Larkin Poe 11/7/2015

I saw Larkin Poe in June as they were support for Elvis Costello and liked them so much I came back for their own show which was part of the Bristol Americana 'festival'. Support for them was 'Police Dog Hogan' a west country band that are actually quite difficult to categorise but certainly had strong strands of folk and bluegrass in the mix. An eight piece band with banjo, mandolin, accordion and trumpet in the line-up they stomped through an enjoyable set for more than an hour. Larkin Poe were a four piece for this show adding a bassist to the drummer that accompanied Rebecca and Megan Lovell on guitars last time round. They included a number of the songs from their album that they played last time out but extended the set to take in some covers and other songs from their catalogue. Of the covers I particularly enjoyed Dylan's 'New Pony' and the encore was Tom Petty's 'American Girl' sung by just the sisters with one acoustic guitar as backing. Most of the set was down and dirty guitar from the girls with Rebecca blasting out the vocals and it was hugely enjoyable. One of the highlights though was a poignant acoustic version of 'Overachiever' one of best songs from the album and delivered with passion by Rebecca. Another was a song dripping with Deep South feeling about sin and prayer. The last track of the main set was back to the guitar vibe featuring in particular the slide of Megan and again one of the stand out tracks on the album ' Jailbreak'. All that was left was a cover of 'Bang Bang' then 'American Girl' and then they were gone. I miss them already.