Patrick Walsh

Most lucky small towns have that certain someone: ubiquitous on local stages in many incarnations, maybe a poet and/or playwright as well, somebody who makes things happen. In Peterborough, Patrick Walsh is that someone. Whether frightening daytime audiences at the Peterborough Folk Festival with his spooky gutter folk, or rolling around the floor of a rock’n’roll club wearing a suit and wailing away on harmonica that same night, Walsh has got it goin’ on. When it works, his primitive, Southern uncomfortable take on blues forms is harrowing, especially on “Horseshit” and “Of This Evening.” When it doesn’t work, his gravely barroom voice sounds too affected.