Every exposure to Larkin Poe brings increasing evidence of emerging greatness. Atlanta siblings Rebecca and Megan Lovell, who commandeered their great-great-great-grandfather's name for their band after their older sister moved on, are already startlingly accomplished singers and players just into their twenties.
On their gigs you'll hear all sorts of references. Between Rebecca's singing and Megan's lap steel slide guitar playing, they form a composite Bonnie Raitt. There are echoes of Little Feat in their warm, swampy grooves and their choice of cover versions this time included their former touring companion Elvis Costello's Blame It On Cain, the stompingly refreshed gospel standard Wade In The Water, Barrett Strong's R&B classic Money and a rare near-juxtaposition of Jim Reeves and Jimi Hendrix.
What you hear most of all, however, are themselves, two mighty musical personalities whose own songs, not least the exuberant Play On, stand tall in the above company, whose arranging abilities produce a wealth of memorable motifs and dynamic variation. When Rebecca's voice flies, as on Principle Of Silver Lining with its soulful appealing that lingers long after first hearing, there's something almost ruggedly volcanic about it. Yet there's tenderness, hurt and vulnerability.
Their rhythm section play with marvellous restraint, compact energy and bluesy fire as required, expertly framing the sisters' honestly plaintive version of Reeves's Am I That Easy to Forget and infusing Elmore James's Bleeding Heart with the surest of grooves and tight ensemble riffing as Rebecca delivered surely the most stunning bluegrass mandolin solo ever to grace a song learned from Jimi Hendrix.





