead. People were telling me about it. I think it is changing and it has already changed. It may be resolved in small little tribes (laughs). The coolest thing that I think about the iPod and the Internet and YouTube and all that is that when I hear about music, it’s either through friends or through NPR or some kind of community radio station. It’s not Clear Channel. It’s the amazon.com thing—if you like this, you might like that. People who have bought that CD have bought this. The idea that you can download just one song is also very cool. The whole free downloading—I haven’t gone there myself. It’s very real and it is asking us to be less corporate and less big business about it. I think the thing that’s frustrating for the music industry is that they can’t figure out how to get the money out. One time someone said, “Can you sign my CD? I’m staying at their house and I just pulled it off the shelf.” I said, “Sure.” It was a promo copy, a ripped-off promo copy. Like it had been burned. “Oh, ouch!” So, if you do that, why don’t you come to a show and buy a CD there? Do something to make it up karmic-ly to me (laughs). I did have that. I had these two young guys at the Experience Museum in Seattle, and they were jumping up and down in their seats, and they came back after the show and bought three or four CDs. They said, “We downloaded your music for free, but we’re here.” And I said, “Well, then, you’re all set. Go with God.” Actually I got more dough from them showing up at the show and buying it there. It’s all going to end up okay.

GS: Good! Speaking of shows, now that you’re a mom, is hard hitting the road for extended periods of time?

PL: Yeah! More difficult for the people who stay behind (laughs). And it’s hard for me. But what I went through, I think the first two or three years, I had very little interest in writing and touring. I would do it, but I didn’t like what I was writing. Now I’m fired up again with a new product and new tour, to get the new songs down. But I’m also having more fun playing guitar and getting into the flow. It’s a big shock to have children in your life. We were used to be being by ourselves for many, many, many years (laughs). It took a couple, three years to kind of catch up with whole thing.

Patty Larkin performs at The Old Town School of Folk Music—Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall, 4544 N. Lincoln, on March 21.