The music of Larkin Poe is both deep-rooted and future-facing, with one golden rule: “Every song has to have a riff!”
Blues has always been a part of Larkin Poe’s roots rock ’n’ roll approach, but for new release Blood Harmony the blues element is unmissable. And it hasn’t happened by accident. It’s the result of careful planning by the two sisters and multiinstrumentalists who lead the band, Rebecca and Megan Lovell -Rebecca the guitarist and lead singer, Megan the harmony vocalist and lap‐steel specialist.
“In making this album, I think the blues organically found its way into the writing process,” Rebecca says. “In the last six years, Megan and I have actively deepened our understanding of the blues. We’ve really tried to go back and with a student’s energy study the artists that have come before and figure out how to authentically incorporate blues stylings into what we do. That’s been by learning tunes by Skip James and Muddy and B.B., really trying to walk the walk. I’m really proud of this album. I think it coalesces a lot of our loves into a single thing.”
As the sisters told TG last year, Larkin Poe found their sound by arranging cover versions in their own style, and early blues was central from the beginning. Their breakthrough came with a version of a Son House classic from 1930. “Preaching Blues was one of the one of the first blues covers we ever learned and it also was the first video that ever went viral for us, so it did feel like there was a connection there,” Megan recalls. “It was a very authentic thing that we just kind of stumbled into. Since then we’ve really delved deeper in picking up blues songs and kind of bringing them into this century, having a deep respect for those who have come before and created the foundation of all of rock ’n’ roll. We have a great respect for the music but don’t shy away from changing it to fit us, because it should be a living art form.”
That synthesis of early blues and the Lovells’ own personality brings us to the new album’s first single, Bad Spell. Driven by an irresistible grind that made it TG363’s Riff of the Month, it’s an unabashed homage to a vintage blues standard. Ad Rebecca admits: “They’re completely different songs in terms of the feel and the vocal performance, but Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put A Spell On You was the direct inspiration. Even just having ‘spell’ in the title, I was like, ‘We’re gonna skate pretty close to the edge here,’ but I really I did write Bad Spell as a response to that type of song, where it’s a bit swaggy, it obliquely threatens violence, and has this kinetic energy. So I piggybacked on that, and I think that is our way in which we engage with keeping the blues alive. I’m gonna learn the form and then I’m gonna free myself to colour outside the lines a
