John Nelson

Nothing says spring quite like a golden egg and an elephant’s revival. That was the scene at The State Room on Friday night. The Shook Twins, sporting their signature eggs, mesmerized the crowd with their hypnotic, siren vocals. Co-headliner, and former front man of Elephant Revival, Daniel Rodriguez warmed our hearts with transcendental folk ballads. He opened the show with “Through The Static,” a new song off his recently released album Vast Nothing. His 11-song set included deeper cuts from his growing catalog of post-Elephant Revival music. 

Rodriguez finds his muse in many places. For example,“Delores” is a love song about a river, not a woman. He shared a story about traveling through Southwest Colorado one summer, in an old Mitsubishi with a broken A/C. The river – Delores – beckoned. Instead of stopping and refreshing himself in her cool water, he wrote her a song. “Delores I come to you broken and bruised/ it’s in your embrace I soak and I soothe/ to heal and mend these wounds.”  With “Johnny” he took us to the borderlands and featured fine drum, bass, and trumpet solos from his backing band. The crowd sang along to his final two numbers, an unexpected cover of Springsteen’s “Atlantic City,” and “Sing to the Mountain” from his Elephant Revival catalog.

The Shook Twins began their full, 17-song set on stage alongside their signature, large golden eggs. The twins, Katelyn on guitar and vocals, and Laurie on banjo and vocals, were backed by Niko Slice on guitar, Aber Miller on bass and keyboards, and Alex Radakovich on drums. They opened with the slow-building, trippy cadence and alluring twin-harmonies featured in “No Choice” from their 2019 album Some Good Lives. 

The State Room audience were treated to a sneak-peak of the twins’ newest music. They are using their aptly named Bloom Tour to beta-test new material before retreating into the studio later this year. In all, they played 4 soon-to-be recorded songs and a reworked, older tune, “Time to Swim,” mixing rap with ethereal, siren-like vocals. The Shook Twins are evolving as they experiment with vocal syncopation and other sonic textures like telephone mic distortion. Their early acoustic guitar and banjo folk sound has morphed into indie-pop-folk with electronica overtones. 

The crowd joined into an impromptu singalong when The Shook Twins covered Whitney Houston’s pop-anthem “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Their perfectly balanced harmonies gave the ‘80s hit a rootsy restoration. They followed that anthem with a cover of an obscure Elephant Revival song “In Love and Rage” (which I hope they plan to record with Daniel Rodriguez).  

Entering the homestretch, the entire ensemble took the stage for “Safe.” Rodriguez took lead vocals on his Elephant Revival song “Grace of a Woman” followed by the twins taking over for a few verses of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” For an encore, The Shook Twins serenaded us with their post-apocalyptic song “Shake,” a song that would provide a perfect soundtrack for an episode of The Last of Us.

Rodriguez and The Shook Twins were in full Bloom playing familiar favorites alongside some new music and a few well-selected covers. It truly was a Good Friday.

Who: The Shook Twins and Daniel Rodriguez

What: Bloom Tour

Where: The State Room

When: April 7, 2023

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In Greek mythology, Sirens use their hypnotic songs to lure sailors to their death on rocky shores. Like those mythic sisters, the Shook Twins captivate audiences with their harmonies. But instead of suffering the sea goers’ fate, they are nourished with life-affirming songs, ethereal vocals, and other-worldly rhythms. The Shook Twins will drop-ship Friday, April 7, 2023 at The State Room.

Originally from Sandpoint, Idaho, identical twins, Katelyn and Laurie Shook, blend folk and bluegrass with pop overtones to create a trippy, intermountain newgrass sound. It’s where the Rocky Mountain high meets the West Coast chill. One of their latest tunes, “Stay Wild,” blends an herbal mellowness with a smooth, retro disco groove. The song makes you want to stay wild without venturing too close to the edge. In “Safe,” their voices blend perfectly with a soothing strum of an acoustic guitar, punctuated with banjo inflections to create a hypnotically-induced safe space. It’s like musical therapy. 

Katelyn, on guitar and vocals, and Laurie, on banjo and vocals (aka the Shook Twins), occasionally tour as a duo, but for the upcoming tour, they’ve added multi-instrumentalist and co-collaborator Niko (Slice) Daousiss and others to the mix. Joining them on stage is a magical golden egg (which also serves as a percussion instrument) that symbolizes their music and serves as a metaphor for their identical-twins-one-eggness.

Co-headlining the show is Daniel Rodriguez, former founding member and singer/songwriter of the transcendental folk band Elephant Revival. Rodriguez wrote and performed lead vocals for such classics as “Birds and Stars” and “Sing to the Mountain.” When the band took a hiatus in 2018 (a gentle way of saying they broke up), Rodriguez launched his solo career. Transitioning from the orchestral sound of Elephant Revival to a more stripped-down acoustic resonance was a tall order, but with his 2020 single “Colorado,” he didn’t drift too far from his musical roots. I can still hear the rumble of the elephant in his work.

In his second, recently-released, full-length album, Vast Nothing, Rodriguez offers us a full dose of lyrically beautiful folk that conjures up simple, romantic gestures. He cuts “Through the Static” with lyrics like “love letters under a magnet on the fridge.”  On “Mixtape” he tries to “keep the music playing like a mixtape/ keep the vibe rolling down the freeway/ keep the morals high.”

Seeing the Shook Twins and Daniel Rodriguez co-headline on The State Room stage on April 7, 2023 will be your chance to channel your inner hippy for a few hours and indulge in some soul-soothing musical meditation. I’m going to the pre-show at The Bayou and pair this mountain newgrass with an In The Pines hazy IPA from Level Crossing.

Fans of Elephant Revival, Rising Appalachia, Tegan and Sara, Lucius, John Craigie, Lumineers, First Aid Kit, and Gregory Alan Isakov won’t want to miss this show.

Who: The Shook Twins and Daniel Rodriguez

What: Bloom Tour

Where: The State Room

When: April 7, 2023

Tickets and info:https://thestateroompresents.com/state-room-presents/shook-twins-daniel-rodriguez

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Chappell Roan created a buzz in the Beehive State when concert goers, dressed in their jammies and pink cowboy hats, queued up for blocks, in freezing temperatures, waiting for the doors to open at Soundwell on Thursday night. 

Fans packed the venue for her all-ages, pajama party pop show. In whacky Utah form, the venue corralled wristbanded patrons, who desired an adult beverage, into a makeshift bar area at the rear of the concert space—a special place I like to think of as “Spirit Prison” (and spirits weren’t even on sale. Beer and cider only, though they did have an acceptable beer selection.) Forgive the rant, but inconsistent, unreasonable laws make me crazy. For example, I recently attended an all-ages show at The Union Event Center—a venue that sports full bar(s) and no Spirit Prison. After two decades in Utah, I still bristle against the intrusive and incoherent big-government liquor laws. Okay, breathe! The banishment didn’t disrupt my sight lines in this small, intimate venue.

Roan transformed the Soundwell into the Pink Pony Club, a good natured, energetic space where people gathered to celebrate campy burlesque. A drag queen trio, Veronika DaVil, Sally Cone Slopes, and Jenna Talia, opened the show lip-syncing and prancing to popular tunes like Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” The three queens dealt a winning hand as the pajama clad crowd danced along and celebrated an evening of freedom of expression and inclusion. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in St. George anymore.

Roan is a “Femininomenon.” Recently dropped by Atlantic Records, the 24-year old Missourian found her voice as an independent artist promoting her songs and videos on sites like TikTok and YouTube. Roan’s use of music streaming platforms like Spotify, coupled with video sharing outlets like TikTok, has earned her legions of fans. She worked with producer and songwriter Dan Nigro to record a string of playful yet gritty songs, most of which went viral. As her fan base grew, she worked out her stage show opening for Olivia Rodrigo and Fletcher in 2022. Then, with only an EP and a handful of singles to her musical credit, she boldly hit the road as a headliner. Most bands tour to promote their release of a new album. Roan’s Naked in North America tour has sold-out across the country on the strength of several recently released singles. Nevertheless, on Thursday night, she played a full 13-song set that featured many unreleased tunes. But, her fans already knew her music. When she opened with her internet hit, “Naked in Manhattan,” the 600+ crowd sang along to every word. 

Her art resonates with young adults today, much like those who came of age in the mid 1990s listening to Alanis Morissette sing her hell-hath-no-fury anthems. So, given my late-boomer status, I was stoked when Roan covered Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Her version exploded with all the angst and intensity of the original. It felt like the torch had passed. Considering Roan was born three years after Morissette released it, “You Oughta Know” is a song with staying power. Wronged lovers are still “here to remind you.” Roan’s three-piece band nailed it. They provided a wall of sound all night with only a drum, bass and guitar. 

The audience sang along, reaching a crescendo when Roan played her recent hits, “Casual” and “My Kink is Karma.” In cheerleader fashion, she taught the crowd moves to her yet to be released song, “Hot To Go.” Think Village People’s “YMCA” – but in this case, the audience spelled out “H-O-T-T-O-G-O.” A video of her performance (from a show two weeks ago) is already on YouTube and the song hasn’t even been officially released. 

For her encore she came out wearing her signature pink cowboy hat and sang “California” before ending the show with,“Pink Pony Club.” She said the song was about a club in West Hollywood, but Thursday, it was in Salt Lake City. Roan, her band, and the audience sounded great, thanks to the club’s acoustics. The venue lived up to its name, Soundwell. 

Roan is a self-described thrift store pop star, a Do-It-Yourself Taylor Swift, but more dark and edgy –a thrifty Swifty (If I dare coin the term.) She’ll be selling out bigger venues soon enough (but probably not crashing Ticketmaster quite yet). She’s an artist on the rise. Her sold-out performances, a growing, adoring fan base, drag queen openers, and her social media skills spell success for Chappell Roan. I’m glad I saw her in a smaller, intimate space even if I had to do time in Utah’s Spirit Prison while I was there. Unfortunately, I was overdressed for the occasion. But, if I wore MY sleepwear to the Naked in North America show, I’d probably end up in actual prison.

Who: Chappell Roan

What: Naked In North America tour

Where: Soundwell

When: Thursday, March 9, 2023

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Paul Cauthen greeted a packed house at The Union Event Center on Friday night by flipping-off his critics who doubted he’d make any money with his “uptown country” style. He started his show with “F*** You Money” which reminded skeptic that “Now my show sellin’ out on tour.” That settled, he delighted the crowd with his genre-fluid music. Indeed it was “Country as F***.”  He wailed, “You ain’t country enough. Make my own definition, bent the system, ‘bout to start a new religion. Call it country–country as F***.” 

He celebrated his success in his larger-than-life style with “Champagne and a Limo.” In Beverly Hillbillies fashion, he poked fun at someone like him joining an exclusive country club with “Country Clubbin’.” He crooned, “Champagne, shuffleboard rednecks on the tennis court.” Given his cocaine and whiskey approach to life and his frequent use of the F-bomb (it’s embedded in several of his songs) I found it odd that this was an all-ages show–especially in Utah!

He down-shifted a bit to play a few serious songs about the dangers of a hard-partying lifestyle in “Slow Down” and “Prayed For Rain.” His deep “Big Velvet” voice is tailor-made for outlaw country, but he can also knock out a soulful ballad. Cauthen gave us a sneak peak of some new material when he played a song he just recorded at Muscle Shoals Studio. 

He played a solid 16-song set covering a good array of his growing catalog of great material. He ended with his singalong signature hit “Cocaine Country Dancing.” Uncharacteristically, the show ended without an encore. He played a full-set, though I still hoped for more when the lights came up and signaled it was time to go.

Cauthen fashions his country music with elements of other musical styles like disco. With “Freaks” he gave us a little bit of country-funk (if you can imagine it.) He and his full band took the stage to hip-hop music reflecting his willingness to cross the musical and cultural divide. The late-announced local opener, Lapdog, played a five-song set of cool, ‘70s jazzy yacht rock with extended trippy jams. That wasn’t exactly what you’d expect for a country headliner show. I’m sure some of the cul-de-sac cowboys in the audience didn’t quite get it. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the whole experience. Cauthen isn’t afraid to cross-pollinate all that is great about American music: country, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and hip hop. Friday night it all worked to perfection.

Who: Paul Cauthen

What: The State Room and Postfontaine Presents: Paul Cauthen’s Country Coming Down Tour

Where: The Union Event Center

When: Friday, March 3, 2023

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Chappell Roan, a self-described thrift store pop star, is performing at Soundwell on Thursday, March 9, 2023 in support of her sold-out Naked In North America tour. Read John’s show preview here!

Chappell Roan, a self-described thrift store pop star, will transform Soundwell into her “Pink Pony Club” on Thursday, March 9, 2023 in support of her sold-out Naked In North America tour. Tickets may still be available on the secondary ticket market. 

Roan skyrocketed to success in 2022 with a series of hit singles. Her first release, “Naked in Manhattan,” channels Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” and adds an early 80s new-wave disco-pop beat. On “My Kink is Karma” she delights in the malicious joy of watching an ex-lover struggle post-breakup. She sings “People say I’m jealous, but my kink is watching you crashing your car, you breaking your heart, you thinking I care. People think I’m jealous, but my kink is karma.”

She teed up her latest single, “Casual,” on TikTok ahead of the song’s release to create a viral buzz. It worked. Her song about the pitfalls of a “situationship” made Billboard’s list of top 100 songs of 2022. With a sold-out tour, four well-received singles, and a full-length debut album due out sometime in the spring, Roan is riding a wave of success she’s been carefully building over the past few years. 

“Die Young,” an original composition she posted on YouTube when she was 17, went viral and landed her a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Then she left her rural Missouri home for Los Angeles to pursue a pop music career. Despite her powerful vocals, the melancholy ballads on her 2017 EP School Nights just didn’t find her audience and in 2020, Atlantic Records ended their affiliation with her just as she started to fine-tune her sound with “Pink Pony Club,” a catchy number with all the camp you’d expect from a song about a go-go dancer at a gay West-Hollywood cabaret. 

Cut loose from Atlantic Records, Roan found herself adrift just as the global pandemic took hold. Without the moorings of a major record label team to guide her, Roan needed to figure out how to proceed as a Do-It-Yourself, independent artist. She found herself back where she started as a teenager–on the Internet–trying to gain a following on TikTok and other platforms. The Atlantic Records experience brought talented people into her orbit like Grammy-winning songwriter and record producer Dan Nigro. Writing songs with Nigro helped Roan build on the success of “Pink Pony Club” and find her independent voice. 

From a period of darkness and uncertainty, Roan emerged with what she calls “slumber party pop.” She blends color, campiness, and pageantry into her infectious disco-pop sound. I plan to catch this rising star when she brings her Naked In North America tour to Soundwell on March 9, 2023. I’m looking forward to the glitter and glam. 

Who: Chappell Roan

What: Naked In North America tour

Where: Soundwell

When: Thursday, March 9, 2023

Tickets and info: https://soundwellslc.com, www.postfontaine.com

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“I was driving tractors before it got sexy. Real cowboys don’t rock to Kenny Chesney,” according to Paul Cauthen, a musician who is bringing his Country Coming Down tour to The Union Event Center on Friday, March 3, 2023.

Paul Cauthen is blazing a Zappa-like trail with his creative, tongue-in-cheek parody of today’s country music ethos. He offers us a bigger-than-life version of Outlaw Country, and like Zappa, he doesn’t always color within the musical lines of his genre. He is affectionately known as “Big Velvet” because his deep baritone voice channels the vocal spirit of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Elvis Presley (if you can imagine such a throuple.) He plays country, but will veer off into disco or funk mid-song to build a new concoction that resonates with traditional fans and those looking for something more experimental and avant-garde.

On “Cocaine Country Dancing,” for example, Big Velvet creates a giddy-up, country disco when he adds his Elvis/Cash/Jennings vocals to a seedy strip-joint dance beat. It’s something akin to The Who’s song, “Eminence Front” with outlaw-styled lyrics to which you can either line dance or do the hustle. Choose your poison. 

Cauthen’s journey started with the Austin-based Americana vocal duo Sons of Fathers, but he left to pursue a solo career. He released his debut record, My Gospel in 2016. The dark and introspective record featured a throwback sound blending outlaw and gospel country without tipping the scales either way. The record’s opening track “Still Drivin” moves along a retro Jennings-esque trail, but then Cauthen takes you down an Elvis-styled gospel path. 

On his 2017 seven-song EP Have Mercy, he started to find his satirical Big Velvet voice with catchy songs like “Everybody Walkin’ This Land” where he sings (in Johnny Cash fashion) “You racists, fascists, nihilists, and bigots we’re prayin’ for you my friend.”

With his 2019 full-length release Room 41 Cauthen makes peace with his hell-raising lifestyle with songs like “Prayed For Rain.” He sings, “The well’s runnin’ dry. Hell, so am I” and “The rain turned to hail cold, dark, and pale. It beat me as I fell. Lord, I fell.” On the song “Big Velvet,” he confessed “The train wrecked, but I walked away.” With “Cocaine Country Dancing,” his inner demon-slaying ballads give way to a sardonic acceptance of life’s occasional derailment, and the need to celebrate his wild side.

On his latest release, Country Coming Down, Cauthen fully commits to his unorthodox country sound. He offers us a Zappa-like parody of the Nashville gatekeepers who think he’s not “country” enough. On “Country as F***” he sings “I’m a shade tree mechanic, got a one-ton truck. I drink a 30-pack a day ‘cause I’m country as f***.” He adds an organic Elvis vocal shudder when he sings “Hot dog, holly golly, dagnabit I was two years old when I shot my first rabbit.” Cauthen seems at peace with his Big Velvet moniker and accepts he won’t fit in anyone’s box. He’s having a hell of a good time cultivating a larger-than-life and sometimes campy showmanship. I’m bringing both my cowboy boots and my platform shoes to the show, just in case. 

Who: Paul Cauthen

What: The State Room and Postfontaine Presents: Paul Cauthen’s Country Coming Down Tour

Where: The Union Event Center

When: Friday, March 3, 2023

Tickets and info: thestateroompresents.com, theunioneventscenter.com

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Like so many bands traveling between Denver and Salt Lake in the winter, white-out conditions on I-80 forced Larkin Poe to cancel their January date at The Commonwealth Room. They returned to share the love to a sold-out crowd on Valentine’s Day. They were, as their opening number suggests, “taking the long road. Ooh, diggin’ deep. We’re gonna strike gold.” On Tuesday night, they hit paydirt! They followed with “Kick the Blues,” and primed the packed house for a thrilling, rockin’ blues ride. Larkin Poe is a band made up of two sisters, Rebecca and Megan Lovell who have Georgia and Tennessee roots and play an electrifying style of blues and Southern-fried rock ‘n’ roll.

For me, Larkin Poe is at their best when they tap into that old-school blues sound. And as Rebecca Lovell explained, at every show they pay homage to the pioneers of that genre. With Rebecca Lovell playing lead guitar and vocals, accompanied by her sister, Megan, on lap steel guitar and vocals, and backed by drums and bass, they performed a 21st century rendition of Son House’s 1930s blues standard “Preacher’s Blues.” In the 1950s, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins wrote the new blues standard “I Put a Spell on You.” Shattering the hex seven decades later, Rebecca Lovell conjured up a future classic– from the spellbound perspective—and mesmerized the audience with “Bad Spell.” They teased us with the first few bars of Link Wray’s 1958 classic instrumental “Rumble” before launching into “Holy Ghost Fire.” The past and present collided with a thunderous musical explosion. 

Though anchored in the blues, Larkin Poe is at their core a southern rock ‘n’ roll band who play in 5th gear on an open highway. With only an electric guitar, a lap steel guitar, bass, and drums, Larkin Poe generated a piercing blast of down-home jams. “Blue Ridge Mountains,” “Summertime Sunset,” and “Southern Comfort” were high-octane, full-throttle numbers. “Wanted Woman” showed off the sisters’ guitar mastery and vocal dexterity.

The band downshifted long enough for Rebecca Lovell to show off her soulful voice with “Might as Well Be Me,” a great bluesy ballad. I’d like to see her explore more of this. The woman can sing the blues! She also writes great songs. “Mad as a Hatter,” a song she wrote when she was only 15 years old, describes her grandfather’s battle with mental illness and shares her fear that she might inherit his demons. Sometimes blues music isn’t just learned, it’s also experienced. 

They ended their 15-song set with “Bolt Cutters and The Family Name” and followed with an encore, “Deep Stays Down.” They embraced the old stage maxim: always leave your audience wanting more. That was certainly true of Tuesday night’s show. With so many great songs in their arsenal, and despite a full 16-song show, I hoped they’d play more from their impressive catalog.

Goodnight, Texas, opened the show with the vivid tune “Tucamcari,” imaging the windswept New Mexican town like a musical soundtrack from a gritty John Ford western. They reframed Dylan’s “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more,” into a more realistic “I’m Going to Work on Maggie’s Farm Forever.” Goodnight, Texas’s reimagined farmworker is trapped in a work/poverty cycle and doesn’t have an option to leave the farm like Dylan’s protagonist. It’s a bitingly clever and well-constructed song. In all, they played nine stunning numbers. With their finale, “The Railroad,” you could almost hear the hammer strike the spike as they laid down the track. I wanted more. A short opening set just wasn’t enough. I’d love to see them again, this time, headlining in the State Room. I can imagine a number of great local Americana acts who could open for them. Judging from the crowd’s enthusiastic response, I know I’m not the only one.

Who: Larkin Poe w/Goodnight, Texas

What: Blood Harmony Tour

Where: The Commonwealth Room

When: February 14, 2023

Info: https://thestateroompresents.com

         www.larkinpoe.com

         www.hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com

The Lone Bellow offered us a little teaser last summer when they opened for country-pop sensation Maren Morris at Red Butte Garden (she hand-selected them). That seven-song set whet our appetite for the main course, a full-set, KRCL Presented show at the Commonwealth Room on Feb. 5, 2023. The band is touring in support of their just-released Love Songs For Losers, an 11-song gem that’s rising in the charts. Recorded in the supposedly haunted house of the late Roy Orbison (if you believe in that sort of thing), the end result is a highly spirited record. The single “Honey” has already hit #2 on the Americana Singles chart and the band is sure to fill their setlist with a hardy sampling of their great new material.

The Lone Bellow, a trio of southerners who met in New York City in 2012, play contemporary country/folk or what they term Brooklyn Country. Featured musicians include Zach Williams on guitar and lead vocals, Kanene Donehey Pipkin on mandolin, bass, keyboard and vocals and Brian Elmquist on guitar and vocals. The trio inked a record deal with Sony imprint Descendant Records and released their debut self-titled album which reached #64 on the Billboard Top 200 in 2013. People magazine placed the record in their top ten albums of 2013. The record provided listeners with a visceral musical experience of alluring harmonies and impassioned lyrics. “Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold,” is an exuberant song about how a strong relationship can get you through hard times. The trio sings “Green eyes and a heart of gold. All the money’s gone and the house is cold and it’s alright.” Their sophisticated blend of country/folk/rock/gospel/blues appeals to fans of both heartfelt country ballads and urbane folkish grit.

The band stayed in the center lane of Americana for their next two records. Stunning three-part harmonies and rich tales of love, loss, pain and joy remained the secret formula that earned them an Americana Music Award nomination for best group in 2015. A move to Nashville in 2016 didn’t untether their musical moorings and years on the road only strengthened their place as roof-raising roots revivalists. 

On Feb. 7, 2020, The Lone Bellow hit a home run with the release of their most creatively daring and emotionally intelligent, full-length album Half Moon Light. Then, the global pandemic abruptly halted their touring schedule. Undeterred, the band continued to make music. In 2021 they released a deluxe edition of Half Moon Light, expanding the original release from 15 songs to 21 (what we called a double album back in the vinyl days). Despite the pandemic, the album soared to #4 on the Billboard US Folk Album charts and #11 on the Billboard Top 200. The first single “Count on Me” seemed ready-made for the emotional rollercoaster we were all on (though it was written pre-pandemic) with soothing harmonies chanting like a mantra “Count on me, if I can count on you.” The line “Let it break you. Let it help you lay down what you held on to” also resonated as many of us used the pandemic to take stock of what really matters in life. The song reached #1 on the Americana Singles chart. Its companion release “Dried Up River” is an equally emotional anthem that found its audience, despite the lockdown. It made it to #1 in the charts.  

Opening for The Lone Bellow is Tow’rs, a Flagstaff-based band featuring husband and wife duo Kyle and Gretta Miller who provide winsome folk harmonies. Their songs blend personal and spiritual growth with a collective sense of neighborliness and nature. Their sound reminds me of a stripped-down version of Elephant Revival with their breezy melodies and Elysian vocals. They’ll be the perfect warm-up for a blissful night of soul-regenerating folk-rock music.

Fans of the Avett Brothers, CSNY, Lumineers, Jamestown Revival, Nathaniel Rateliff, or Watchhouse won’t want to miss this show. I will pair the evening’s music with a  refreshing Yacht Rock Juice Box Hazy IPA from Proper Brewing.

• Who: The Lone Bellow w/ Tow’rs
• What: KRCL Presents: The Love Songs For Losers Tour
• Where: The Commonwealth Room
• When: February 5, 2023
• Tickets and Info: thestateroompresents.com and KRCL.org

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For more than a decade, Larkin Poe has delivered their electrified, modernized, Southern-fried rockin’ blues to stadiums and festivals all across the globe. On Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 we get a chance to see them up close and personal at The Commonwealth Room.

Sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell from Georgia, who make up Larkin Poe, are reinvigorating the blues by blending their blood harmonies with super-charged guitar and lap steel riffs. They’re touring in support of their new record Blood Harmony, a great rockin’ blues album that weaves threads of home and family together into a complicated, sometimes painful narrative. In the first chords of the opening track, “Deep Stays Down” Megan Lovell’s haunting swamp blues slide guitar riff takes us somewhere dark and foreboding while sister Rebecca’s soulful voice tells us about the subterranean demons that get buried in the rural South with lyrics like: “The cat’s in the bag, the bag’s in the river and the river runs deep and the deep stays down.” 

The title track “Blood Harmony” celebrates growing up in a musical family and singing with a sibling to create powerful blood harmonies. Rebecca sings: “More than flesh, more than bone. When I sing, I don’t sing alone.” The sister’s bittersweet move from Georgia to Nashville is captured in the radio-ready, Bonnie Raitt-styled “Georgia Off My Mind.” One of my favorite tracks on this amazing record is “Bad Spell.” Rebecca Lovell pens a clever response to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ 1950s macabre blues classic “I Put a Spell on You” from the perspective of the spellbound. The sisters offer us a bad-ass, full-throttled rockin’ blues retort. “Boy, you cast a bad spell, a bad spell over me. And when I catch you, you’re gonna catch hell. I’m gonna get ya in the first degree.”

The Grammy-nominated duo is firmly rooted in the blues and they offer a fresh, new, female perspective that’ll lead the genre into the 21st century. Fun fact: The band is named for the Lovell sister’s great, great, great grandfather, Larkin Husky Poe, who was a cousin of the gothic writer Edgar Allen Poe. That dark literary DNA passed to the Lovell sisters making the blues the perfect vehicle for their artistic expression.

Larkin Poe put a fresh coat of paint on Son House’s 1930s blues standards, “John the Revelator” and “Preachin’ Blues” making them shine for a new generation of listeners. Ninety years ago Lead Belly recorded a 1-minute acapella version of an old, southern field workers’ song “Black Betty” which recounts oppression, injustice and living under the whip. Other artists have recorded versions of the standard, but none captured Lead Belly’s intensity until 2017 when Larkin Poe gave the song a new-age authenticity with their powerful foot-stomping female harmonies.

In 2020, Larkin Poe released Kindred Spirits, a full-length album of contemporary covers. Their version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” features a slower, more acoustic tempo and the duo’s beautiful harmonies transform the song with a haunting and visceral depth. Their renditions of “Nights in White Satin,” “Bell Bottom Blues” and “Fly Away” are also fabulous reworks.

2020 also brought a full dose of new, original material with Self Made Man, a hard-charging album that reached #1 on Billboard’s blues album chart and featured great new power blues ballads like “Holy Ghost Fire.” Rebecca Lovell sings: “lift our voices with the smoke rising higher. Burn with that holy ghost fire.” While Megan Lovell harmonizes to an uptempo beat, both sisters duel it out with thunderous guitar licks.

In 2018, their album Venom and Faith reached #1 on the Billboard blues album chart and received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The record produced the single “Bleach Blonde Bottles Blues,” a song that defines the duo’s driving blues guitar and lap steel sound with a thunderclap beat and mesmerizing siren harmonies. 

Opening the evening is American roots quintet Goodnight, Texas, a band fronted by two lead singers and songwriters, Avi Vinocur from San Francisco, and Patrick Dyer Wolf from North Carolina (so, they’re not actually from Texas). Goodnight, Texas is named for the small town halfway between the two, representing the “meet in the middle” of their songcraft. Blending folk, rock and blues, Goodnight, Texas creates a musical landscape of scenic vistas and open roads. Their song “Tucumcari” captures images of the windswept New Mexican town with a gritty western musical soundtrack. The band creates an Old Crow Medicine Show vibe with old-timey styled Americana songs like “The Railroad,” “A Bank Robber’s Nursery Rhyme,” and “Moonshiners.” Their rural roots style will pair well with Larkin Poe’s electrified Delta blues.

Fans of southern-styled blues like the Allman Brothers, Black Crowes, Gary Clark Jr, Samantha Fish, Kaleo, or ZZ Ward won’t want to miss seeing Larkin Poe in the intimate confines of the Commonwealth Room on January 27, 2023. They’re sure to get your feet stompin’, your hands clapping and your head bobbing. I will pair the evening’s music with a fine Golden Spike Hefeweizen from Uinta Brewing. Cheers!

• Who: Larkin Poe w/Goodnight, Texas
• What: Blood Harmony Tour
• Where: Commonwealth Room
• When: Jan. 27, 2023
• Tickets and info: thestateroompresents.com