← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Grammy Nominees Larkin Poe | Sister Duo on Southern Rock, Blues Guitar and Viral Music Success-Iconic Musicians-Replay
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- [00:00]
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Rebecca Lovell
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- [02:17]
Rebecca Lovell
Think about the fact that Megan and I for years have started, you know, and maintained a YouTube channel where we cover a wide variety of songs. And we, we started out doing that just for fun, just as a way like in between tours for us to stay fresh and sharp and, you know, go and learn a Tom Petty song, go and learn a Black Sabbath song. Go and learn A Pat Matheny song. Go and learn a Steve Morris song. And that was sort of like our way of educating ourselves further in the language of music.
- [02:46]
Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)
Welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast, the show where Buzz Knight talks to musicians and gets to the heart of their craft and their creative process. On this episode, he talks with Rebecca and Megan Lovell, two sisters who lead the roots rock and Americana band Larkin Poe. Here's Buzz Knight with Larkin Poe on Taking a Walk.
- [03:09]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Rebecca and Megan, Lark and Poe. So great to have you on the Takin A Walk podcast.
- [03:15]
Rebecca Lovell
It is so fun to be here.
- [03:17]
Megan Lovell
Yeah. Thank you for having us.
- [03:19]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Take me back. Both of you sitting at a piano with your mom, learning to sing. What do you remember about that important moment in your career?
- [03:30]
Megan Lovell
Our mom grew up singing with her siblings, so harmony was always a big part of our musical heritage, I guess you could say. Our mom grew up listening to a lot of folk artists and grew up in the land of Dolly Parton. So I think that siblings singing together was. Was a big part of her. Her growing up as well. So she sat down and taught us to sing. There's four siblings all together, but the three sisters are the ones that sang together. So Rebecca and I and our older sister, we learned to sing harmony before we could even read.
- [04:08]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
And it's a pivotal moment that really shaped both of you, right?
- [04:12]
Rebecca Lovell
Yeah. At the time, I guess we weren't even considering it as. As a career because it was a very special gift that our mother gave us from, you know, three and four years old, our parents allowing us to start taking classical violin and piano lessons and. And making music such an integral part of our household. And again, like, even from our parents perspective, I don't think that they were ever intending us to treat music as a livelihood. It was just a joy that they experienced and wanted us to be able to have use of a language, the language of music.
- [04:50]
Megan Lovell
I feel so fortunate that music really was a part of our daily lives and they instilled in us a love of music and they listened to all different kinds of music from, you know, rock to jazz to bluegrass to classical music, world music, all across the board. Folk, hard rock.
- [05:09]
Rebecca Lovell
Yeah. So we.
- [05:11]
Megan Lovell
We grew up having kind of a diverse love.
- [05:15]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Well, I feel like as Larkin Poe has evolved, I really feel that you're really not typecast in terms of genre, in my view. I think you are a little bit of this and a little bit of that and you're constantly exploring. Is that a fair assessment?
- [05:35]
Rebecca Lovell
Absolutely. And it is. It's interesting as well. I think the older that we get, or I'll speak from, from my perspective, the older that I get. When I look back at our track record, so many of the pivotal moments in our career or, or the practices that have ultimately shaped us the most were very rarely intentional or we're very rarely like, you know, a means to an end. Like I think about the fact that Megan and I for years have started, you know, and maintained a YouTube channel where we cover a wide variety of songs. And we, we started out doing that just for fun, just as a way like in between tours for us to stay fresh and sharp and, you know, go and learn a Tom Petty song, go and learn a Black Sabbath song, go and learn a Pat Matheny song, go and learn a Steve Morris song. And that was sort of like our way of educating ourselves further in the language of music. But I think as a result, and we never would have premeditated this, that people view us, I think, as less attached to genre because they know us for our original material and they also know us for covering anything from rockabilly to, you know, to hard rock from our YouTube series. So I think that that has actually somewhat unexpectedly been such a boon to us in allowing Lark and Poe to kind of skate on like the surface of a very broad musical lake. And in that way it's like such a gift.
- [07:07]
Megan Lovell
Also, we played for a long time and we're kind of mentored by Elvis Costello. And that's also a man who has a very diverse career in terms of genre and it allows him to change it up and keep himself fresh. And he kind of imparted that wisdom onto us like, don't box yourselves in. Try and keep audiences guessing a little bit so that you can be at the forefront of your own game.
- [07:36]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Talk about some other career turning points that have really sort of continued to free you creatively.
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Rebecca Lovell
I feel. 2017 is a big one. 2017 is the year that we self produced our first record together, Peach, and we started our record label and that really has been one of the more the single most impactful moments of our career because it was a very intimidating move to make and it felt a little bit foolhardy. I think both my sister and I, even for being touring musicians in the entertainment field were fairly risk averse. Even though you would think otherwise. Like, it's a very risky line of work to try and make a buck in, but being able, I think, to come together as a team and be like, you know what, we're going to jump off this cliff. We're gonna, we're gonna do it ourselves. We've always known from the beginning that we've had very strong creative opinions. Clearly, our mother and our father raised us to like to. To do what we want to do, when we want to do it. And for that I'm eternally grateful because it has allowed us, I think, to reach that point in our career and have the sense of self and the faith to take that leap and start our own label and start producing our own records. And that was really our first taste of pure, unfettered creative freedom. And there's no going back for us now.
- [09:01]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Where did you get the desire to always seek continuous improvement? Is that from your parents? I know they were in sort of the medical field, right?
- [09:12]
Megan Lovell
Yeah, they were both in the medical field and both very much do it yourselfers and both of them have a very strong drive and work ethic. So I do think that we got a lot of that from them. And I think it's also helped to have a little bit of sibling rivalry.
- [09:32]
Rebecca Lovell
As well.
- [09:36]
Megan Lovell
In healthy and unhealthy ways, but mostly healthy. I think that we push each other and there's no resting on laurels when you've got somebody beside you who really, who really knows you and kind of wants to see you improve as well. So I think we do push each other.
- [09:56]
Rebecca Lovell
Yeah, I think that's fair to say. That's very fair to say. And I agree. I think that that is a blessing and a curse because I think especially in the music industry of today's time, where there is such a hand in glove relationship with social media. And so there's always this upping of the ante. There's this, this, this image conscious, this never resting, 24 hour news cycle approach to the creative arts at this point that sometimes I think, because we are, we do have a very high expectation of the kind of work that we can do together as a team. That finding, finding those moments where it's like, you know what? Hey, actually we need to dial back the self criticism. We need to dial back, sort the always on. Because I think back to, you know, when we were in our early teens, late teens, we would have uninterrupted hours of time to sit and hone our craft. Just sitting and noodling on our instruments, sitting and toying with a song. And nowadays like the ratio of time, it's, it's so weighted in like our calendar is full. We have so much stuff to do. There's these extra pressures that I think if you don't Keep it in check. If you don't keep that. That work ethic of the work side of running a band, running a business, running a record label, being a touring musician, the work side of busy work, you have to keep that in an appropriate relationship to the meat of our work, which is being creative, which is being musicians. And that, I think, is something that we're especially in our 30s now, and in our 30s, now that we. We have arrived at this new point in time where we're. We're trying to be super intentional about dialing back some of that push, push, push, and be like, you know what? Actually, let's make sure our priorities are in line.
- [11:58]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Rebecca, what's the one thing Megan does to push you to greater heights? And then conversely, Megan, what's the thing Rebecca does to push you?
- [12:10]
Rebecca Lovell
The thing that I love about. One of the many, many things that I love about my sister is Megan doesn't mince the truth that I think there is I. In our relationship. I sense that Megan really respects me to handle the truth from her. And so she will give me her undiluted truth that in some ways, for me, like, I. I'm definitely like a. A little bit more of a PR agent. Like, well, how can we. Like, the room was basically sold out. You know what I mean? That kind of an energy, a little bit of a used cars, like, salesman energy. But she's not that. Megan is like the world of tables and chairs. And, like, this is how I see it. I'm gonna tell you how I see it. And so sometimes when I can get, like, as a little sis, I'll get, like, super in my head about my. My prowess as an instrumentalist or my body image or, like, all the things that I think can get distorted. Again, speaking back to social media, you can kind of get in your head and have a warped view of reality. And I appreciate Megan to the best of her ability, bringing me back to the reality as she sees it. And I trust this woman. I really do. So that's one thing that I feel super, super grateful for. And the way that she continues to educate me to be like, hey, just take it as it comes. Breathe, relax. Think about this from a different perspective. It's all perspective. I respect your ability to tap into that.
- [13:36]
Megan Lovell
We are very different people, but I think that we mirror each other very well.
- [13:45]
Rebecca Lovell
That.
- [13:45]
Megan Lovell
That we're kind of like puzzle pieces, a little bit so different, and yet we fit together. And I think that I am a very concrete person. But to match that, you need somebody who has their Head in the clouds a little bit. Somebody who's like, wants to. To jump in and take action. And that's something that Rebecca is really good at. She is very much a, let's move forward. Like, momentum is king and you've got to. To get started on the journey in order to continue. Like, I think it's a. It's really important to remember that you've got it. The hardest part is starting something, and she's very good at starting and sometimes has to drag me along a little bit, maybe. But also it's been really good for me to be in that energy because I think that I sometimes want to research something to death before I even get started. And sometimes you just have to jump in and learn. Trial by fire, Sink or swim.
- [14:50]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
So I love your fascination with the technical aspects of your playing. The. The relationship that you have with beard, you know, instruments and just sort of those nuances there. I had Skunk Baxter on many months ago on the podcast, and he talked about how he sort of reverse engineered certain versions of guitars and kind of, you know, had that sort of mindset. Are you both wired sort of that way as far as the technical aspects of the instruments?
- [15:27]
Rebecca Lovell
I would say no. But then there is evidence that would speak contrarily to that. No, I think as it relates to, like, our pedal boards or effects pedals or amplifiers, we're very low. Like, we're very low maintenance when it comes to that kind of stuff. We like to find something that works and then stick. Like, we're not the kind of touring musicians who are like, oh, I went to, like, a guitar shop in St. Louis and found this new fuzz and I'm gonna dismantle my board and put a new. Like, we like the consistency, I think, especially because we've toured for so many years and had so much stuff break and, like, the pressure of shaking up the ghosts in the machine. We want the ghosts to just rest. Just don't talk to the ghosts, don't acknowledge the ghosts, and the thing will just work. But when it comes to the creativity of engineering a new instrument, shout out to Megan for, yeah, reverse engineering her instrument and starting a new line of slide guitars called Electrolyse.
- [16:30]
Megan Lovell
Because I would say that I'm not a tweaky deaky kind of a person, but I do know what I'm looking for, and I'm going to be very, very picky until I get to that point where I feel satisfied. And I think that you're the same, you know, what you're looking for. Not I don't really care how we get there just as long as we get there and then I want to stick with that. So I for a long time have played Rickenbacker lap steels which are just incredible and I love them. They're very, very heavy instruments. So I was finding that it was impacting me on a day to day basis touring. So I want, I just wanted basically my Rickenbacker except light and made more for standing and running around the stage. So I worked with beard guitars and we were able to develop this, this lap steel that's half the weight of the electrolyse, yet it's, it still has that tone that I'm looking for and is shaped better for standing on stage.
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Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk podcast.
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- [20:21]
Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk podcast.
- [20:24]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
How did your life change when you discovered the Dobro and the the lap as well?
- [20:32]
Megan Lovell
Oh, definitely changed my life. I heard Jerry Douglas playing and we had grown up listening to a lot of Alison Kraus and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas. So I had that sound in my head, but it wasn't until I actually saw Adobo being played that I really connected the dots. I was like, oh, this is the, this is the instrument I've been searching for. I'm a relatively quiet person. I don't sing lead. I sing harmony to Rebecca, who sings lead. So I think I was always searching for my voice in an instrument and lap steel Dobro. These slide instruments, I think, have such a vocal quality to them. It's like a fingerprint. I feel like the way that people play slides, it's very unique in the speed of the vibrato and the way that the slide touches the strings. It's. It's very human, I think. So I was, I was extremely drawn to that and seeking that in my life.
- [21:35]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
I love that. It's amazing. Jerry Douglas is amazing too. Who are some other folks that have influenced the both of you that to this day you, you learn from either from observing them or your, you know, interactions in person with them.
- [21:53]
Rebecca Lovell
In terms of the artists, definitely shout out. Jerry. Jerry Douglas is just, I mean, I remember like Slide Rule was such a pivotal record for us and we learned every melody at the time I was playing mandolin, so I learned all the mandolin solos and stuff and just a great, great piece of work that was really important for us. We have to shout out once again Elvis Costello he has had an indelible impact on our career and who we are as people. He's. He's become a very dear friend and mentor. So we got to shout out Elvis. Who else comes to your mind? I'm actually curious.
- [22:30]
Megan Lovell
We have, in the last, I would say, decade, been super influenced by blues music because we grew up listening to a lot of Allman Brothers and going back and sort of researching who was influencing, like, Southern rock music. And so we love Skip James and Son House, really inspired by some of the Delta blues musicians.
- [22:59]
Rebecca Lovell
Yeah, that is kind of a fascinating point of conversation. The fact that a lot of the records that we are seeking inspiration from and that have influenced the way that we write. I mean, clearly. Clearly anybody who listens to our records could say that we make music that is adjacent to the blues. We are not a blues band. But so many of these artists, Sun House, Skip James, Muddy, like the Three Kings, these are the guys that we're listening to and taking tips of writing, tips of tone, tips of expression. And these are people that we'll never rub shoulders with on the physical plane. So it is really special to. To meet individuals like, out on the touring circuit. And we run into so many thoughtful, considerate, kind humans out on the festival circuit. Increasingly so many more women out on the touring circuit that I feel like we're all. It's sort of like the collective toolbox where everyone's like, hey, have you thought about this? Have you tried this? How do you feel when you're on stage and you're sick or had just, like, random information that we're constantly all gleaning from those that have committed their lives to the road as we have. But again, it is sort of like that spiritual, like the realm of, like. I think of Chris Whitley. He's a huge inspiration to me, and he died before I was born. I think of Ozzy Osbourne, who I odds are I'm never going to meet Ozzy Osbourne, but the impact that his music has had on my life is huge. So it's. That's a very fun question to, like, think about how. How we glean impact from people around us. If it's on a spiritual level or if it really is, like, hey, Elvis is our buddy and I'm going to call him up and get advice on something. It's neat. The many myriad ways in which we can all impact one another in this world.
- [25:01]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Yeah. I thought of three, either artists or bands that, you know, when I listened to the vibe of Lark and Poe, that I. I wondered about whether, you know, you'd researched it all. One is Little Feet. Just due to, you know, once again, this incredible musicianship that they have and that you guys have, I thought a Rye Cooter as well. You know, once again, the vibe and the stellar, you know, musicianship matches what. What Larkin Poe is. Is certainly all about. Does that resonate with you at all those huge.
- [25:51]
Megan Lovell
Hugely, yes.
- [25:52]
Rebecca Lovell
Who was the third?
- [25:53]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Yeah, just. I was looking up into the air and it floated above me. So when it comes down, no worries.
- [25:59]
Rebecca Lovell
I'm just curious because that. That is exactly the space, like, the space between Little Feet, Ry Cooter and, like, what would you add as a third point? Maybe the crows. Maybe the black crows. Like, because we want to rock. We want to. We want to get on stage and kick ass, but we don't want to shred. Like, neither my sister or I are like. We need to have a thousand notes in order to, like, prove a point. We're definitely in, like. I think of the melodies that Ry Cooter writes with his guitar, and I think of the lyrical depth of a band like Littlefeet, where it's like you can crawl inside the story and get a little piece of the human experience. So that. That's a really great little trilogy for us. Thank you. That's such. Such kind compliments.
- [26:43]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
And I did think of the third one, and I'm embarrassed. You're probably for forgetting briefly gonna, you know, hang up on me, but. Bonnie Raitt.
- [26:53]
Rebecca Lovell
Oh, Bonnie Raitt. The Queen. The Queen Mother.
- [26:57]
Megan Lovell
I love Bonnie Raitt.
- [26:58]
Rebecca Lovell
Yeah.
- [26:59]
Megan Lovell
And especially as a female slide player, I revere Bonnie. She was doing something in her time that nobody was doing. There's nobody who looked like her playing the way that she did. So, yeah, huge respect.
- [27:18]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
So I love the version of Running Down a Dream that you do on the Petty Collection. And it's also in Bad Monkey. It's amazing. I think Running Down a Dream is one of those greatest driving songs, certainly of all time. What are some of your favorite driving songs as well?
- [27:41]
Megan Lovell
Oh, another running song. Running On Empty is a huge one for me.
- [27:47]
Rebecca Lovell
That's a great driving song featuring David.
- [27:50]
Megan Lovell
Lindley, of course, on lap steel playing one of the most iconic guitar solos of all time. I think that's a great driving song. I'm going to.
- [27:59]
Rebecca Lovell
Actually, this is sort of a random one, but anytime we drive into Little Rock, we have to listen to Little Rock by Colin Ray. Do you know that song? I do not roll here in Little Rock. Like, anytime you cross the state line, like out of Tennessee. It's like, all right, crank up Colin Ray. Let's go. So that's a huge driving song for me. Yeah, it's a big one.
- [28:25]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
That's a good one. Tell me about your creative process in the studio. Take us inside that. How does that work? What's the give and take of it? Give us a little glimpse of that.
- [28:39]
Rebecca Lovell
I would describe it as ever evolving. I think, especially as kids of the 90s and growing up with the advent of GarageBand and Logic, our relationship to recording is, like, constantly on the move. We in, you know, in early Lark and Poe days, we. We've recorded live records. We've recorded records in our bedrooms using laptops to program drums. But most recently, we've phased into attempting as. As. As much as possible to try and represent who we are on the live stage in the studio. So we've definitely done a lot of live tracking, but I think the goal for us is to do an all live record because there is. There is something. There is something unique, and you used the word earlier. Fingerprint. There's a fingerprint of spiritual energy that exists when humans make music together, which I think is truly the antidote to AI's participation in music creation. That AI can never recreate the unique energy of humans responding spontaneously with one another in the live space that increasingly I would have such an interest in trying to capture on our records. But there is also budgetary limitations. We've actually made the last, I mean, what, four or five of our records in our home studio. And it's a very petite space, so being able to have everyone set up in a circle and tracking together, it's just not physically possible due to our spatial limitations. But we're really excited. We're in process of building a recording studio so that hopefully Larcompeau Records in the future will be able to be performed live with the appropriate isolation. We'll have a booth to put Megan, a booth to put me drummer in the live room, and everyone looking at each other and capturing those live performances.
- [30:49]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Are you mentoring anybody on the label these days?
- [30:55]
Rebecca Lovell
We have actually not branched out into mentoring at this point in terms of signing an artist or producing another artist. But I feel that that is something that we. I think that we will have a passion for, and I think that we would be really well suited as a team to work with an artist in that capacity. Right now, I feel like we're just. We're maxed. We're maxed out.
- [31:17]
Megan Lovell
We're so busy handling everything. Lark and Poe. But once we have A little bit more time. I feel like we would love to devote some energy to mentoring the next generation of music makers. That would be. That would be incredibly meaningful.
- [31:33]
Rebecca Lovell
I'm excited for that. And that I think is the one thing that I do find a lot of like, comfort and excitement in is, is that even though being a touring musician, it comes with a very unique set of stressors. The unpredictability of the work, you know, some of the sacrifices that it requires, the thing that it really gives, the gifts it gives in spades, are the fact that it's ever changing. That within the next five, 10 years, the kind of work that we're doing, it'll still be creative work, but it may look very different. And I'm super excited for the future in that respect.
- [32:14]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
I love how you've built your fan base and worked so hard at it almost, it seems as if fair to say, in a one fan at a time sort of basis. Can you talk a little bit about how you built the fan base?
- [32:30]
Megan Lovell
It was person by person by person. Our 20s were definitely dedicated towards a huge grassroots effort. I feel like we went everywhere and played to five people, you know, and would come back through a city and there's a few more people and come back through again and there's few more. And then there's a little bit of a snowball effect that has happened over the past few years where we were suddenly like jumping up and selling out places and selling out entire tours. And that was extremely exciting. Continue. Especially considering that we've, we've spent many years playing to sometimes just the bar staff at a bar, you know, so it's definitely hard won. But that also ties us to our supporters and these people that, that, that come out and spend their time and energy on us. We're tied together in a. In a very emotional way and it's super meaningful. And I think the relationships that you can form with music lovers is huge and it keeps us going. It's, it's. It's the joy of our life to be able to go out and connect with people.
- [33:45]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
In closing then, and I think you sort of already led to this, how do you describe musical happiness?
- [33:54]
Rebecca Lovell
Musical happiness? Oh my gosh, you are so good at your job. Oh, that is a wonderful question. And I'm really curious to hear what we each have to say. What do you. Do you have a. A little neural synapses firing off?
- [34:15]
Megan Lovell
For me, musical happiness, I think is time to experiment, to create something new that then can go out into the world and mean something. To somebody else. I think that musical happiness is me creating something within myself that then doesn't belong to me anymore.
- [34:42]
Rebecca Lovell
Oh, I love that. I'm gonna go the opposite direction. I'm gonna go introspective. Because I was actually. What first popped into my mind was this was maybe a month and a half, two months ago. Megan and I backed up on you, played dobro and lap steel, and I played mandolin. One of our heroes, we love T Bone Burnett. And T Bone released an incredible record, and he played a scattering of shows in the Southeast. And so we were able to come out and support him on one as part of his band. And it was such a cool experience to sit acoustically on the stage. And it was Megan on my left, and there was an upright bass player, Dennis Crouch to my right, and there was a fiddle player across the stage, stage, and. And everyone was playing in concert together. And it was acoustic because clearly we're playing a rock and roll show as Lar and Poe the majority of the time, which requires there to be, like, the introduction of tech, where we got. We're wearing in ears so that we can actually have isolation over the drums. Because for years we toured on monitors where you have speakers on the stage blasting sound at you. And I was routinely singing my voice out, trying to sing over the drums. So there, I think, by necessity, some of our. Some of our touring implements create a little bit of a barrier between us and the music, just by nature of kind of like the way the world turns and the way you're able to do the amount of shows that we book. But I think in the future for some Lark and Poe tours, I would want to recreate that intimacy, because, again, it was a bunch of humans sitting within feet of each other. And the sound waves coming from one human to the next was impacting all of us and our chemistry on stage, which in turn was spilling over. And to speak to your point as well, touching the audience. So I think being able to create that kind of a musical experience on stage, which you and I share all the time, I feel so blessed to be able to sit literally right next to one of my best friends and play music that is instinctual. And so rarely we're. We're able to carry that out on stage in its purest, raw form for a crowd. And I think that'll be really cool at some point in the future. So that's musical happiness to me.
- [37:07]
Megan Lovell
So would you say it's a conversation?
- [37:09]
Rebecca Lovell
Yes. Yeah. When music is allowed to be a conversation, when it's not too premeditated. There's not too much tech involved. There isn't pressure. Musical happiness is when it's conversational.
- [37:22]
Buzz Knight (Podcast Host)
Yeah, well, Rebecca and Megan, for me, podcasting happiness is. This is an example of it. I get to do it frequently. And this is one of those moments that I'm so grateful for. And I'm grateful for the music you continue to give us. And thank you for being on the Taking a Walk podcast.
- [37:44]
Rebecca Lovell
Thank you so much.
- [37:47]
Podcast Host (Intro/Outro)
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.
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