1 The Road
2 The Book I'm Not Reading
3 Coming Up For Air
4 Angels Wings
5 You And Me
6 Pablo Neruda
7 Wolf At The Door
8 Brazil
9 Rear View Mirror
10 Heart
11 Red Accordian

From Amazon.com

The best of the best

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Patty Larkin is a superb songwriter, musician and performer. She hasn't created a bad album, ever, but this is her best (and I've been listening to her music since 1979). caveat: I haven't heard her newest - the 2008 release - at this writing. Larkin defly handles complicated emotional and interpersonal issues, has a wicked sense of humor and a finely tuned musicality. Her take on personal psychology is often quirky and always insightful. (If she does a show within a day's drive, don't miss it.) I'm a deejay and play her music frequently on the air, in my car and in my home. This is singer/songwriter, folk-rock at its best. And what a voice!

a new fan

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I recently saw Patty at a local house concert. This was my first time hearing her music... To see Patty play the quitar the way she plays left me speechless... She is absolutly amazing and so very talented.... I knew I had to purchase more of her cds... This cd is a must have... Patty is truly an amazing artist. I still need to purchase the rest of her collection.... Please purchase this cd and hear the talent of this wonderful woman :-)

Keeps gettin' better

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I have been listening to this album a lot lately, so I thought I'd check out Amazon to see what other folks were saying. I then discovered that I had at some point given this disc a 3/5. I now wonder what in doG's name I was thinking?! This is a fantastic album. Not only does the album get better as I listen to it more, it really builds up listening to it sequentially. The songs are all at least good (even if Book I'm Not Reading does get old after a while) but Heart and Red Accordian are awesome and really gets me going after getting all depressed with Rear View Mirror.

Needs more than 5 stars... * * * * * * * *

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Sitting here working, in lower upstate eating Jumbo shrimp and other oxymorons. At a low energy point I started this CD and transported back to a live concert, we caught Patty at a local college.
It was totally phaser-on-overload at first note (I play some guitar, and fell not only in love with her flawless technique and humorous-serious-silly stage presence and Breattttthhhhy voice, but also her unusual garb (more on that never).
I here testify, if you love guitar work with a thoughful mind, and lyrics that cut to the yeasty center of our existential gumbo, hold the MSG, then BUY THIS! BUY THIS! BUY BUY THIS THIS!

Patty, thanks for the autograph and who the hell is the guy expression when I asked about life.
---- Middle aged system programmer in De Nile. ----

Pay attention to the moon rising behind you...

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: If you're interested in what I think of Patty Larkin as a musician in general, go check out my review on her "Angels Running" page from September '99.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Back? Good. Here's the thing about "Perishable Fruit." It was an experiment -- all the percussion is done with stringed instruments, so think guitar slapping and you're halfway there. Except that this is Patty Larkin, and she manages to evoke bongos, marimbas, different and varying multiethnic-influenced sounds with her array of stringed instruments, and it all works.

This is a pulsating, catchy, fascinating album, but even beyond that, it has some of Larkin's most intelligent and moving lyrics.

This new percussion sound reaches its height with "Pablo Neruda," a spare, slappy, plunky coconut-rattling island-influenced narrative. It's also effective on "Wolf at the Door" -- a response to the spoiled cult of chick singers (I read somewhere it was addressed to Joan Jett, but that's unsubstantiated...so far) who "hang their sweaty little black leather dresses on her guitar." "Wolf" is a rocker in grand Larkin tradition, with a bit more harshness than some of her previous rock-influenced efforts, and a bit more depth.

But these spare, unencumbered sounds also support some truly moving lyrics and stories. "Rear View Mirror" is one of the saddest songs ever written; in six and a half minutes it tells the story of being alone with your soul in a soullless world where everyone's got their own agendas. She opens with: "I saw you / I saw you as you drove away. You checked yourself / you checked yourself in the rear view mirror / and I thought / I thought that you were looking at me..."

The story in "Brazil" is equally enthralling, reminiscent of relationship stories in Patty's earlier work. "The Road" is a musician's confessional; "Heart" is a smart woman's.

Amazon's review is right on: this is like a fish in the sun, but it's also like coconut drinks on the beach, a bronzed native playing the bongos...this is Patty Larkin in Boston in the winter reminding you about coconut drinks and fish and a red accordian, playing like a native on the bongos with nothing but her guitar.

I've got every Patty Larkin album and I love 'em all. PERISHABLE FRUIT stands out because of this, from "Red Accordian":

"Pay attention to the moon rising behind you. / Look at life like a tragedy and it'll blind you. / I'll make a fool of myself, maybe that will remind you how."