“I want just a little bit / Little dream, little plan / Little rock’n’roll band” sings Rebecca Lovell as younger sister Megan Lovell sends note after keening note arcing skyward from her lap steel guitar. It’s an anthem to keeping things simple and going after what you want that is perfectly on brand for Larkin Poe.
Rebecca and Megan have been playing together since they were kids, initially as two-thirds of teenaged bluegrass sensations The Lovell Sisters. After oldest sister Jessica left, the remaining duo regrouped as Larkin Poe—named for their 4x great-grandfather, a cousin of Edgar Allen Poe—and evolved their sound to embrace electrified Southern blues-rock in the Allman Brothers / Tedeschi Trucks Band tradition.
One of the secrets to Larkin Poe’s success—which includes the 2024 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for their album Blood Harmony—is that their songwriting has continued to grow right along with their musical skills. Yes, they make a big and often boisterous noise, with Megan’s lap steel zinging animated notes and phrases off Rebecca’s muscular rhythm guitar, but what gives Larkin Poe’s music dimension and substance is that their songs are about something.
“Little Bit” is just one example of this album’s theme of empowerment: finding your voice and using it, defining your values and standing by them. While the Lovells’ songs never preach—they simply tell stories, vividly—Bloom ultimately comes off as a primer on how to be a strong, independent woman.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Rebecca Lovell sings with passion, soul, and a welcome hint of grit when she pushes it. The latter reminds of Susan Tedeschi not just because of their shared roots in blues-rock, but because their voices are genuinely similar in timbre and in the way they use them. Meanwhile lap steel player and harmony vocalist Megan Lovell uses her instrument like her sister uses her voice; it’s just as expressive and often carries or doubles the melody before launching into superb solos when the moment comes.
The main difference between Larkin Poe and the Allman Brothers / Southern rock tradition their sound descends from is that where many groups in that genre have a sort of jam band / cosmic hippie edge, Larkin Poe does not. Their sound is big and heavy but also structured and focused; only one of these 11 tracks runs over 4:10 (“Bluephoria,” at 4:33).
Opener “Mockingbird” is big electrified blues-rock anthem in the Led Zeppelin tradition, a song about learning to be true to yourself rather than others’ image of who they think you should be. The lyric also feels like it’s winking at the audience, inasmuch as the sisters spent the early months of the COVID pandemic live-streaming cover tunes before issuing a full album of covers (Kindred Spirits) in November 2020.
“Easy Love Pt. 1” is an unusual detour for Larkin Poe: a fun, flirty song about falling in love with a man with a guitar and a Texas drawl that sounds suspiciously like Rebecca’s husband and bandmate Tyler Bryant, a multi-instrumentalist and frequent co-writer. The aforementioned “Little Bit” follows, a mid-tempo, philosophical number that takes a very Buddhist approach about not wanting too much and being happy with what you have (“Keep the things I need on a very short list”).
“Bluephoria” is another amped-up blues-rock number with an appealing hitch in the main riff and an almost hip-hop flow to the lyrics as Rebecca declares: “We are who we are, I may not be a star / But I know that I can shine like the moon.” “Easy Love Pt. 2” is the clever, poignant second act of the song, a bluesy ballad that offers another glimpse of the same relationship in a later, more mature state. The tinge of melancholy in the lyric—“Weighed down by doubts / Sometimes I get stuck / But you know how to pull me out”—grounds this one firmly in the blues tradition.
The first couple of songs on Side B (they break up the tracklist like an old LP) are the one soft patch on the album. “Nowhere Fast” is sassy fun, but doesn’t offer either the insight or the emotion that other tunes here manifest. Next up, “If God Is A Woman” has groove and grit going for it, but the title turns out to be the best line in the entire lyric.
Ah, but then we get to “Pearls,” a dynamite-blast of a number about overcoming a culture of deference and finding your voice. Here especially, the rhythm section of Tarka Layman (bass) and Caleb Crosby (drums) drives the band as Rebecca delivers a genuinely fierce lead vocal and Megan wails on her lap steel. It’s a tight 4:03 depth charge and the highlight of the album.
From there, things ease off as “Fool Outta Me” opens with a lot of space, acoustic guitar and organ for an uplifting number about proving doubters wrong. Then the gentle, steady “You Are The River” delivers a kind of self-soothing mantra about trusting yourself and the process. At the close, “Bloom Again” begins as a pretty and insightful relationship ballad (“Who won the fight? / Did we both lose?”), with Megan’s harmony vocals a magical complement to Rebecca’s leads. Then they add strings and at around 2:35 the song blasts off, finds another gear, and crescendos to its 3:22 close.
The saying goes that when you have siblings singing, you have an instrument money can’t buy. With Rebecca and Megan Lovell, both their voices and their instruments intertwine in a nearly telepathic dance, whether locked in perfect harmony or playing off of one another. Bloom showcases a musical bond that feels both instinctual and limitless in its possibilities and power.
