Larkin Poe - Shoulder to Shoulder - Non-Album Tracks (2013)

Larkin Poe recently released a new album (as I write this in December 2022). It's called "Blood Harmony," and it's very good, one of their best. To celebrate that, I want to post something else from them. Unfortunately, they've been very slow with new songs for their "Tip O' the Hat" covers series lately, so I'm still waiting to post the next album in that series. I don't have anything else worthy from 2022. So instead here's something towards the beginning of their career.

Even though the sisters Megan and Rebecca Lovell that make up Larkin Poe are relatively young, in their early thirties as I write this, their music career goes way back. Back when they were teenagers, they were in a trio with their older sister, Jessica Lovell. They had some success, but broke up in 2009 when Jessica apparently quit the music business. They renamed themselves "Larkin Poe" and carried on as a duo. 

At some point, I may way to go even further back in time with them, if there's interest, but for now here's an album I've made of their best songs from 2013. That was the year before they released their first full length album, "Kin." In 2013, they released an EP with a singer-songwriter named Blair Dunlop. (He hasn't been as successful as Larkin Poe has since then.) They also released an album with a Norwegian singer-songwriter named Thom Hell. His music career has continued, but to low sales.

What I've done is taken what I consider the best of the EP, called "Killing Time," and the album, called "The Sound of the Ocean Sound," then added five more apparently original songs from the time that remain officially unreleased. About half of the songs on the EP were mainly sung by Dunlop, so I left those off, except "Sea of Faces," where the lead vocals are shared between Dunlop and Larkin Poe. Even more than half of the songs on the album were mainly sung by Hell, so I left those off too.

The songs "Goldilocks," "Voodoo Doll," "Mr. Mechanic," and "Carrot and the Stick" all are unreleased and come from concerts. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm guessing they're all originals. ("I'll Keep It with Mine" is a cover though, written by Bob Dylan.) I edited "Goldilocks" and "Voodoo Doll," using the X-Minus audio editing program to boost the lead vocals. Even so, those two still sound a bit rough. I also used X-Minus to cut out some talking over the music near the start of "Mr. Mechanic."

This album is 48 minutes long. If you've enjoyed their other albums, you should enjoy this one too.

01 Killing Time (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)
02 I'll Keep It with Mine (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)
03 Sea of Faces (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)
04 I Belong to Love (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
05 Shoulder to Shoulder (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
06 P.S. I Love You (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
07 Wait for Me (Thom Hell & Larkin Poe)
08 Goldilocks [Edit] (Larkin Poe)
09 Voodoo Doll [Edit] (Larkin Poe)
10 Mr. Mechanic [Edit] (Larkin Poe)
11 Carrot and the Stick (Larkin Poe)
12 Strangler Fig (Blair Dunlop & Larkin Poe)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15261965/LarkinP_2013_ShouldrtoShoulder_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I found a photo that came with the "Killing Time" EP, even though it wasn't the cover of that. It had Blair Dunlop in the middle, but I used Photoshop to slide Megan Lovell over in front of him, making him disappear. Sorry, Blair. I took the writing of the band's name and the framing from a concert poster. Then I added the album name at the bottom.