Faced with the release of their fifth album, Self Made Man, in 2020 but not being able to take the music on tour due to Covid-19, Nashville-based sister duo Larkin Poe found a creative way to document the music, on Paint the Roses, from a live, collaborative streamed concert with the Nu Deco Ensemble, conducted by Jacomo Bairos. The one-night event, held on December 12, 2020 at Miami’s North Beach Bandshell, paired the amazing roots-rock duo with the Miami-based, 21-piece contemporary hybrid orchestra for an interpretation of their music through a different kind of lens.

Written by Bessie Jones and Alan Lomax, “Sometimes” opens the album with an energetic, a cappella and rhythmic clapping groove. Electric guitarist Rebecca Lovell and lap steel guitarist Megan Lovell had a hand in composing all the other tracks on this album, with the exception of a segue from “Back Down South” into Dicky Betts’ “Blue Sky.” The two women rockers also pay tribute to their grandfather, who struggled with undiagnosed mental illness, in their poignant, self-penned number, “Mad as a Hatter.” Other album standouts include “Danger Angel” and “She’s a Self Made Man.”

In “Every Bird That Flies,” lead vocalist Rebecca Lovell speaks to connections and relations as she sings “Tryin' to get to heaven, with all this hell to pay, it only gets you deeper, with every working day. When all you got is nothin’, and you're waiting 'round to die, suddenly you're free as, every bird that flies.” It’s a song that also seems to put a poetic exclamation point on the strength of their powerful collaborative effort with Nu Deco.      

Indisputably top-tiered axe-slingers, Larkin Poe consistently delivers punchy instrumentation with soulful, full-throated vocals.  Along with Sam Hyken’s incredible orchestral arrangements, Paint the Roses reliably concocts a tasty, varied set full of sonic and lyrical excitement, captured on a magical winter evening.   (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)