About this user
Marin Independent Journal
Armed with an acoustic guitar and a gorgeous vintage microphone named Ramona, Larkin Gayl is set to take on the world, one seductive, emotionally stirring song at a time.
After winning the "Marin Idol" competition in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she thankfully avoided the Simon Cowell-style histrionics of the popular television series, Larkin experience her own relative version of overnight success.
Her appearance caught the attention of About Records, a Northern California independent label with veteran executives, experienced in the major label music business. She was soon signed to a recording contract and granted the freedom to further explore what had previously been just a personal form of expression.
Though she was raised singing along side her folk musician father and spent her childhood committing to memory every vocal harmony that The Manhattan Transfer ever recorded, Larkin never had specific designs on a music career. Instead, she worked as a hospice caregiver and mentor to challenged youth. "I learned a lot about the human experience by the time I turned 21," she marvels.
It's evident that these truly special and individualized experiences mean more to her than any popular success could, but she seems to also realize her immense potential to write and sing songs that provoke deep feelings or otherwise therapeutic moments to listeners on the other side of the microphone that she may never get to meet.
Although Larkin has been likened to singers as diverse as Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke and Norah Jones, it might be difficult to pin down a specific description of her lush sound, which marries and jazz and folk in a free-spirited fling. But what's evident is the timeless quality of Larkin Gayl's voice, possessed of an instant familiarity and comfort, and the clever twists and turns of her lyrics, which soothe at the top, and often deeply provoke several layers down. She sings and performs with a raw honesty and a gritty sensuality that needs no packaging and offers no pretense.
Larkin is currently putting the finishing touches on her full length debut album which features seasoned session musicians who have played alongside such soul-stirrers as Tom Waits, Norah Jones and Tori Amos. The album is set for release on About Records in early 2008. However, her debut EP, which includes all of the original songs on this page, is now on sale in limited quantities at www.larkingayl.com
