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Ghost tale helps Larkin get into the spirit on new album
Not too long ago, Patty Larkin was staying at one of those quaint-and-cozy New England bed and breakfast inns that should bring on a good night's sleep like a fistful of Ambien.
There was a problem, though, and it wasn't banging pipes, amorous neighbors, air conditioning at meat-locker levels or a way-too-soft mattress.
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Once she was told that, according to legend, there was one floating around in there, the singer-songwriter freaked.
"I didn't sleep at all," she said. "I did leave the light on all night ... I just could not sleep."
Despite being moved to another room, shut-eye never came and Larkin fled the inn at first light.
"There was something creepy about. It was the only thing open for miles around and in the middle of nowhere."
It makes for a good shiver-inducing story on Halloween night, but it also inspired the song "Walking in My Sleep" on her latest album, "Watch the Sky." It's the 11th disc by the Milwaukee native, and the first time she has played all the instruments on an album herself.
"I was recording the songs as soon as I wrote them," Larkin explained from her home in Boston last week. "So once I got going doing that, I was like, let me put that idea down and that idea down."
Before too long, Larkin was layering on instruments in her home studio, including acoustic, electric and steel guitars, and, on a few tracks, a banjo, door chimes and even a toy organ.
Occasionally, a friend would come by and make sure everything was going well technically, but, beyond that, "I was off and running," she said.
The Associated Press called "Watch the Sky" "an artful, forward-minded collection of songs featuring dreamy textures and percolating percussion."
Since releasing her first disc in 1985, Larkin has accumulated a small following thanks to her songwriting and fluid guitar work. She ended up planting permanent roots in the Boston area after attending the city's Berklee College of Music for one semester in the '70s.
Initially, she studied piano at the school, but ended up switching to the guitar, which she calls "a personal instrument."
"A piano for me had been so much about learning the rules and classical (music), and the guitar was no rules. I liked that a lot, and I just started writing songs a lot."
Cher covered her song, "Angels Running," on her 1996 album "It's a Man's World." Larkin explained that it yielded the kind of payday every songwriter wants.
"It was lovely. I got a new used car. It was great."
Describing herself as "a fiftysomething Pepsi Generation person," Larkin will be touring behind "Watch the Sky" through May and beyond.
"It's like beyond the beyond at this point. I'm in survivor mode. I've hung in there."
