Friday September 17th
Patty Larkin
with special guests
Jen Chapin
$25 General Admission
$40 Reserved Seating
Doors @ 7:30 PM
Show @ 8 PM
Hailed for her acoustic guitar wizardry and blazing wit, veteran folk-pop artist Patty Larkin has evolved into a widely respected musical troubadour. Guitar World refers to Larkin’s sound as "genre-stretching, string popping alterna-folk." She’s also described as "drop-dead brilliant" (Performing Songwriter); "comparable to the best of Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams" (New York Times); and "one of the finest architects of song in folk-pop" (Boston Globe). And the Chicago Tribune noted, "Larkin is one of the most gifted performers in music today." Armed with her two acoustic Olsen Guitars, she makes year-round, tour stops nationwide.
Larkin’s 10th release is Red=Luck, a remarkable 14-song collection showcasing a world where ancient strains of modal folk meet brooding ambient noise, Middle Eastern scales and R&B; where joyous pop, personal reflection and playful eroticism entwine. Larkin wrote most of its material in dual 30-day marathons before and after September 11, 2001. Luck “is a meditation on hope,” says Larkin. Her songs take on new meanings with each day, each tour stop.
Jen Chapin
Jen Chapin is a New York based singer songwriter on the rise. She has been dubbed "a first rate storyteller" by Jazz Times magazine, and she earns that praise many times over with her debut album, Linger. On this captivating full band effort, Chapin reaches out to her listeners with an honesty and directness seldom heard in even the best pop songwriting. She is emotionally intense but never overwrought; socially conscious but never preachy. Her melodies are pure, her rhythms taut, her harmonic palette uncommonly rich. She unravels the complex world around her with witty, disarming and ceaselessly original lyrics, revealing a hungry and seasoned talent.
Jen Chapin was born to an extended family of artists and academics, and raised along with her four siblings in Long Island, New York. She entered Brown University, studied abroad in Mexico and Zimbabwe and earned a degree in International Relations. But then, as Jen recounts, "I had the belated realization that I would go crazy if I weren't seriously involved with music somehow. So I turned down a spot in a graduate teaching program to become a freshman again at Berklee College of Music. I thought I would end up singing in a bar band as a sideline to teaching high school or working for a non-profit organization, but I just kept getting sucked in deeper to the music..."
Since relocating to New York in 1995, Jen has delved headlong into the city's vibrant and varied music scene, performing at venues such as Joe's Pub, The Bottom Line, Town Hall, Fez Under Time Cafe, Mercury Lounge, and the nerve center of the new singer songwriter scene, The Living Room. She has been a supporting act for Aimee Mann and Bruce Hornsby, and her songs have been featured in the feature film "Fresh Cut Grass," which recently won honors at the Hamptons and Texas Film Festivals and is now being broadcast on Showtime Networks. Along with Norah Jones, Jen sings on the debut album by guitarist Joel Harrison's Free Country, a band that performs traditional country and Appalachian tunes in a creative jazz setting.
All the while, Jen has worked hard to interweave her musical and political passions. She chairs the Board of Directors of WHY (World Hunger Year), an activist organization co-founded by her father, the late singer songwriter Harry Chapin. She is especially committed to WHY's "Artists Against Hunger and Poverty" program. Drawing on her experiences as a middle and high school teacher, Jen has also developed a number of workshops/lectures, including "Music and Social Action," "the Hows and WHYs of Hunger", and "Black Music in America." She has presented these workshops to high school and college students and other audiences.
Linger, Jen's urban folk manifesto, is an eloquent summation of these efforts. We hear her tangle with romantic struggle ("I Could Fall") and sexual passion ("Me Be Me"); political frustration ("Passive People") and career related heartbreak ("Regular Life"); the ever-present rays of hope ("Till I Get There", "Gold") amid the hectic, self-absorbed rat race ("Little Hours", "City", "Numbers"). "Jen has such integrity, such a strong identity, and such a strong idea of what she wants to convey," marvels co-producer Rod Sherwood. In "Gold", Jen puts it another way: "[I] want to stir up some trouble everywhere I go." With Linger as her calling card, she's poised to do just that.
