Product Description
LARKIN POE - BLOOM
COMING JANUARY 24, 2025, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY!
LARKIN POE
Bloom
Tricki-Woo Records
Bloom is Larkin Poe’s follow-up to Blood Harmony, last year’s Grammy winner for Best Contemporary Blues Album. It keeps the momentum going for sisters Rebecca (lead vocals, guitar) and Megan Lovell (harmony/backing vocals, lap steel guitar), who have collaborated – along with co-producer Tyler Bryant – to serve up these 11 outstanding originals.
Notable about the album is the fact that there is a very strong theme to it: that of being yourself. From the tone-setting opening track – “Mockingbird” – Larkin Poe explores different aspects of achieving and holding onto one’s individuality: through “Little Bit” (enjoy where you are, because “more ain’t always more”), “Nowhere Fast” (embrace your flawed self), “Pearls” (I’m tired of being told how to be), and “You Are The River” (look to yourself and you’ll be fine).
A highlight among the thematic tracks that give Bloom its identity is “Fool Outta Me” (“gotta learn some lessons the hard way” but it’s okay) – a song that is very likely going to bring out a healthy call-and-response whenever the duo rolls it out at their shows.
The track also elevates another aspect of the album that makes it what it is. Whereas Blood Harmony was blues enough to win a Grammy in that category, Bloom – at its core – leans pretty far toward country, with Rebecca’s singing voice and Megan’s lap steel and harmony (particularly on “Bloom Again”) helping to bring that sound all the way home.
That noted, Larkin Poe’s music is a natural amalgamation that mixes country, blues, rock, blues/rock, Southern rock, Americana (and whatever else Sales & Marketing comes up with) into something radio friendly and extremely enjoyable (once you stop worrying about what to call it).
Still, the one unamalgamated blues song on Bloom is a real gem. “If God Is A Woman” is mid-tempo, atmospheric and intense, and the sisters’ rhythmic guitar work moves it right along. It’s electric but – if the power were to suddenly go out – it would sound just as powerful acoustic. Between that and the songwriting, it nails the tension between Light and Dark that makes blues music special. It’s so well written that it would have worked for Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Robert Johnson, Son House, or Blind Willie Johnson without much alteration – if any – required. In other words, “If God Is A Woman” isn’t just a blues, it’s a great blues. Larkin Poe’s musicianship, songwriting, and sound make them the complete package.
– Matthew MacDonald