Patty Larkin marks every year of her career with album '25'

When one is inclined to celebrate a birthday, a party is usually in order. And the next step is to invite a few friends to share in the occasion.

Patty Larkin adjusted that ritual modestly as her career approached its 25th anniversary.

The Iowa-born, New England-based songstress decided to honor the milestone by revisiting a selection of songs pulled from the approximately one dozen albums she has cut during the past quarter- century. But some reinvention was required. Larkin's past recordings have generously experimented with electric guitar-centric arrangements and densely textured, almost orchestral settings. For the anniversary set, she wanted to transfer the tunes to their acoustic, folkish elements.

Seeing as the project was something of a birthday/ anniversary party, there had to be guests. Lots of them. In total, 25 pals were recruited to play 25 songs representing 25 years of Larkin's song writing career. The title of the resulting album? What else? 25.

"Heading to the 25-year mark a couple of years ago, I started thinking about doing a special project," Larkin said. "I wanted to do something where I would reprise some of my songs through the years by doing acoustic versions of them. But I decided to focus on love songs, because that was kind of a thematic way of saying thank you to the people who have listened to me all these years.

"So 25 began as an acoustic project where I would invite maybe a couple of friends. Those people said yes, so I thought, 'It would really be interesting to have 25 people on it.' So I called some more friends and some of my favorite artists. It was like a chain letter."

Here are just a few of the guests who showed up for the acoustic anniversary party that makes up Larkin's 25 album: Bruce Cockburn; John Gorka; Shawn Colvin; Suzanne Vega; Mary Chapin Carpenter; Rosanne Cash; Merrie Amsterburg, who will perform with Larkin on Wednesday at Natasha's; Dar Williams, and Lucy Kaplansky.

"The amount of work everyone put into this project is not lost on me," Larkin said. "I'm so grateful to have had these artists join me on this. To have thought a few months out, 'OK, I'm going to get 25 artists and friends to help out this album,' would have been pretty daunting. Instead, I kind of pretended I wasn't doing what I was actually doing.

"Still, I had a lot of work to do myself. I still had to get up in the morning and put something down in the studio for, say, Suzanne Vega, to sing on."

A rundown of the guest list also offers insight into the inspirations that have guided Larkin's career. The collaboration with veteran Canadian songwriter Cockburn on Open Arms revisits a song the two cut in 1995 for Larkin's album Strangers World. On 25, the song is reborn as a concise, harmony-rich meditation.

"The amazing thing about Bruce is when he sings, you know exactly who it is. He has his own character and personality. This song in particular sounds really sweet. Bruce sang it a little differently than on the original version, so it was very interesting to see where he went this time."

Also of note is Déjà Vu, which is revisited with Gorka, one of Larkin's greatest folk friends. The Ohio songwriter played alongside Larkin at her first Lexington concert appearance — a mid-'90s ensemble show that included Cheryl Wheeler, another of the 25 guests, and Cliff Eberhardt.

"There is a real depth of friendship and love between John and myself," Larkin said. "It doesn't get much better than that. Not that it matters, but John and Bruce were among the first people I asked to be part of this project."

Having so many friends and inspirations involved with the 25 sessions proved to be an unexpected comfort. Shortly before sessions for the album began in September 2009, Larkin's mother died.

"I went home after her passing (Larkin lives in Cape Cod). Two weeks later, I started recording. Coming off of that experience kind of emboldened me in a way that I never had been before. I'm fairly shy most of the time and so I don't like asking people for a favor. But it was like my mom was there with me saying, 'Go ahead and ask them. What are they doing to do? Say no? Just ask them.'

"So the record holds a very special place in my heart because of everyone that joined me. Every moment that went into making it was a little gem. And every person that came in to sing with me was more important to me than they will probably ever know."

This story was originally published April 10, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Patty Larkin marks every year of her career with album '25'."