| Larkin Poe — Peach (Sep 29, 2017) |
Larkin Poe — Peach (Sept. 29, 2017) 
|||→ Larkin Poe, two young sisters from Atlanta, are making a big mark in the music world with some old~style southern blues. Larkin Poe is a young band, but these two girls have already had some big music experience. At the 2017 MusiCares “Person of the Year” event honoring Tom Petty, the girls were asked by T Bone Burnett to be part of the backing band, where they had the chance to perform with the likes of Jackson Browne, Gary Clarke Jr., Don Henley and others.
|||→ Rebecca and Megan Lovell, AKA Larkin Poe, have released a fun new album called Peach. It’s comprised of five original blues rock songs written by sisters Megan and Rebecca, and these songs reflect their full experiences growing up in the south in the new millennium.
Location: Calhoun, Georgia ~ Atlanta, GA
Genre: Acoustic Rock, Southern Roots, Blues, Americana, Rock
Album release: September 29, 2017
Record Label: Tricki~Woo Records
Duration: 32:01
Tracks:
01. Come on in My Kitchen 2:11
02. Freedom 3:23
03. Black Betty 2:44
04. Look Away 3:24
05. Preachin’ Blues 3:22
06. Cast ‘Em Out 2:44
07. Pink & Red 3:17
08. John the Revelator 3:20
09. Wanted Woman / AC/DC 4:51
10. Tom Devil 2:45
℗ 2017 Tricki~Woo Records
Personnel:
•» Rebecca (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano)
•» Megan (harmony vocals, lap steel guitar, dobro) Interview
James Wood, Posted 10/09/2017
|||→ What originally began as an album of all~original material from Larkin Poe (which consists of sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell) quickly took a turn when they began recording and posting traditional blues covers on various social media outlets.
|||→ The result was millions of views and an overwhelming demand for an album of traditional American roots music. This prompted Larkin Poe to return to the studio for Peach, a compilation of blues covers and original material that harkens towards their Southern musical heritage.
|||→ Tasty covers of songs like “Preachin’ Blues” (Son House) and “Black Betty” demonstrate reverence for the original versions but are fused with the ladies’ own unique style. The songs stand up equally against originals such as “Freedom”, “Wanted Woman” and “Pink & Red.”
|||→ The Lovell sisters are no strangers to musical attention having performed as part of the house band for the MusiCares 2017 “Person of The Year” event honoring Tom Petty and opening for the likes of Elvis Costello and Bob Seger. In short, they’re a force to be reckoned with.
|||→ I recently spoke with the duo about Peach, their songwriting process and their current setup.
|||→ Where did you draw inspiration for Peach?
Megan Lovell: We wanted to pay homage to music of the South and the Delta and make it into a very American roots rock record. It’s a culmination of all the Southern influences we’ve received over our lifetime.
|||→ Was there a certain theme you were going for when choosing covers for this album?
Megan Lovell: We’ve been making videos of covers for social media as a way to keep pushing ourselves and people have really responded to it. When the time came to make this record, there was a great demand for them, so we decided to choose our favorites from the videos. That’s what you get on the album.
Rebecca Lovell: We cover Sam House on the record [“Preachin’ Blues]. If you read the lyrics to the song written almost a century ago, they’re fantastic. It’s music that plays to a timeless human emotion. A raw questioning of soul and spirit.
|||→ What was the original songwriting process like?
Rebecca Lovell: For this record, it started predominantly with the music. It was about the two of us sitting down a room with our guitars and amps. Just ripping off each other and trying to get to the soul of the issue. Some of the lyrics were a little slow to get aboard the train but they all showed up eventually.
|||→ What can you tell me about the track “Wanted Woman”?
Megan Lovell: “Wanted Woman” was a song that I wrote one afternoon. I was amazed by the concept of this naughty little person who was really full of themselves and thought the play on words and double entendre was clever.
|||→ “Pink & Red”?
Rebecca Lovell: That’s one of my favorites. The vocals were actually recorded using a USB microphone while I was in my bed underneath the covers [laughs]. I couldn’t sleep because the song was banging around in my head, so I sat there and held my laptop to my face and sang a rough draft of the lyrics. It was very stream of consciousness. I remember waking up the next day and listening to it and then brought it to Megan. Those wound up being the vocals we used on the record.
|||→ What’s your current setup like these days?
Rebecca Lovell: My standby guitar is a Fender Jazzmaster. Ever since I saw Elvis Costello pick one up when we were out on tour with him a few years ago it’s stolen my heart. I also have sixties Princeton Blackface that I love. I don’t take it out on the road much because it’s so fragile but it’s my ideal combination.
Megan Lovell: My old standby is my 1940’s Rickenbacker lap steel. I’m also usually touring with a Fender Twin or a Vibrolux.
|||→ You performed as part of the house band for this year’s MusicCares event honoring Tom Petty. How did that come about?
Rebecca Lovell: We got a call from T. Bone Burnett who told us he loved our music and wanted us to provide instrumentation and vocals for the house band honoring Tom. We both flipped out pretty hard core and then proceeded to learn about 40 Tom Petty tracks in preparation.
|||→ Spending a week making music with people like Steve Ferroni and Booker T was a surreal experience. Then being onstage supporting George Strait, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones and Taj Mahal was mind boggling.
Megan Lovell: You get such a connection with a person when you start learning their music. You get inside their head in a way, which makes Tom’s recent passing even more heartbreaking. We didn’t get to meet him that night but he’s so wrapped in mystery and this enigma of being an epic songwriter and an American voice. There’s no one who will ever be like him again.
|||→ As a guitarist, is there a bit of advice you can pass along?
Rebecca Lovell: If there’s any advice I would pass along it would be to push yourself out of your comfort zone as much as possible. There’s always going to be that possibly of failure and making mistakes but put yourself in that space and go out on a limb.
|||→ Make yourself uncomfortable because you’ll learn so much faster. A second point would be to learn how to back people up. Meg and I progressed the most as musicians when we were in support of other artists and learning how to be the setting for the sound. When you have this beautiful diamond [the artist], you have to learn how to be the gold band that surrounds that diamond. That’s the mark of a really fine musician.
Megan Lovell: We feel thankful for Elvis Costello taking us out on the road with him for so many years, because we learned so much. He had the faith in us to go places on stage we had never gone before. I’m so thankful we were able to have that experience.
|||→ What excites you the most about this next phase of your career?
Megan Lovell: I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds. We pulled together a list of songs for this record and put it all together ourselves. It feels really fresh and we’re very excited.
Rebecca Lovell: We’ve always been fiercely independent and determined about what we want to achieve and the artistic message we want to put across, but with Peach it’s the first time that we self~produced a project and played every single sound.
|||→ Everything that you hear was something we created and comes from a very real place. It’s taken us on a more authentic path. We hope people will check out the record and be a part of the journey as we continue to dig deeper into who we are.
About author:
|||→ James Wood is a writer, musician and self~proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.
|||→ http://www.guitarworld.com/ About Larkin Poe
|||→ Southern roots rockers Larkin Poe formed after the Lovell Sisters called it a day in 2009. The Lovell Sisters, a bluegrass Americana trio comprised of siblings Rebecca, Megan, and Jessica Lovell, had started performing professionally in 2005 when all three sisters were still in their teens. The group released two independent albums and toured the festival circuit regularly before Jessica stepped away and the group disbanded in 2009. Rebecca (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano) and Megan (harmony vocals, lap steel guitar, dobro) regrouped a year later in 2010 as Larkin Poe, named after the sisters’ great~great~great~grandfather, who was a distant cousin of writer Edgar a bit edgier and rockier than the Lovell Sisters, Larkin Poe’s electric and slide guitar riffs earned them the title of “little sisters of the Allman Brothers” among fans and followers. In 2010, the group independently released a quartet of EP’s corresponding to each of the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. A fifth EP, 2011’s Thick as Thieves and a DVD, Live from Stongfjorden (2012) preceded the release of Kin, their debut full~length in 2014. This would prove to be a banner year for Larkin Poe with acclaimed U.K. performances at the Glastonbury Festival and London’s O2 Arena, as well as participation in producer T. Bone Burnett’s project Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes. A revamped edition of Kin — titled Reskinned — was scheduled for release from Universal Records in the summer of 2016. ~ Steve Leggett
Website: http://www.larkinpoe.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LarkinPoe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larkinpoe |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Larkin Poe — Peach (Sep 29, 2017) |
|||→ Rebecca and Megan Lovell, AKA Larkin Poe, have released a fun new album called Peach. It’s comprised of five original blues rock songs written by sisters Megan and Rebecca, and these songs reflect their full experiences growing up in the south in the new millennium.
Location: Calhoun, Georgia ~ Atlanta, GA
Genre: Acoustic Rock, Southern Roots, Blues, Americana, Rock
Album release: September 29, 2017
Record Label: Tricki~Woo Records
Duration: 32:01
Tracks:
01. Come on in My Kitchen 2:11
02. Freedom 3:23
03. Black Betty 2:44
04. Look Away 3:24
05. Preachin’ Blues 3:22
06. Cast ‘Em Out 2:44
07. Pink & Red 3:17
08. John the Revelator 3:20
09. Wanted Woman / AC/DC 4:51
10. Tom Devil 2:45
℗ 2017 Tricki~Woo Records
Personnel:
•» Rebecca (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano)
•» Megan (harmony vocals, lap steel guitar, dobro) Interview
James Wood, Posted 10/09/2017
|||→ What originally began as an album of all~original material from Larkin Poe (which consists of sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell) quickly took a turn when they began recording and posting traditional blues covers on various social media outlets.
|||→ The result was millions of views and an overwhelming demand for an album of traditional American roots music. This prompted Larkin Poe to return to the studio for Peach, a compilation of blues covers and original material that harkens towards their Southern musical heritage.
|||→ Tasty covers of songs like “Preachin’ Blues” (Son House) and “Black Betty” demonstrate reverence for the original versions but are fused with the ladies’ own unique style. The songs stand up equally against originals such as “Freedom”, “Wanted Woman” and “Pink & Red.”
|||→ The Lovell sisters are no strangers to musical attention having performed as part of the house band for the MusiCares 2017 “Person of The Year” event honoring Tom Petty and opening for the likes of Elvis Costello and Bob Seger. In short, they’re a force to be reckoned with.
|||→ I recently spoke with the duo about Peach, their songwriting process and their current setup.
|||→ Where did you draw inspiration for Peach?
Megan Lovell: We wanted to pay homage to music of the South and the Delta and make it into a very American roots rock record. It’s a culmination of all the Southern influences we’ve received over our lifetime.
|||→ Was there a certain theme you were going for when choosing covers for this album?
Megan Lovell: We’ve been making videos of covers for social media as a way to keep pushing ourselves and people have really responded to it. When the time came to make this record, there was a great demand for them, so we decided to choose our favorites from the videos. That’s what you get on the album.
Rebecca Lovell: We cover Sam House on the record [“Preachin’ Blues]. If you read the lyrics to the song written almost a century ago, they’re fantastic. It’s music that plays to a timeless human emotion. A raw questioning of soul and spirit.
|||→ What was the original songwriting process like?
Rebecca Lovell: For this record, it started predominantly with the music. It was about the two of us sitting down a room with our guitars and amps. Just ripping off each other and trying to get to the soul of the issue. Some of the lyrics were a little slow to get aboard the train but they all showed up eventually.
|||→ What can you tell me about the track “Wanted Woman”?
Megan Lovell: “Wanted Woman” was a song that I wrote one afternoon. I was amazed by the concept of this naughty little person who was really full of themselves and thought the play on words and double entendre was clever.
|||→ “Pink & Red”?
Rebecca Lovell: That’s one of my favorites. The vocals were actually recorded using a USB microphone while I was in my bed underneath the covers [laughs]. I couldn’t sleep because the song was banging around in my head, so I sat there and held my laptop to my face and sang a rough draft of the lyrics. It was very stream of consciousness. I remember waking up the next day and listening to it and then brought it to Megan. Those wound up being the vocals we used on the record.
|||→ What’s your current setup like these days?
Rebecca Lovell: My standby guitar is a Fender Jazzmaster. Ever since I saw Elvis Costello pick one up when we were out on tour with him a few years ago it’s stolen my heart. I also have sixties Princeton Blackface that I love. I don’t take it out on the road much because it’s so fragile but it’s my ideal combination.
Megan Lovell: My old standby is my 1940’s Rickenbacker lap steel. I’m also usually touring with a Fender Twin or a Vibrolux.
|||→ You performed as part of the house band for this year’s MusicCares event honoring Tom Petty. How did that come about?
Rebecca Lovell: We got a call from T. Bone Burnett who told us he loved our music and wanted us to provide instrumentation and vocals for the house band honoring Tom. We both flipped out pretty hard core and then proceeded to learn about 40 Tom Petty tracks in preparation.
|||→ Spending a week making music with people like Steve Ferroni and Booker T was a surreal experience. Then being onstage supporting George Strait, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones and Taj Mahal was mind boggling.
Megan Lovell: You get such a connection with a person when you start learning their music. You get inside their head in a way, which makes Tom’s recent passing even more heartbreaking. We didn’t get to meet him that night but he’s so wrapped in mystery and this enigma of being an epic songwriter and an American voice. There’s no one who will ever be like him again.
|||→ As a guitarist, is there a bit of advice you can pass along?
Rebecca Lovell: If there’s any advice I would pass along it would be to push yourself out of your comfort zone as much as possible. There’s always going to be that possibly of failure and making mistakes but put yourself in that space and go out on a limb.
|||→ Make yourself uncomfortable because you’ll learn so much faster. A second point would be to learn how to back people up. Meg and I progressed the most as musicians when we were in support of other artists and learning how to be the setting for the sound. When you have this beautiful diamond [the artist], you have to learn how to be the gold band that surrounds that diamond. That’s the mark of a really fine musician.
Megan Lovell: We feel thankful for Elvis Costello taking us out on the road with him for so many years, because we learned so much. He had the faith in us to go places on stage we had never gone before. I’m so thankful we were able to have that experience.
|||→ What excites you the most about this next phase of your career?
Megan Lovell: I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds. We pulled together a list of songs for this record and put it all together ourselves. It feels really fresh and we’re very excited.
Rebecca Lovell: We’ve always been fiercely independent and determined about what we want to achieve and the artistic message we want to put across, but with Peach it’s the first time that we self~produced a project and played every single sound.
|||→ Everything that you hear was something we created and comes from a very real place. It’s taken us on a more authentic path. We hope people will check out the record and be a part of the journey as we continue to dig deeper into who we are.
About author:
|||→ James Wood is a writer, musician and self~proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.
|||→ http://www.guitarworld.com/ About Larkin Poe
|||→ Southern roots rockers Larkin Poe formed after the Lovell Sisters called it a day in 2009. The Lovell Sisters, a bluegrass Americana trio comprised of siblings Rebecca, Megan, and Jessica Lovell, had started performing professionally in 2005 when all three sisters were still in their teens. The group released two independent albums and toured the festival circuit regularly before Jessica stepped away and the group disbanded in 2009. Rebecca (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano) and Megan (harmony vocals, lap steel guitar, dobro) regrouped a year later in 2010 as Larkin Poe, named after the sisters’ great~great~great~grandfather, who was a distant cousin of writer Edgar a bit edgier and rockier than the Lovell Sisters, Larkin Poe’s electric and slide guitar riffs earned them the title of “little sisters of the Allman Brothers” among fans and followers. In 2010, the group independently released a quartet of EP’s corresponding to each of the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. A fifth EP, 2011’s Thick as Thieves and a DVD, Live from Stongfjorden (2012) preceded the release of Kin, their debut full~length in 2014. This would prove to be a banner year for Larkin Poe with acclaimed U.K. performances at the Glastonbury Festival and London’s O2 Arena, as well as participation in producer T. Bone Burnett’s project Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes. A revamped edition of Kin — titled Reskinned — was scheduled for release from Universal Records in the summer of 2016. ~ Steve Leggett
Website: http://www.larkinpoe.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LarkinPoe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larkinpoe |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||