Larkin Poe Convene with Kindred Spirits

Larkin Poe have sprinkled a few renditions of old blues songs into their tracklistings from time to time, but their forthcoming album Kindred Spirits finds them filling an entire album with cover versions, largely selected from the classic rock display case in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The project stems from the Georgia roots-rock duo’s popular YouTube series of stripped-down cover song home performances begun in 2015, including many of the ones chosen for the new album.

After kicking off Kindred Spirits (out Nov. 20 on their Tricki-Woo label) by resurrecting Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound on My Trail,” sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell dive into run-throughs of material by Lenny Kravitz (“Fly Away”), Neil Young (“Rockin’ in the Free World”), Derek & the Dominoes (“Bell Bottom Blues”), Phil Collins (“In the Air Tonight”), Elton John (“Crocodile Rock”), the Allman Brothers Band (“Ramblin’ Man”) and The Moody Blues, whose Justin Hayward said of the Lovell’s sparse, lap steel take on “Nights in White Satin,” during an interview with them, “[it] stopped me in my tracks… I listen to it as if I’m listening to [the song] for the first time.” Aside from “Hellhound,” the oldest songs covered are Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” and Elvis Presley’s “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise,” which reached #3 in 1963, while the most recent choice is last year’s Top Ten hit by Post Malone and Ozzy Osbourne, “Take What You Want.”

A few lesser known picks would’ve made the song selection more interesting and perhaps even personally revealing, but these girls were clearly raised on radio, and it was Dave FM and The River from the sound of it. It’s hard to not appreciate their genuine love of the music, most of which was made long before they were born.

Photo by Josh Kranich.