Music

How deceiving first impressions can be. Standing alone onstage in a crowded concert hall, Patty Larkin at first glance looks almost fragile, a wisp of red hair and long, sinewy fingers.

But the second the show begins, you can feel eyes begin to widen. She's a guitar virtuoso whose playing is nothing short of ferocious. Her picking carries a kind of swagger that complements perfectly a voice that can do anything she wants it to do. It is, like the lyrics of one of her songs, "kind of like champagne, kind of like Coltrane, with the volume turned up to 10, kind of like a tango."

At 57, she's a master at beguiling and wowing an audience, as she did Friday night at Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse. Her most enduring example of humor, versatility and electrifying guitar play came sweetly packaged in one of her oldest and best songs, "At the Mall."

It drew a rousing ovation, and why not? She plays a mean guitar while working in perfect imitations of Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda and Ethel Merman. As she once told an interviewer, "As a songwriter, one would hope that your most requested song is something moving and powerful and almost spiritual – but no. My most requested song is about shopping."

And we are all the better for it. The mother of two adopted children, Ms. Larkin shares a home on Cape Cod with her life partner. Having left coastal Massachusetts in late June to come here, of all places, she reveled in carping about the heat.

She hurled a few shots at Dallas drivers as well and then brought her own serious heat. Her guitar playing evokes the phrase "lightning in a bottle," so much so that you think she really means it when she sings: "If wings were made for people, we would fly away together/We would fly away, down the boulevard."

ARCHIVES: Search for more stories on this and other topics | Search Tips

SUBSCRIBE: Get The Dallas Morning News delivered to your home