Self Made Man is the fifth album from Atlanta-born, Nashville-based sister duo Larkin Poe. Rebecca Lowell (guitar, lead vocals) and Megan Lowell (lap steel/slide guitar, backing vocals) play a brand of blues-based rock music which range from heavy electric guitar riffs and slide guitar to their own brand of southern Americana, vintage country, and delta blues. More than anything, all of this is mixed up to primarily make it sound like themselves.
In a recent interview with American Songwriter, Megan put it like this: “At heart, we are a rock band that has deep, deep roots in Southern music. Everything has undercurrents of the blues, bluegrass, old-time country music. It’s all there. But ultimately, it’s rock ’n’ roll. We love to move people, to have that energy, and to see people rocking out.”
Despite being around 30 years old (Megan was born in 1989 and Rebecca in 1991) they have been active for over a decade. Both sisters have toured as backing musicians for a variety of other bands, most notably Elvis Costello, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Kristian Bush of Sugarland, and Keith Urban. They have kept doing collaborations for fun, playing live shows with the likes of Jackson Browne and Don Henley, and have played on albums by Thom Hell, T Bone Burnett, and Steven Tyler.
Since branching out on their own around 2010, they have performed both as a duo and with backing musicians as needed, adapting to both circumstance and musical styles. For albums and extended tours, they usually utilise a bass player and drummer (currently performed by Tarka Layman and Kevin McGowan respectively).
This is the third album in a row where the Lowells have produced themselves, and they come across as very confident in what they want to do and how they do it. The fact that each of their albums have an identity of their own is a great achievement, helping to make their recorded output more individual, distinctive, and interesting. They always have that trademark mix of bluesy rock’n’roll, classic guitar-based rock, and dashes of Americana, but the proportions are always different.
Released on 12 June 2020, Self Made Man is very much an upfront and in-your-face album. It still contains a number of moods, but is more extrovert in its expression than their previous album Venom & Faith (2018). Where that album had a lot of ambience, night-time atmosphere, voodoo, and things going on in the background, Self Made Man is much more prone to featuring loud guitars, a wailing vocal and thumping rhythms. This is not surprising, as the band spent nearly two years solid on the road in 2018/19. It’s bound to impact your approach to songwriting and performing.
To be clear, this is not a hard rock album in a traditional sense. I see it as a blues album with loud guitars.
This is evident from the first track – the title track She’s A Self Made Man, which features a mean guitar riff played over stomping drums. More than anything it sounds like classic The White Stripes. Drums, guitar and vocals continue to be the basics of the song, although there are a few layers in places. “Baby’s on her way / She ain’t coming back” Rebecca sings, making this into a great anthem of self-empowerment. The song is loud and bursting with energy. The guitar sound is fat and dirty, setting the tone for a deliciously rowdy effort from the ladies.
Holy Ghost Fire retains the dirty guitar sound of the opener, but is sleeker in arrangement with a measured pace. The sound of the full band ensures a lot more going on. Rebecca shines in her delivery of the pre-chorus lines.
All I got in my pocket: holes
All I got on my back: bones
Stick a fork in a socket, let’s rock
It is an amazing track, where their use of a grittier guitar sound in particular sets it apart from earlier efforts. A fuzzy, deep keyboard sound helps give the song further bedding. A choir of backing vocals in the chorus gives that section a lovely, soulful quality, which is befitting a song that celebrates how music can lift you up even when the rest of your life is in the dumps.
Keep Diggin’ starts in more familiar vein with Rebecca riffing on the electric guitar while Megan plays a mean slide on her lap steel. The parts double up nicely on a guitar melody before branching out into different, distinctive parts for the rest of the song. The guitars always had interesting parts, but this time they are out there dominating the songs they are on to a larger degree, being up there in the mix and setting the tone that much more. This is really cool and so refreshing.
The song follows a steady, urgent percussive beat throughout, which could have benefitted from a more organic approach rather than the ‘drum machine’ feel it has. The song is a humorous take on snoopy neighbours, gossipy friends, and all those who keep digging for the juicy truth and loves spreading rumours around – even when there’s really nothing going on.
Back Down South is a dirty tune with a very cool blues lick that sounds like it comes straight out of the delta – well, the entire song does. The sisters double up the parts that make up the lick, intertwining their guitars and adding lots of texture. Even so, the song feels basic with its stomping rhythm and wailing vocals.
I have always been a fan of Megan’s incredible slide harmonising on her lap steel. I have always used to think it tends to sound a little too clean, emphasising the sugary sweet aspect of harmonising rather than the raw counterpart. On this album, that complaint does not exist. Just like everything else on this album has a rawer, more direct expression, so does the lap steel. This song is a good example of that, and I love this development. I have wanted Megan to rip loose on a really mean-sounding slide solo for so long, and on this album, we get it! Tyler Bryant, who also co-wrote this song, also contributes electric guitar in this song.
Tears of Blue To Gold is a more band based country-rock song, with nice melodic touches and nostalgic lyrics about being the neighbour kid who grew up next to Elvis Presley and shared a childhood with him. God Moves On the Water is yet another stompin’ blues rocker, reasonably traditional in expression, while sounding very much like Larkin Poe. The song references the Titanic disaster, the Mississippi flood of 1926, and the San Francisco fire of 1851 in this song about coming together for salvation.
Every Bird That Flies has a different vibe than most of the tracks on the album, harkening back a bit to previous album Venom & Faith. It taps deeper into the darker and ambient side of the band. Painting an uneasy mood is something they have done well before. This time, they have discovered that it does not need to be a quiet song for it to build an atmosphere. This song features a mean slide guitar solo with droning guitar sounds hanging in the background. It certainly has quiet moments too, with the final verse sung against just the percussion and a hint of fading guitar in the background. This is very effective, and creates a variance in expression that they use for additional effect as the song gets more or less intense. This is lovely to hear, and a sign of an artistic growth and increased confidence in their own expression.
The next song Scorpion also has a brooding element, even though it is overall much more insistent and faster. While the song has a pounding rhythm section, a cool and intense guitar riff and insistent vocals, my attention is drawn to the sound of the lap steel that hangs in the background, providing a very interesting backdrop to the whole thing. The song builds up to a climax that few other songs on the album can match, which may be fitting of the song’s theme of chasing extasy.
The song brings it all the way home by calming down a bit and ending on an open-ended note. The performances in this song are particularly intense and it’s a great track to rock out to.
Danger Angel is another atmospheric song filled with foreboding and the feeling of scary things going on in the dark. The lyrics go even further. Who knows who or what this “danger angel” is? Something as literal as drugs? A creature of myth, or an angry girlfriend? I can’t say, and it isn’t that important – the main thing is that she’s coming to get you. The song gives the impression that escape is futile, and the eerie feeling of doom is wonderfully conveyed.
Danger angel
Comes screaming through the clouds
She’s coming for your soul, child
She’s gonna take you down
There’s nothing you can show her
That she hasn’t already seen
From the deserts of the exiled
She’s fast as she is mean, look out
This is without question my favourite song on the album. While I have praised the overall heavier approach on this album, the band was always incredibly adept at building moods in songs. As with previous songs on the album, the heaviness is present in this song as well, just adapted to fit it. Megan plays a mean slide guitar solo which adds to the drama, with Rebecca chugging a melodic riff underneath. This makes for a great, melodic, and heavily groovy guitar section. The song slips back into the quieter unease for the verses, and keeps coming out of it with stronger muscles. It’s a perfect marriage of both worlds.
Another huge plus are the harmony vocals. They don’t seem as noticeable as usual on this album, maybe because other things take focus on a lot of the songs. On this one, the voices come through loudly and gloriously, delivering the doomsday message beautifully.
Ex-Con is a different beast altogether. It kicks off with a cool, slow strut that is kept throughout the verses. The song is nicely settled into that confident start-stop groove, not unlike how Lynyrd Skynyrd used to back in the day – or maybe even Bad Company in some select moments!
The choruses bring out more soulful colours, with Rebecca channelling Joan Osborne in the best possible way with a heartfully wailing vocal. The entire song reeks of hooks and should come with an earworm alert. This is Larkin Poe claiming their rock ballad moment, and I can’t wait to see them get into that one live! Extra kudos to Rebecca’s voice on this song. It is strong as always throughout this album, but she has a lovely, soulful timbre on this song in particular.
Easy Street is a country rock song with an upbeat feel. The stomping bluesy percussion is back, giving the song a brisk tempo with vigorous playing. Megan’s slide guitar colours this song to a large extent. It is a straightforward song with a heartfelt delivery and optimistic outlook about working hard in order find better times ahead. “Times are hard but they’re real / Keep my shoulder to the wheel / ‘Till I walk on that easy street” wails Rebecca, with Megan chiming in for some good harmonising in the chorus. It is a good one to end the album on, with a lovely, down-to-earth feelgood song.
How to summarise this album? Shortly put: from my vantage point, this is the best album Larkin Poe have delivered to date. The quality of songwriting have been there on the past few efforts as well, but on this album they have found the ‘oomph’ that may have been missing from their rock moments. Successfully experimenting with this ‘oomph’ on their moodier songs has also contributed to the feeling of dread and eeriness on those. Overall, they have managed to tap into the core of their songs, getting out their full potential across the board. As a result, the songs engage the listener and tug on the heartstrings to a bigger extent than before.
They are called Larkin Poe, and their new album Self Made Man is among of the better ones of 2020. I hope it helps taking them to the next level. They are more than ready for it.
Best tracks: Danger Angel, Ex-Con, and Holy Ghost Fire.
RELATED ARTICLE: Larkin Poe – Blood Harmony (2022)
Facebook Comments