Patty Larkin is seeing 'Red' - in her music and her future

In western culture, the color red symbolizes danger: Hazard lights blink red, stop signs are painted red, anger and frustration are illustrated in red.

The title of Patty Larkin's new album - "Red = Luck" - seems at odds with that linguistic methodology. But during a trip to China last year, Larkin saw how red symbolized good fortune. Inspired, she began to rethink her feelings on more than just the color.

"It was the first time I had immersed myself in another culture," says Larkin, who will play Sunday at Rosebud in the Strip District. "I didn't think of myself as a real provincial person, but I am.

"I'm used to the Western mindset, and there were cultural mores and mannerisms that I had to be attentive to in order not to offend anyone. That kind of change from one culture to another was really striking to me."

In Larkin's previous release, "Regrooving the Dream," she took her folk-based music and recast her songs with electronic and techno sounds. But when she started to write and record the material that would become "Red = Luck" (untitled until after her trip to China), Larkin felt her inspiration was coming to her from a different muse.

"Usually, the songs are more guitar-driven," she says. "This time, I really wanted to write some melodies, and that was what kept coming. Your music is a product of what you are listening to and what's around you, but also a product of your processes, your career and writing style."

At the time, Larkin was listening to a double cassette of Neil Young's "Harvest" and "After the Gold Rush." She was struck by the albums' collective simplicity in terms of production and melody, and the way Young's plaintive vocals seemed to project a sense of innocence.

A month into writing brought Larkin to Sept. 11, 2001. But although some subsequent songs were directly influenced by the events of that tragic day (notably, "Home" and "Normal"), she found some common themes in the tone of her material she had previously written.

"It was kind of interesting to see that some of the music even before that happened seems to be from post-Sept. 11," she says. "It seems to be about a loss of innocence and a sort of looking back at a simpler time."

Not all of "Red = Luck" evokes the same contemplative tone. Two songs in particular, "Different World" and "Inside Your Painting," are soaring pop songs with great hooks that seem like outtakes from another record.

But Larkin says that if you listen closely, you'll find that she has not strayed too far afield.

"It's not that I have a fear of pop," she says, laughing. "But I don't want them to be so sweet they become irrelevant. And I wanted them to have a connection with the rest of the record and what I've done before."

"Inside Your Painting" particularly fulfills Larkin's desire to keep things linear. A playful, whimsical song that draws the comparison between colors and moods, it probably would be one of the best and most popular songs if a radio station dared to play a song by an artist who never has had a hit single.

But Larkin realizes that isn't going to happen soon.

"I think the radio thing in this country right now is a mess," she says. "You live in Pittsburgh• That WYEP (Pittsburgh's independent FM station) thing is only happening in maybe a half dozen places, where there are great radio stations with creative programming. … Considering how much fear there is out there and how much of a monopoly there is about what is accessible to listeners, it's amazing that any records get made at all."