LARKIN POE – BLOOM (2025 REVIEW)
Bloom is the seventh studio album from the sister led duo Larkin Poe. For those unfamiliar, Larkin Poe is a blues influenced southern tinged rock n roll band. The current line up consists of guitarist and lead vocalist Rebecca Lovell and her sister Megan who sings harmony while providing much of the instrumental umph on her electric lap steel guitar. The band’s current rhythm section is made up of bassist Tarka Layman and drummer Kevin McGowan.
Rebecca and Megan have been in the music industry for nearly twenty years; first as part of the acoustic bluegrass trio, the Lovell sisters, and then in their current incarnation since 2010. Their records for the early part of their career, were a mix of originals and deep blues covers. Each record has included more original material, with each growing progressively stronger. Bloom continues the refinement process as the sisters tighten their sound with stronger hooks and more personal lyrics. The blues influence, while not abandoned, has been scaled back a bit, in favor to an easy going set of songs about love, peace, and perseverance. The overall mood is of musical and domestic contentment, not unlike Bob Dylan’s 1969 country rock classic, Nashville Skyline.
“Mocking Bird” seems to be about the Lovell sisters’ pursuit of their creative voice. “I’m a mocking bird,” Rebecca soars in the chorus, “singing a thousand songs that don’t belong to me…” She further declares that if we “listen carefully we just might hear her melody.”
“Easy Love Part 1” follows, and is a laid back rocker that finds Rebecca sending a musical love letter to husband and fellow musician, Tyler Bryant of the retro hard rock outfit Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown. The lyric is a joyous celebration of the simple and calming effects of romantic love. Megan’s slide parts sing out with a tone that compliments Rebecca’s soulful delivery. The midsong solo continues the celebratory tone delivering the testifying notes of an exuberant southern preacher.
An infectious slide melody opens “Little Bit,” an almost zen anthem of contentment and humble simplicity. “Why would I want to change my life?” Rebecca asks rhetorically, acknowledging that while Larkin Poe are nowhere near the top of the music biz they are happy in their place. In one of the album’s best choruses, Rebecca sings “I want just a little bit, little dream, little plan, little rock n roll band…” Then “It’s a small world. I don’t want to think big, keep the things I want on a very short list…” and finally assuredly singing “more ain’t always more.”
“Bluephoria,” finds the Poe venturing into hard rock territory, with pounding drums, riffs that border on heavy, a hard hitting verse that leads into a high rising chorus, and a stinging slide solo that finds Megan summoning the spirit of Duane Allman.
“Easy Love Part 2” slows things down a bit. While it lacks the instantly likeable energy of its sister song, it’s a nice respite, before the barreling rocker “Nowhere Fast.” This thing blasts off and takes you speeding down an abandoned country road. Even corny cliches in the lyrics, like “we can sleep when we’re dead,” and “no rest for the wicked,” can’t kill the momentum of the music which fuses punk rock attitude and outlaw country swagger. Rebecca rips a solid mid-song guitar solo that is slightly upstaged by Megan’s closing solo that has her playing her lap steel with a crying wah wah pedal. “Nowhere Fast” is sure to be another tune that’ll get audiences “cool whippin’” into frenzied air guitar dance convulsions at concert venues across the world.
The girls’ blues roots shine forth in the hypnotic R.L. Burnside influenced “If God Is A Woman.” The groove is straight out of the Mississippi Delta swamp, with a verse that declares “blessed be my haters, I love to hear ’em talk. I make waves like an alligator, walk on water through the swamp.”
“Bloom” maintains its high quality throughout the remainder of the record with a pair of rockers in “Pearls,” and “Fool Outta Me,” before closing with a pair of hopeful ballads in “You Are the River,” and “Bloom Again.”
Larkin Poe’s sound really started to come together in 2020 with “Self Made Man” and in 2022 with “Blood Harmony.” With 2025’s “Bloom,” it appears the Lovell sisters are on a hot streak, with no sign of burning out!
J Riff Blue | Now Spinning Magazine