Larkin Poe’s journey from bluegrass to blues rock
Photo by Josh Kranich
Back in 2005, a young bluegrass band from Georgia known as the Lovell Sisters took the stage on the public radio show A Prairie Home Companion for the Talent from Twelve to Twenty contest.
“We started out on violin when Rebecca was three and I was four, and we picked up piano a few years later…. But when we went to that festival, we felt immediately that we wanted to be involved in roots music. We quit our classical lessons cold turkey and became the most uncool teenagers, picking up banjos and mandolins.”
—Megan Lovell
The youngest Lovell, Rebecca, was only 14, but already a commanding singer and mandolin player, joined by Megan, 15, on Dobro and Jessica, 19, on fiddle. With tight instrumental work and seamless sibling harmonies, the band won first prize, and more awards soon followed—including a mandolin contest win for Rebecca at MerleFest in 2006, and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest grand prize in 2008. The Lovell Sisters were clearly on the rise.
After a few years on the bluegrass circuit, though, Jessica opted out of the touring musician’s life, prompting Rebecca and Megan to regroup and reinvent their sound—this time tapping into their love of classic rock and blues. So in 2010 they traded mandolin and Dobro for guitar and lap steel, and named their new act Larkin Poe, after an ancestor who was actually a cousin of Edgar Allen Poe.
In the realm of roots rock, too, the sisters have risen fast. They’ve performed with Elvis Costello and Keith Urban, scored a Grammy nomination (for 2018’s Venom and Faith), and toured internationally with a full-band show that’s both electrified and electrifying, powered by Rebecca’s soulful vocals, Megan’s soaring slide, and their telepathic harmonies. As Larkin Poe they also frequently play as an acoustic duo (well, semi acoustic, with Megan playing a Rickenbacker lap steel). They’ve created hundreds of homegrown duo videos that have racked up, at this writing, 45 million views on YouTube, including inspired covers of artists as diverse as Skip James, Tony Rice, James Taylor, Led Zeppelin, and the Bee Gees.
“Typically, my song inspiration starts with the music, so having a riff or chords is the foundational stone from which I then build melody and lyric. But I do feel really lucky to be in a position in the band with a lot of creative support from my sister. Megan really translates melody when she is improvising or playing in general.”
—Rebecca Lovell
Larkin Poe’s latest album of new original songs, Self Made Man, came out in the early days of the pandemic. The sisters remained productive during the live-music shutdown, creating not only online content but two releases: the acoustic covers album Kindred Spirits and now Paint the Roses, an orchestral collaboration with Nu Deco Ensemble recorded during a concert livestream.
As songwriters, interpreters, guitarists, and performers, Rebecca and Megan—now in their early 30s—are firing on all cylinders. To learn more about their journey from acoustic roots music to amped-up rock, I caught up with the sisters by phone from their home bases in Nashville.
Find the full interview in the January/February 2022 print or digital issue of Acoustic Guitar. The issue includes a transcription of the acoustic duo version of their song “She’s a Self Made Man,” recorded especially for A.G., that you can watch here.
