Larkin Poe: Thick as Thieves and Euro Dates.

[John (Biscuits and Gravy) Davy]

          

www.larkinpoe.com

Larkin Poe are big news on the Americana scene, there’s no doubt about that. The younger two thirds of former band The Lovell Sisters, Megan and Rebecca Lovell have displayed formidable talent, energy and nous as they’ve set about launching their band Larkin Poe onto the world. Having already released four short albums of wonderfully rich original music, they’re back with another half hour of original songs as they start out on a two month tour of Europe, taking in The Hebridean Music festival and Cropredy amongst many other fine stages.

              The sisters share the songwriting between them and both show an astonishing maturity in their ability to come up with strong original takes on the well-worn themes of love and relationships. Having been performing together since they were very small, I guess they’ve worked out a long time ago how the mechanics of songwriting work, but it’s the astonishing energy and enthusiasm of their fresh view of the world that really captivates. At the time of the release of their “four seasons” collection of ep’s  I recall feeling that they had the romantic vision of 21^st century Bronte Sisters, with all the literate intensity that that implies.

              With Megan having a great touch as a dobro and pedal steel player, and Rebecca being a very fine mandolin player, the thing that really emerged over the course of the previous releases was that Rebecca seemed to discover a quite remarkably powerful singing voice, soaring and swooping with soulful passion as she brought the girls’ songs to life. There is more focus on this aspect of the bands’ performance now and I can’t help feeling that some music management has identified the unique selling point that will propel this band into stadiums. A little jazz-rock has been stirred into the Larkin Poe mix of American influences; I guess they would have their starting point in bluegrass but their tastes are broad and there’s definitely a strong pop sensibility guiding them in the development of their sound. The disappointment for me on Thick as Thieves is the heaviness of the sound; the girls continue to sound distinctive above the noise the boys are making but the drums, electric bass and slightly showy electric guitar all seem to bludgeon us, when on the earlier releases we were beguiled  by the delicate touch that the girls bring to their music. I’ve got to say it feels like they’re looking for the sound that will sell kazillions of tickets for the live shows and maybe they’re well on their way to that. However, to see what beautifully pure music these sisters make, check out the youtube acapella performance of The Beatles’ Because, recorded (apparently) in a park in Pittsburgh with the rather splendid help of fellow Georgia band, The Shadowboxers. Also, if you get yourself this cd ahead of seeing Larkin Poe somewhere on their travels, you’ll get a bonus dvd of them recorded in performance in Norway. The fourteen track disc includes some of these new songs but also quite a few of the highlights from the Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter cds, all of which are quite excellent.

John Davy

DATE	TIME	VENUE	LOCATION	MAP	TICKETS
JUN 10	3:00pm	Pagosa Folk & Bluegrass Festival	Pagosa Springs, CO	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 5	8:00pm	Sommer Ved Søen	Kolding, Denmark	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 6	8:00pm	Tunø Festival	Tunø, Denmark	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 12	8:00pm	The Tollbooth Theatre	Stirling, Scotland, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 13	8:00pm	Hebridean Celtic Festival	Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 14	8:00pm	Hebridean Celtic Festival	Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 16	8:00pm	Great Northern Wine	Blossomgate, Ripon, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 18	8:00pm	The Wheelhouse Concert Series	Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 19	8:00pm	The Basement	York, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 20	8:00pm	The Stetson	Ravenshead, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 21	10:30pm	Music on the Marr Festival	Brampton, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 22	4:00pm	SummerTyne Americana Festival	Newcastle upon Tyne, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 24	8:00pm	Blue Balls Festival	Lucerne, Switzerland	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 27	8:00pm	Troll Rock	Beitostølen, Norway	Map It	Buy Tix
JUL 28	8:00pm	Sommerfesten Giske	Giske, Norway	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 10	5:00pm	Cropredy Fairport Convention	Oxfordshire, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 11	10:00pm	Cropredy Fairport Convention	Oxfordshire, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 12	8:00pm	Wilderness Festival	Charlbury Oxfordshire, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 15	7:30pm	The Old Queens Head	London, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 16	7:30pm	Lewes Constitutional Club	Lewes, East Sussex, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 17	8:00pm	WOWfest Global Party	Isle of Wight, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 18	8:00pm	WOWfest Global Party	Isle of Wight, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 19	4:30pm	Beautiful Days Festival	Devon, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 22	8:00pm	The Greystones	Sheffield, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 23	8:00pm	High Barn	Great Bardfield, Braintree, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 24	8:00pm	Purbeck Folk Festival	Langton Matravers, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 25	8:00pm	Towersey Festival	Oxon, UK	Map It	Buy Tix
AUG 26	8:00pm	Solfest	West Cumbria, UK	Map It	Buy Tix