Patty Larkin is scheduled to perform on March 23rd at the Old Centrum Auditorium. (Submitted photo)

Patty Larkin is doing her part in getting wider recognition for women guitarists. Since the mid-'80s, she's recorded her guitar-based compositions, which have garnered critical acclaim and a strong fan base. About nine years ago, she formed La Guitara, a showcase for women guitarists from around the world performing different musical genres.

La Guitara features the works of 14 artists, including Larkin, Wu Man, Sharon Isbin, Mimi Fox, Kaki King, Ellen McIIwaine, Badi Assad, Memphis Minnie, Elizabeth Cotton and Muriel Anderson, either on tour or on a compilation CD released in 2005, according to Larkin's Web site.

"The goal of this project is to better define the contribution of women to the history of modern guitar," said Larkin, who plays Sunday at the Old Centrum Auditorium in Indianapolis. "I have been asked repeatedly, 'Why are there no great female guitar players?' The answer is, there are.

"It is my belief that women guitarists of the past played a part in the evolution of the instrument and that their story is largely untold. I also believe there are women guitarists today who are actively changing our preconceptions about gender and guitar heroes. This project is dedicated to these artists, past and present, waiting to be discovered, needing to be heard," she said.

Larkin, 56, was born in Iowa and grew up in Milwaukee, Wis., playing piano and guitar in her teens, according to her biography.

"My grandmothers both played piano, and when we would get together we would sing," she said of her musical family. "I remember being small and standing underneath the keyboard while someone was playing barrelhouse blues, and I felt like I had just seen God. It was a great sound to me."

She attended the University or Oregon, where she earned a degree in English literature. She then went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, the city where she now makes her home.

Larkin's debut album, "Step Into the Light," was released in 1985. Her current studio recording, "Watch the Sky," arrived in stores in January.

Larkin's songs can be heard in the movies "Evolution," "Random Hearts" and "Sliding Doors."

Sunday's show at the Old Centrum Auditorium will be the final show in promoter Mark Butterfield's "Acoustic Cafe" concert series at the venue, which will close at the end of the month because of financial problems at the building that opened in 1892 as Central Avenue United Methodist Church.

- The Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal