Larkin Poe brought their fiery country rock stylings and smouldering attitude back to the UK and set Camden alight.
“There’s so many of you! What in the world?” exclaimed Rebecca Lovell when she looked out into the audience at Dingwalls. Following an outstanding set at this packed-out venue, I’m sure that a big crowd is something the Atlanta-based sisters should get used to when visiting the UK.
They are already building a loyal following with the 
release of their first full-length album (the appropriately titled Kin) last year, a string of successful festival and support slots and a small UK tour for the album launch. This European tour should see them reaching a wider audience as they combine it with the usual radio appearances and promotional activities.
Any newcomers to the Larkin Poe sound in Camden couldn’t fail to notice that Rebecca Lovell knows how to use her full vocal range to great effect. Other singers take note – only show off your vocal gymnastics if it adds to the attitude of the song. Her soulful lead vocal performance is always intense and can feel a bit full-on to start with but once you get acclimatised to it you realise it isn’t forced and does add to the passion in the songs. She is the diva but this compliments (older sister) Megan Lovell’s understated brilliance on lap steel and harmonies.
I guess theirs should always be a harmonious performance as they spend so much time in each other’s company. They made a point of telling the crowd an “interesting factoid” that they have never spent more than two to three weeks apart in their entire lives. Family ties feature heavily in their song writing: a tribute to their grandfather and a fear of inheriting schizophrenia (Mad As A Hatter); the ups and downs of a sibling relationship (Stubborn Love); a distant relation with a chequered past that they “straight-up lied about” (Jesse).
Some new songs also got an airing with Rebecca noting that artists are prone to getting bored with their albums as soon as they’re recorded – “and we don’t want to play any of the old songs”. I can only hope that their live sound is reflected more in any future recordings as the heavier, rootsy style seems to suit them better than the sometimes poppier sound of the latest album. They also dazzled with a couple of hugely ambitious covers in Janis Joplin’s Move Over and Nancy Sinatra’s Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down). The latter they played on Terry Wogan’s Radio 2 show where he heaped praise on them for it saying “that’s the greatest version of that song I’ve ever heard”.
They ended the set with an intimate acoustic cover of the Everly Brothers classic All I Have To Do Is Dream. If they continue to wow audiences and radio presenters alike, these sisters won’t have to dream of success in the UK for long.
Set list
Trick Of The Light
Sugar High
Wade In The Water
Mad As A Hatter
Stubborn Love
Jesse
American As Apple Pie
Hey Sinner/Black Betty
Don’t
Dandelion
Banks of Allatoona
When God Closes A Door
Jailbreak
Encore:
Move Over
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
All I Have To Do Is Dream