Larkin Poe

With ecstatic slide guitar and gutsy, juke-joint riffs, sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell have distilled their own brand of musical moonshine from the tangled roots of American blues – and it’s potent stuff. We joined them on tour to talk Dobros, Deluxes and laying waste to convention…

- Jamie Dickson

The roots of Americana extend to some unexpected places. We’re somewhere in the Mediterranean, reporting on the Keeping The Blues Alive cruise for Guitarist. Sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell, better known as Larkin Poe, are one of the stellar acts aboard and they’re gamely posing for photos as the sea breeze gusts so hard over the rail that it nearly knocks our photographer’s light stand over. Still, Larkin Poe is something of a breath of fresh air themselves. Their sound is as raw as gasoline but tempered by dulcet vocal harmonies and sure melodic instinct. As sisters inspired by bluegrass and country blues guitar, they follow in the grand American tradition of pioneers such as Maybelle and Sara Carter – though theirs is a decidedly heavier sound, as well it might be 90 years on. The family bond, though, is just as relevant to their sound as it was to the Carters.

“We’re very close and from the ground up, we’ve really done everything together,” Megan, who plays lap-steel slide, reflects. “We started touring when she was 15 and I was 16. Really, we’ve shared everything, so there is a lot of that twin-like communication. I can just look at her and know what she’s thinking and especially on stage. It works so well because she can shoot me a little sideways look and I know what she’s thinking.”

Rebecca, who is the Fenderwielding half of the duo, agrees: “We are intensely close and at times we feel sort of like we’ve been cloven from the same soul, but we’re very different people and we have very different strengths. Learning how to allow my weaknesses to be covered by her strengths, and vice versa has made us a lot more of a lean, mean killing machine. At least we try on stage to lay waste.”