Patty Larkin celebrates 25 years of music -- with the help of 25 of her closest friends

2010 marks renowned guitarist and vocalist Patty Larkin's 25th year recording music. To celebrate, Larkin rounded up 25 of her musician friends and produced "25", an album of -- you guessed it -- 25 tracks, each of them a love song. Every track features a different guest, including Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash, Erin McKeown, Janis Ian, and Catie Curtis, to name just a few.

Boston's prodigal sweetheart, the Wisconsin-born Larkin got her start busking -- playing on the streets for money -- in Cambridge, and ended up with an Honorary Doctorate of Music degree from Berklee College of Music and her very own "Patty Larkin Appreciation Day", designated for her in the '90s by Mayor Thomas Menino.

In her newest release, the stripped, simple guitar Larkin is known for is highlighted differently in every song by the addition of her guests. Like a well-planned 25-course meal, "25" offers a distinctive hint, taste, or intonation in every song. Luckily, the record is no more overwhelming than breakfast and also, coincidentally, the perfect way to start your day.

This spring and summer will see Larkin touring New England with various artists who appear on the album, including the Nields, Dar Williams, and Birdsong at Morning. Bay Windows got the chance to chat with Larkin in the midst of her tour about her beginnings at a Massachusetts toy factory, and why she just can't pick a favorite song.

Bay Windows: I love your new album.
Patty Larkin: Excellent, thank you.

BW: Can you tell me a little bit about what it means to you?
PL: Everything, I suppose! I wanted to do something to acknowledge the fact that I've been doing this for 25 years. I've been wanting to do an unplugged version of some of my music for a long time because I really don't have an unplugged album, other than a couple live CDs. We fell upon the idea of doing a love project. It really started organically; it was, "Let's ask a couple people on," and as it grew, we kept asking more folks and they kept saying, "yes," so it became its own thing. It gained momentum and was done relatively quickly, I mean, within three months. It was pretty astounding who showed up and that they showed up to begin with. For me, it's a reconnect with all these people I've worked with through the years, and we're doing shows together with many of the artists. It's also just a way to kind of thank people for listening all these years. It's a kind of retrospective as well, so it serves many purposes for me.

BW: Which collaboration is your favorite?
PL: Oh, I can't say, I can't say! [laughs] Every [track] is different, and every one has meaning in and of itself. The fact that [folk guitarist] Greg Brown drove through a snowstorm to record without me there -- he'd never done something like that before in his life -- just to work with Greg, even though it was from a distance, has been a dream of mine for years. I'm a fan of everyone on the record. The other bottom line is I wish that I could've had more friends on, because I could barely contain it once we started asking people on.

BW: What moments stand out from your 25-year career as a musician?
PL: Wow! [laughs] Everybody always asks me about "Patty Larkin Day" in Boston. Wherever I go, even in Australia, they're like, "So, you have your own day? You have your own 'Patty Larkin Day,' do you, mate?" It was just one day. And it went to my head towards the end of the day. It was really meaningful because it was a record released in 1995 and when ["Patty Larkin Appreciation Day"] came up, I said, "no, that sounds silly," but really, what it was, was a thank you from the mayor of Boston for what I had done in terms of raising funds for non-profits. Part of the proceeds from my album release went to AIDS Action Committee. So they showed up and that made sense to me, to connect it with community, and then I got to sing the national anthem at Fenway Park, so the whole day stands out as unique in my career.

BW: Do you still celebrate "Patty Larkin Appreciation Day"?
PL: No, we don't. [laughs] It's not an annual holiday in our house.

BW: Did you bring any international influences from "La Guitara" to this album? [Larkin produced the 2005 compilation of international female guitar players to challenge the preconception that there are no good women guitarists.]
PL: The thing that ["La Guitara"] taught me was how to play music again, in a way, how to reconnect with the guitar. I think that what ["25"] is for me, though, is more of a vocal album. It's really song-oriented, less stressful recording in terms of, I have all these songs that are really guitar-driven and full of angst and wordplay. On ["25"], there are a few guitar-driven songs, but it's a very listenable album of love songs. I'm now finished with that project; I'm promoting this project, running around the world playing songs from the album and looking to the next thing. The next thing will be going to Italy and playing with [Italian guitarist] Beppe Gambetta, who sings and plays on "St. Augustine" on the record. He's just a phenomenal guitarist, just over-the-top great. We're doing a guitar-oriented show in Italy for six nights, I think, with some other players, so I'm practicing for that.

BW: Tell me a little bit more about your connection with Boston.
PL: I've lived there thirty years. I grew up in the Midwest, and I moved [to Boston] when my sister was having her first child. I had been living in Oregon, I went to school in Oregon, and I thought, "Well, I'll just go [to Boston] for three or four months." And then, "Oh, I'll just study some at Berklee College of Music." And then, I think, once you start making those contacts with people and you fall in love or whatever, you end up putting down roots, so I have been based in Boston for my entire career. What it's meant for me is just this really wonderful support network in terms of the media, in terms of radio and print, and in terms of people who come to my shows. I don't think you get discovered necessarily in folk music unless you're Tracy Chapman, but how my first record company came to know about me was because I was playing at Passim [Folk Music and Cultural Center] in Cambridge. [Boston is] where my family is, and it's where my friends are.

BW: I read that you used to busk in Cambridge.
PL: I did. When I first moved to Boston, I worked in a toy factory for a few months. I just thought it sounded so romantic...until it turned out all the toys were breaking. One of the guys that got me this little job -- there were only three of us on line -- he played Celtic flute. He played Irish wooden flute. So we would have these big jam sessions every Tuesday night in Cambridge and when the spring came, we all moved out to the street. The four of us kept going with a little band and we'd play Friday nights and Saturday nights in Harvard Square and make rent money. It was actually a pretty decent job. It was my first real professional job in the music industry, playing on the street.

BW: Do you ever busk anymore, just for the hell of it?
PL: No. [laughs] In a word, no. But there's something to be said for it. There's a real honesty about it because people don't have to stop. They stop if they want to. There you have it. What do we let in? There's a whole other layer to talk about. I have watched about twelve-and-a-half minutes of "American Idol", and I think it's amazing that these people come in and they're taking such chances, and then they achieve such instant fame if they do well. The thing is, our culture has really separated ourselves from the making of music. It is the idol, it is the Elvis Presley, it is the rock star that's allowed to get up on stage and make music rather than the community or the family or the street musician. I would like to help turn that around. That'll be my next project.

BW: What would that project look like?
PL: Well, I can't tell you right now, because it's a big secret. I want to start really small. I'm going to start with my own family. My partner and I adopted two little girls in the past seven, eight years, and I need to get my own self out of the recording studio, practice space and up in the living room and play with them. We do it occasionally, but we don't do it enough, so we're starting our own little repertoire. Then I'm going to initiate something that will communicate with other families, other folks, that want to get a songbook together.

BW: Is your partner a musician, too?
PL: No, she's not, she was a dancer and she has worked in the non-profit segment of society for her adult life. She's my manager. My partner is my manager.

BW: Does that make it hard to balance your personal life and professional life?
PL: It's a challenge. It takes a lot of communication and we have a message, and the message is, if you're walking or talking, you say, "Change the subject." [laughs] Or, "Can I talk business?" And if you're not in that mood, you say "no." I think it's harder when you have a couple kids, because it's just this constant flow of information and dialogue that has to be processed. I think it's a challenge. It's only because of her involvement with the kids that I'm able to do what I do. I'm very grateful for that. The people that I know who have families who are doing this kind of work, their partners are really pulling 150 percent of the weight when they're not there and that's kind of what it takes.

BW: It sounds like you have a pretty good balance.
PL: We do. We try. We really do. It's harder the older the kids get, which is really interesting. It's a little bit easier to be with them and do stuff, but going away is more difficult because they really get it. We all miss each other. That's the only hard part of this kind of life. But we're all going to go to Italy, so they're looking forward to that. We're going to get home and start speaking Italian. ...It's really going to be fun, I think.

BW: Good luck! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me.
PL: Say hi to Boston!

Patty Larkin's CD release show will be held at the Regent Theatre (7 Medford St., Arlington) on Saturday, April 24 at 8 p.m. with special guest Birdsong at Morning. Tickets are $22 in advance and $25 at the door. Visit www.regenttheatre.com for more information. For touring and ticket details, please visit www.pattylarkin.com. "25" is available now and can be purchased through iTunes, Amazon.com, or your local music store.