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Arts & Entertainment

Teddy Larkin and Rick Dillon to Perform at Zullo Gallery Saturday

Larkin returns to town, looking forward to "seeing old friends" and playing folk music.

Teddy Larkin is looking forward to coming home.

He and fellow artist Rick Dillon will appear at the  on Saturday, March 5 for “A Rocking Folk Reunion for the Good Folks of Medfield.”

Tickets are $8 and will be available at the door.

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“I’m looking forward to playing with Rick and seeing old friends,” said Larkin, a Medfield High School Class of 1982 graduate, whose family started Larkin’s Package Store shortly after Prohibition ended in the 1930s. “It will be laid back and intimate, and a good time.”

“I like the Zullo Gallery because it was a barber shop, owned by Alfred Zullo, and that was my barber when I was growing up; and you have the across the street, and my family’s liquor store, and everybody in my family worked at ,” said Larkin.

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Larkin said Medfield had a lot to do with his start in the music business.  He is the youngest of five children “so I grew up listening to the Beatles and Dylan, with all those albums.”  He also took piano lessons from Mrs. McFadden for many years before turning to the drums and guitar. 

“We’d get together and have parties and bring our guitars,” said Larkin of his youth in Medfield where he said most teens gravitated toward sports of music. 

He then headed off to the Berklee College of Music in the early 1980s where he met Rick Dillon from Woodstock, N.Y. 

At college, the two soon realized they shared a love for country, folk, rock, New Orleans jazz, and “anything Americana with a good beat and harmony,” said Larkin.  

They played together for many years – starting in a band called “The Smoking Section,” a rocking roadhouse band featuring the drums and vocals by Larkin, guitar and vocals of Dillon, and a young singer Susan Tedeschi, who went on to be Grammy-nominated blues artist – often playing in the old Francis Café on Frairy Street, now restaurant – but then went their separate ways.

Throughout his career, Larkin has performed on the Boston Blues scene with Rick Russell, Racky Thomas Band, Hot Tamale Brass Band, Second Hand Smoke, Scary Wagon and a few special sets with Bo Diddley, Elvin Bishop, and John Lee Hooker, to name a few.

In 1996, Larkin was chosen as Drummer of the Year by The Boston Blues Society, and was given a special Recognition Award for Excellence in the Arts by Mayor Tom Menino in Boston.

In 2000, Larkin moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he worked with some of the world’s best songwriters, including Big Al Anderson, performed regularly in The Nashville Music community, and sang in a PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) documentary about songwriting in The Music City.

Larkin said he was “pretty successful” as a drummer but that his real passion was writing.  

Dillon joined the Beau Roland Band, a popular alternative country band, in Boston and worked as a highly-sought-after studio guitarist.  He played with them for many years but left when his family moved to Norfolk.  

Larkin said Dillon plays “probably the closest thing to Nashville music in this area.”

Larkin returned to New England after his son was born and now lives in Rhode Island.   

Larkin and Dillon were reunited at Larkin’s cousin’s house last summer.

“I know it sounds cliché but it was like we hadn’t stopped playing together but we had matured,” said Larkin.  “And we’ve been spending every Saturday or Sunday since August practicing.”

Larkin said Saturday’s music will be “more on the folk side, based around Americana, focusing on acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin and storytelling.” 

 To hear Larkin's music, visit his MySpace page. Larkin’s last CD “4th And Broad” was recorded in Nashville and features Byron House on bass – he now plays with Robert Plant, Fred Eltringham from Jacob Dylan's band, The Wallflowers, and Dixie Chicks. The CD was produced by Michael Webb who is in John Fogerty's touring band.


For more information about Saturday’s concert, visit Zullo Gallery's website or call (508) 359-3711. 

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