Top 10 Larkin Poe Songs

Feature Photo: Rs-foto, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Larkin Poe is led by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, two Georgia-raised musicians who built their sound around blues, Southern rock, roots music, and plenty of guitar. They first performed together in the Lovell Sisters before forming Larkin Poe in 2010. Rebecca handles lead vocals and guitar, while Megan’s lap steel and harmony vocals have become just as important to the band’s sound. Their records gradually moved from rootsier early material into a tougher blues-rock style without losing the old music that inspired them.

Blood Harmony won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, giving Larkin Poe their first Grammy win. The sisters followed it with their seventh studio album, Bloom, released on January 24, 2025. Bloom later received a 2026 Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. The ten songs below cover both sides of Larkin Poe: their own writing and their love of the blues songs that came before them.

# 10 – If God Is A Woman – Larkin Poe

“If God Is A Woman” appears on Larkin Poe’s 2025 album Bloom and was first released ahead of the album in 2024. Rebecca and Megan Lovell wrote the record with Tyler Bryant, who also joined them in producing Bloom. Rebecca described the song as a response to the typecasting of women, and the lyric goes after that idea with humor instead of a lecture. Megan’s slide work gives the track its blues backbone while Rebecca sings with just enough sarcasm to make the title land. The song is tough, funny, and direct without becoming heavy-handed. It also showed that the sisters were still willing to push their writing forward after the success of Blood Harmony.

# 9 – John the Revelator

Larkin Poe recorded “John the Revelator” for their 2017 album Peach. The traditional gospel-blues song is closely associated with Blind Willie Johnson, but Rebecca and Megan give it a harder, more modern attack without losing its old spiritual feel. Their arrangement is spare enough to keep the repeated refrain front and center, with Rebecca’s voice and Megan’s slide doing most of the work. The recording later appeared at the end of an episode of the television series Lucifer, bringing the song to a wider audience. Larkin Poe have always been good at treating old blues material as living music rather than history homework. This is one of their best examples of doing exactly that.

# 8 – Deep Stays Down

“Deep Stays Down” opens Larkin Poe’s 2022 album Blood Harmony. Rebecca Lovell and Tyler Bryant wrote the song, and the sisters produced the album with Bryant. The lyric has the feel of a Southern crime story, full of buried evidence, bad news, and things that are better left beneath the surface. Rebecca’s guitar and vocal stay tense while Megan’s lap steel adds another dark edge to the arrangement. The rhythm never rushes, which makes the song feel heavier as it moves forward. It is a strong opening to an album that eventually earned Larkin Poe their first Grammy Award.

# 7 – Back Down South

“Back Down South” comes from Larkin Poe’s 2020 album Self Made Man and features Tyler Bryant. Rebecca Lovell and Bryant wrote the song, which looks south toward the music and places that shaped the sisters long before Larkin Poe became an international touring act. Little Richard, James Brown, Macon, Georgia, and the larger history of Southern music all run through the lyric. As this song opens, the melody in the verse reminds me a little bit of the Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane.” Rebecca’s guitar and Megan’s lap steel keep the track rooted in blues-rock while the chorus gives it the easy pull of a road song. It is also a natural place for Larkin Poe to salute the Allman Brothers Band and the Southern music tradition they inherited.

# 6 – Mad As A Hatter

“Mad As A Hatter” is one of the most personal songs Rebecca Lovell has written. She wrote it in memory of the sisters’ late grandfather, who lived with mental illness for much of his life without a diagnosis. The song had been a fan favorite for years before Larkin Poe finally gave it an official release on the 2021 live album Paint the Roses: Live in Concert with Nu Deco Ensemble. Rebecca sings about memory, family blood, and the fear that time can take away the person you once knew. Megan’s slide guitar gives the song an ache that fits the subject without turning it sentimental. The orchestral live version finally gave an important Larkin Poe song a permanent home in their catalog.

# 5 – Blood Harmony

“Blood Harmony” is the title track from Larkin Poe’s 2022 album and one of the clearest songs they have written about being sisters. Rebecca Lovell said the idea grew out of a conversation with their mother about family, music, and the strange way certain things get passed from one generation to the next. The arrangement starts gently and grows into a full-band roots-rock performance built around Rebecca and Megan’s voices together. That family blend is the point of the title, and the song never needs to over-explain it. The track became one of the central songs on the album that won the 2024 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. For a band built around two sisters singing and playing side by side, the title could hardly be more fitting.

# 4 – Mississippi

“Mississippi” appears on Larkin Poe’s 2018 album Venom & Faith. Rebecca Lovell has described the song as a love letter to the musical heritage of the American South, and that is exactly how it sounds. The lyric pulls in the crossroads, the devil, hard labor, and the old mythology that hangs over Delta blues. Megan’s slide guitar carries much of that atmosphere while Rebecca sings with a rougher edge than she uses on the band’s softer material. The song never pretends that Larkin Poe invented this language; it openly points back toward the musicians and stories that shaped them. That respect for the past is a big reason their blues material works as well as it does.

# 3 – Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues

“Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues” was released on Larkin Poe’s 2018 album Venom & Faith. Rebecca Lovell wrote the song around a loud, dangerous character who seems perfectly happy to live on her own terms. The track stomps more than it swings, with Megan’s lap steel cutting through the beat while Rebecca gives the lyric plenty of attitude. There is humor in the writing, but the song never turns its central character into a joke. Instead, she comes across as somebody who knows exactly what she is and has no interest in asking permission. The official video helped make the song one of Larkin Poe’s most recognizable recordings.

# 2 – Hard Time Killing Floor Blues

Larkin Poe recorded Skip James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” for Venom & Faith in 2018. James wrote the song during the Depression, and the words about poverty and hard times have never needed much decoration. Rebecca sings the melody with a raw, worn-down tone while Megan’s slide keeps the arrangement tied to the country-blues tradition. The sisters do not try to turn the song into a giant modern rock production. They give it enough electricity to sound like Larkin Poe while leaving the bleak center of the song alone. That balance between respect and personality is what makes this cover so strong.

# 1 – Preachin’ Blues

Larkin Poe’s version of Son House’s “Preachin’ Blues” appeared on the 2017 album Peach. The song is old Delta blues, but the sisters attack it with enough stomp and slide guitar to make it sound completely at home in their own catalog. Rebecca handles the lead vocal while Megan’s lap steel gives the track its nasty little hook. They keep the humor in House’s lyric, including the idea of becoming a preacher so a man will not have to work. Nothing about the arrangement feels overly respectful or museum-like; they play it because they clearly love playing it. “Preachin’ Blues” is where Larkin Poe’s knowledge of old blues and their own rock instincts meet most naturally.