Album Review: Larkin Poe - 'Self Made Man'
It’s about damn time we got some great, unfiltered southern rock from women. Larkin Poe’s new record, Self Made Man, pays homage to the past but rolls onward to the future.
“Baby’s on her way, never coming back,” the Georgian sisters sing on the opening track, “like it or not, I don’t give a damn.” Rebecca Lovell sings a strong lead. It’s saturated in her heavy electric guitar, but gets softened around the edges by Megan Lovell’s southern harmonies and slide guitar.
And frankly, there’s no reason for a damn to be given. Their name has been associated with acts like Elvis Costello, David Crosby, and T Bone Burnett, and the pair has proven to be one of the greats of the contemporary southern rock world, all the while taking inspiration from the deep blues of their origins, like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Howlin’ Wolf.
“Where Little Richard was singing, where rock n roll learned to walk,” Rebecca sings on “Back Down South,” a track featuring her husband Tyler Byrant, who’s been playing country and southern influenced rock for years with his own band, The Shakedown.
“Way down in Macon, put your ear to the ground,” she continues on the song, “where the brothers are sleeping and you can still hear the sound of a band that was singing about a sky that was blue.” It’s fitting -- the Lovell sisters have playfully been dubbed the “little sisters of the Allman Brothers.”
What Self Made Man could use a more generous helping of is the sisters’ bits of harmony together. It can be heard on tracks like “Tears of Blue to Gold” and “Danger Angel,” but it’s no more than a tease. Their voices fit naturally together and offer a layer to the songs that typical male southern rock does not.
“Times are hard but they’re real,” they sing on “Easy Street,” the final song of the album, “keep my shoulder to the wheel, till I walk on that easy street.” It’s your classic boot stompin’, toe tappin', highway drivin’ song any self-respecting southern rock fan would love to hear on a Nashville night, where Larkin Poe is now based. They’re heading for the horizon.
Words by Allison Rapp