Rebecca Lovell (Larkin Poe) Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to “Habibi” and the Strat-Through-Deluxe Rig

Rebecca Lovell’s pedalboard has a custom enclosure with her nickname on it: “Habibi.” Arabic for “my love” or “darling” — a word of endearment that her guitar tech Brandon Harris had engraved as the label for the signal routing at the core of her rig. The board itself — designed and built by XAct Tone Solutions in Nashville — is the current expression of a guitar journey that started with a banjo, moved through mandolin, and arrived at the Fender Stratocaster by way of a bluegrass prodigy career, the blues of the Mississippi Delta absorbed from the Allman Brothers, and the specific influence of her husband Tyler Bryant (Series 2 #136), who married the guitarist and passed her one of his Fender Custom Shop 1960s-style Stratocasters. The Strat she took from Bryant’s collection — a Custom Shop HSS model — is now her primary live guitar. “I can hear how much of a Bryant flavor I do have,” she has said with characteristic self-awareness.

Rebecca Lovell was born on January 30, 1991, in Atlanta, Georgia, home-schooled alongside her sisters Megan and Jessica (three years older). All three started on classical violin in youth orchestras at a young age. In 2005, at fourteen, Rebecca was already a commanding singer and mandolin player when the Lovell Sisters — Rebecca on mandolin, Megan on dobro, Jessica on fiddle — won first prize on A Prairie Home Companion’s Talent from Twelve to Twenty contest. Subsequent wins followed: a mandolin contest at MerleFest in 2006, a John Lennon Songwriting Contest grand prize in 2008. In 2009, Jessica left for college; Rebecca and Megan decided to continue as a duo and became Larkin Poe, named after their great-great-great-grandfather — a distant cousin of Edgar Allan Poe. The blue-eyed Southern gothic undertone was deliberate. Rebecca is the guitarist, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter of the duo; Megan is the lap steel player, harmony vocalist, and Dobro specialist. Together they are “the little sisters of the Allman Brothers,” as some have called them — though their sound is considerably heavier than that description implies.

Background: Bluegrass Prodigy, Allman Brothers Guitar School, Blues-Rock Evolution

The trajectory from bluegrass mandolinist to blues-rock Stratocaster player is one of the more complete musical transformations in contemporary American roots music. It happened gradually and then decisively. “A few years into the formation of Larkin Poe, as we delved deeper and deeper into the blues, it slowly dawned on me that the sonic palette I was searching for was the guitar,” Rebecca told Premier Guitar. The Allman Brothers’ albums were her guitar method books. Duane Allman’s slide work, Dickey Betts’s melodic leads, the specific sound of two guitars and a lap steel creating the Allman Brothers’ wall of sound — these were the sonic models she absorbed and then tried to replicate in a two-person format.

Her first electric guitar was a seafoam green Jazzmaster: “I got that because we were playing with Elvis Costello, and that was his main guitar and I just thought it was so badass.” The Jazzmaster’s visual identity and its specific association with Costello’s angular post-punk rock made it a meaningful choice for a young musician still finding her own guitar identity. From the Jazzmaster she moved to the Fender Stratocaster as her primary live instrument — “I mainly play a Stratocaster now,” she told MusicRadar. The Strat evolution was both organic and specific: influenced by Tyler Bryant’s deep Strat expertise and her absorption of the Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan vocabulary that defines Texas-influenced Stratocaster playing.

The Larkin Poe sound is one of the more distinctive in contemporary American roots music: two women, no bassist, no drummer in the earliest live configuration (though a full band backs them now), with Rebecca’s electric guitar providing the low-end foundation alongside Megan’s lap steel — creating a wall of sound through arrangement sophistication rather than instrumental numbers. “Sometimes called ‘the little sisters of the Allman Brothers'” — the comparison captures the Allman influence without fully capturing what Larkin Poe has developed into: a blues-rock band with strong gospel and Americana roots, more sonically aggressive than the Allman Brothers’ classic era, more commercially ambitious than most “traditional” roots acts.

Their discography — self-released through their Tricki-Woo Records imprint — includes Kin (2014), Reskinned (2014), Peach (2017), Venom & Faith (2018), Self Made Man (2020), Tears of Gold (2022), and Bloom (2024), alongside EP releases and the acoustic covers album Kindred Spirits. Guitar Player named Megan the Best Lap Steel guitarist; the duo has appeared on major festival stages including Glastonbury (2014 and 2016). Their commercial trajectory suggests a band in the slow-burn process Rebecca describes: “We’ve been doing this now since we were young teenagers, and we’re on a slow-burn path, buddy. We have played shows to just the bar staff. And we’ve had just enough taste of what the top feels like to know that happiness lies wherever it is that you put it.”

The Rig: Rebecca Lovell’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects

Guitars

Tyler Bryant Custom Shop Fender 1960s-Style Stratocaster HSS (Current Primary Live Guitar): Rebecca Lovell’s current primary touring guitar is a Fender Custom Shop 1960s-style Stratocaster HSS — specifically, one of her husband Tyler Bryant’s guitars that she “snagged” and took on tour. “She’s married to Rig Rundown alumnus Tyler Bryant, who’s had a long association with that particular Fender. She snagged one of his Fender Custom Shop 1960s Stratocaster HSS’s and took it on tour,” the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown confirms. The guitar’s HSS configuration — humbucker at the bridge, single-coils in the middle and neck positions — reflects Bryant’s own preference for a Stratocaster that can access both the warmth of a humbucker-equipped bridge pickup and the clarity of single-coils elsewhere. Bryant’s Custom Shop connection and his longstanding relationship with Fender means the guitar was built to exacting specifications: 1960s-style neck profile, alder body, vintage-style tremolo.

The guitar’s origin — taken from her husband’s collection rather than ordered from Fender directly — is one of the more charming gear facts in contemporary blues-rock: two guitarists in the same Nashville household sharing not just musical influence but actual instruments. “I can hear how much of a Bryant flavor I do have,” she has acknowledged of the influence, and the specific guitar being one of his means the Bryant flavor is literal as well as stylistic. Her guitar tech’s custom enclosure labeling her board “Habibi” (the Arabic endearment, a reference to her own nickname) places this domestic intimacy at the center of her professional rig.

Fender Stratocaster HSS Shawbucker (Earlier Primary Live Guitar): Before adopting the Tyler Bryant Custom Shop Strat, Rebecca’s primary live guitar was a Fender Stratocaster HSS with Shawbucker pickup at the bridge. Premier Guitar’s 2018 coverage shows her onstage with this guitar; its Shawbucker humbucker is a Tim Shaw-designed pickup that provides a warmer, fuller character than the standard Stratocaster bridge single-coil, suited to the heavier blues-rock territory of Larkin Poe’s later albums. “I mainly play a Stratocaster now,” she told MusicRadar in this period — the “now” reflecting the evolution from Jazzmaster through various Stratocaster models to the Custom Shop instrument she uses today.

Gretsch Jet (Recent Addition): A Gretsch Jet appears in her current documented collection alongside the Stratocaster — noted in Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s profile as a more recent addition. The Gretsch Jet is a semi-hollow single-cutaway guitar with FilterTron humbucking pickups, associated with Brian Setzer and the rockabilly tradition as much as with blues-rock. Its specific tonal character — bright, articulate, with the hollow-body resonance that solid-body Stratocasters don’t produce — gives her a third distinct voice alongside the Strat HSS and the acoustic instruments.

Sidecar Guitar (Acoustic, 1920s/30s Inspiration): Rebecca plays a Sidecar guitar in all acoustic settings and throughout the Kindred Spirits album — an instrument that takes inspiration from guitars of the 1920s and early ’30s. The Sidecar is built by a small-operation luthier, and its historical inspiration gives it the specific resonance character of early twentieth-century American acoustic guitar construction — ladder-braced, with the punchy, overtone-rich character that distinguishes early American acoustics from the more “modern” X-braced instruments that became dominant from the 1930s onward.

Seafoam Green Fender Jazzmaster (First Electric Guitar, Elvis Costello Connection): Rebecca’s first electric guitar was a seafoam green Fender Jazzmaster — bought because she was playing with Elvis Costello and “just thought it was so badass.” The Jazzmaster’s offset body, floating tremolo, and dual single-coil pickups with separate rhythm and lead circuits made it one of Fender’s more complex and more distinctive designs. Its specific association with indie and post-punk guitarists (Thurston Moore, J Mascis, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine) is different from the Stratocaster’s blues-rock heritage, and the guitar’s visual and sonic character was appropriate for a young musician still finding her place between bluegrass and rock.

1969 Gibson SG (Vintage, Tutorial Videos): Rebecca plays a Gibson SG in tutorial videos, with her model being a ’69 SG — a vintage instrument from the late-period of the original SG design. The SG’s mahogany body and dual humbuckers give it a warmer, thicker character than the Stratocaster, useful for heavier lead work and for contexts where the Strat’s brightness is too prominent. Her use of a ’69 SG places her in the same vintage-Gibson tradition as Joanna Connor (Series 2 #138) and Ally Venable (Series 2 #139).

Gretsch Jim Dandy (Blues Cover Videos): A Gretsch Jim Dandy parlor guitar — a small-bodied, ladder-braced acoustic with a specific resonant, warm character derived from its compact body — appears in Larkin Poe’s cover of Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” on YouTube. The Jim Dandy is a budget instrument that produces a specific old-school acoustic character: present, punchy, and historically rooted in the parlor guitar tradition that connects directly to the pre-war blues tradition that Larkin Poe draws from.

Duff F5 Mandolin (Early Career, Turn the Green Grass Blue): Rebecca plays a Duff F5 mandolin on “Turn the Green Grass Blue” and in other early Larkin Poe contexts — a bluegrass mandolin in the Gibson F5 tradition, associated with Bill Monroe’s foundational role in bluegrass music. Her mandolin playing at MerleFest 2006 won a contest; the instrument represents the beginning of her string-playing career that preceded and informed the guitar work. The mandolin’s tuning (GDAE, same as violin), its bluegrass harmonic vocabulary, and its specific physical technique all translate into guitar facility in ways that pure guitar players don’t develop: a broader sense of harmony, a different approach to melodic construction.

Amps

Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue (Primary Live Amp, Shared With Megan): Both Larkin Poe sisters use Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue amplifiers as their primary live amps — “Their collective solution is to tour with a couple of Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverbs. And both plug into the amp’s vibrato circuit,” as Premier Guitar’s Rig Rundown documents. The Fender Deluxe Reverb is a 22-watt single-12-inch combo with the classic blackface Fender circuit — clean with natural breakup at moderate volume, with built-in spring reverb and vibrato (tremolo) on the vibrato channel. Its relatively low wattage makes it one of the most practical clean-to-breakup amplifiers for smaller venues; its specific American tube character is the foundation of the Larkin Poe electric guitar sound. The vibrato circuit — both sisters plug into it specifically — adds the warm, slow-cycling pitch modulation that gives certain Larkin Poe recordings their characteristic depth.

Fender Twin Reverb (Home Amp, Additional Stage Option): A Fender Twin Reverb is mentioned as her home amplifier option — “On the road, we’re playing through a Fender Deluxe and Twin Reverb” as one interview confirms, suggesting the Twin is available as a larger-format option for bigger venues where the Deluxe’s 22 watts aren’t sufficient. The Twin Reverb’s 85 watts of clean headroom provides the same American tube character as the Deluxe but with significantly more volume capacity.

Strymon Iridium (Cab Simulation, Front of House/Backup): A Strymon Iridium — one of the most sophisticated amp and cabinet simulator pedals available — is wired into Rebecca’s signal chain “as a redundancy, and to provide sonic options for our front-of-house engineer,” as she described in her Guitar World pedalboard interview. The Iridium models three classic amplifier types (Fender Deluxe Reverb, Vox AC30, and Marshall Plexi) with corresponding cab IRs, providing either a direct-to-PA option if the stage amplifier fails or an additional signal path for the front-of-house engineer to blend with the stage microphone signal. Professional touring musicians increasingly use cab simulators as redundancy insurance; the Iridium is the benchmark for this application.

Effects

Line 6 HX Effects (Central Multi-Effects Hub, “The Brain of the Board”): “My current touring pedalboard is a workhorse! Designed and executed by the wizards at XAct Tone Solutions in Nashville, the brain of the board is a Line 6 HX Effects,” Rebecca told Guitar World. The HX Effects is Line 6’s flagship multi-effects processor without the amp modeling of the full HX Stomp — providing access to hundreds of modulation, reverb, delay, and other effects in a single unit, along with MIDI control capability. “I use the HX Effects library to cue up patches for a fast tremolo, slow tremolo, noise gate, slap echo and boost — and also as a switcher for the rest of the pedals on my board.” The switching function is key: the HX Effects controls the routing of the other pedals on her board (the Rodenberg TB Drive, Royal Jelly, and MXR Sugar Drive), allowing her to combine and switch between pedals without stepping on multiple footswitches simultaneously. This is the approach of a working touring musician who needs reliability and consistency across 100-plus shows per year.

Rodenberg TB Drive — Tyler Bryant Signature Shakedown Special (Primary Overdrive, Custom Enclosure): Rebecca’s primary overdrive is the Rodenberg Custom Amplification TB Drive — Tyler Bryant’s signature overdrive pedal, with a custom enclosure bearing her nickname “Habibi.” “My main overdrive pedals are the MXR Sugar Drive and the TB Drive [Tyler Bryant Signature Shakedown Special] by Rodenberg Amplification,” she confirmed in the Guitar World interview. Using her husband’s signature pedal is simultaneously a musical choice (the TB Drive’s low-to-medium gain, touch-sensitive character suits her blues-rock approach) and a biographical statement: the gear of a married pair of guitarists who live and work in the same Nashville household, sharing influence, instruments, and now signatures on each other’s touring gear.

MXR Sugar Drive — Limited Edition “Brown Sugar” Coating (Secondary Overdrive): The limited edition MXR Sugar Drive in “brown sugar” coating — a caramel-colored finish on the standard MXR Sugar Drive enclosure — provides a second overdrive option with a different tonal character from the Rodenberg. The Sugar Drive is based on the same transparent, musical overdrive concept as the King of Tone and Klon Centaur, providing a clear, mid-forward push that interacts with the amplifier’s natural character rather than coloring it significantly.

Beetronics Royal Jelly Overdrive/Fuzz Blender (Primary Fuzz, Featured on “Bad Spell”): “My only fuzz is the Royal Jelly [Overdrive/Fuzz Blender] by Beetronics; we recently performed our song Bad Spell on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, and the tone for that song is the Royal Jelly with a slap echo. It’s a ferocious and versatile pedal,” Rebecca told Guitar World. The Beetronics Royal Jelly is a unique dual-blend circuit: it combines overdrive and fuzz in parallel, with a “bee” pot that allows blending between the two circuits to create the specific ratio of overdrive warmth and fuzz saturation required. Its name continues Beetronics’ bee-themed product naming, and its visual character — honeycomb-textured enclosure — is as distinctive as its sound. “Ferocious and versatile” is Rebecca’s assessment, which captures the Royal Jelly’s ability to move between subtle pushed-clean and full-fuzz saturation.

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer (Earlier Documented Overdrive): An Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer appears in earlier documentation of Rebecca’s rig — the standard blues-rock overdrive that provides the specific mid-push and transparency that her Texas blues influences (SRV, Jimmie Vaughan) used extensively. Its appearance in earlier documentation and absence from the current Guitar World pedalboard description suggests it has been replaced by the Rodenberg/Sugar Drive combination, though it remains associated with her playing.

Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner (Utility): Rebecca’s pedalboard includes a Boss TU-3 chromatic tuner — the standard professional choice for reliable, accurate silent tuning. Megan uses a Peterson StroboStomp HD; Rebecca keeps the simpler Boss unit. Both choices reflect the practical touring musician’s preference for reliability over complexity in utility functions.

Strymon Zuma Power Supply and XAct Tone Solutions Routing Box: The Strymon Zuma R300 — a high-quality isolated multi-output power supply — powers the pedals on both sisters’ boards. XAct Tone Solutions’ custom routing box provides the signal management under the board that makes the HX Effects switching practical. These utility items are not glamorous but are as important as any guitar or amplifier in a touring professional’s rig: consistent, clean power and reliable signal routing prevent the noise and failure that make live performance unreliable.

Playing Style & Tone Philosophy

Rebecca Lovell’s playing style is the most historically eclectic in contemporary blues-rock — she has absorbed bluegrass (from the Lovell Sisters years), the Allman Brothers (from intensive study of their catalog as a guitar method), the Texas blues-rock of Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan (from her husband and her own study), and the rock vocabulary of Elvis Costello, Ozzy Osbourne, and other non-blues artists into a playing approach that is difficult to categorize but immediately recognizable as hers.

Her rhythm playing is where Larkin Poe’s sound is anchored. As the only guitarist in a duo with a lap steel player — no bassist in earlier live configurations — Rebecca’s guitar has to provide both the melodic and the rhythmic foundation, and the specific way she constructs chord voicings and rhythmic figures to create the impression of a full band from two people reflects the same orchestral thinking that Michael Hedges (Series 2 #125) applied to solo acoustic guitar. The Line 6 HX Effects’ role as a switching hub — combining tremolo, reverb, delay, and overdrive management in a single footswitch — is the technical expression of this orchestral approach: she manages a complex sonic environment in real time so that the music sounds complete without additional musicians.

Her tone philosophy is expressed in the specific Strat-through-Deluxe Reverb core of her rig. “It was easy to switch over,” she told one interviewer about adopting the Stratocaster. The “easy switch” was easy because the sonic destination — the clean, American-voiced tube character of a Fender, the clarity and expressiveness of a Stratocaster’s single-coils — was where the music she was making needed to go. The Allman Brothers absorbed through the Stratocaster rather than through the Les Paul is a different Allman Brothers — brighter, more transparent, less compressed — and the combination of influences (SRV’s Strat tone, Duane Allman’s slide vocabulary, Megan’s lap steel as the slide voice) creates the specific Larkin Poe sound.

How to Sound Like Rebecca Lovell

Guitar: A Fender Stratocaster HSS — the humbucker bridge pickup provides the additional warmth and output for heavier passages while maintaining the Strat’s single-coil character in the neck and middle positions. The Fender American Ultra HSS Strat or the Player HSS Strat are accessible equivalents to the Custom Shop instrument. Tune to standard; Larkin Poe’s electric guitar work is primarily in standard or concert pitch.

Amp: A Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb — the 22-watt blackface Fender combo with 12-inch speaker, spring reverb, and vibrato channel. The amp’s natural character at moderate volume (edge of breakup) is the foundation. Plug into the vibrato channel specifically, as both Lovell sisters do — the vibrato circuit has a slightly different character from the normal channel, and the tremolo effect (mislabeled “vibrato” on vintage Fenders) is available there.

Amp Settings (Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb):

Effects: Rodenberg TB Drive (or comparable transparent low-gain overdrive like the Klon KTR) for baseline grit. Beetronics Royal Jelly (or comparable fuzz-overdrive blender) for heavier passages. Line 6 HX Effects for modulation and switching — the fast and slow tremolo patches are essential for replicating Larkin Poe’s tremolo-heavy passages. Strymon Iridium as a backup and DI option for recording.

Influence & Legacy

Rebecca Lovell’s influence is embedded in the specific creative context of Larkin Poe — a band that is demonstrating that the American roots music tradition is not a museum but a living creative resource. The Allman Brothers absorbed as guitar method books, the bluegrass prodigy career converted into blues-rock authority, the self-released independent label model, the sustainable slow-burn touring career: all of these choices reflect a specific approach to the music business and to the guitar that is valuable as a model as well as a source of music.

Her marriage to Tyler Bryant (Series 2 #136) creates one of the more productive musical households in Nashville — two guitarists who share instruments, influence each other’s playing and production approaches, and appear on each other’s records. The TB Drive on her pedalboard, the Custom Shop Strat she took from his collection, the mutual album contributions: these are the concrete forms that musical marriage takes in professional music.

Her connection to Samantha Fish (Series 2 #133), Joanna Connor (Series 2 #138), and Ally Venable (Series 2 #139) as peers in the contemporary women’s blues-rock space is relevant for understanding the generation she represents — but Larkin Poe’s specific position within that community is as the most explicitly Americana-rooted of the group, the band whose bluegrass origins and Edgar Allan Poe family name signal a different kind of roots music consciousness than the Chicago club or Texas bar tradition that defines some of her peers.

The Bloom (2024) album and the Rockpalast live performance that Premier Guitar highlighted as “blistering” represent Larkin Poe at their most fully realized — the duo that has been doing this “since we were young teenagers” arriving at the artistic confidence that only the slow-burn path produces. Rebecca’s guitar — the Tyler Bryant Custom Shop Strat through the Fender Deluxe, the “Habibi” board with its Rodenberg TB Drive and Royal Jelly fuzz — is the instrument through which that arrival is happening.

Internal Links:

• Tyler Bryant, Rebecca Lovell’s husband whose Custom Shop Strat and signature TB Drive are central to her rig at #136
• Samantha Fish, a peer in the contemporary women’s blues-rock guitar space at #133
• Ally Venable, another contemporary female blues-rock guitarist in Rebecca’s generation at #139
• Duane Allman, whose albums Rebecca used as guitar method books in developing her lead style (Series 1)

Frequently Asked Questions: Rebecca Lovell Guitars & Gear

What guitar does Rebecca Lovell play?
Rebecca Lovell’s current primary live guitar is a Fender Custom Shop 1960s-style Stratocaster HSS — specifically one of her husband Tyler Bryant’s guitars that she took on tour. Earlier she used a Fender Stratocaster HSS with Shawbucker pickup. She also plays a Gretsch Jet, a Sidecar acoustic guitar (inspired by 1920s-30s designs), a seafoam green Fender Jazzmaster (her first electric), a 1969 Gibson SG, a Gretsch Jim Dandy parlor acoustic, and a Duff F5 mandolin for bluegrass and early Larkin Poe material.

What amplifier does Rebecca Lovell use?
Rebecca’s primary live amplifier is a Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue — a 22-watt blackface Fender combo with spring reverb and vibrato. She plugs specifically into the vibrato circuit. Her sister Megan uses the same amplifier model. A Fender Twin Reverb is also available as a higher-volume option. A Strymon Iridium is wired into her effects chain as a cabinet simulator for direct-to-PA redundancy and front-of-house signal options.

What pedalboard does Rebecca Lovell use?
Her current touring pedalboard was designed and built by XAct Tone Solutions in Nashville. The central brain is a Line 6 HX Effects multi-effects processor, used to cue patches (tremolo, gate, slap echo, boost) and as a switching hub for the other pedals. Primary overdrive is the Rodenberg TB Drive (Tyler Bryant’s signature pedal, in a custom “Habibi” enclosure) paired with the MXR Sugar Drive (limited edition brown sugar coating). Fuzz is the Beetronics Royal Jelly Overdrive/Fuzz Blender. Utility is a Boss TU-3 tuner. Power is a Strymon Zuma R300.

What is the “Habibi” nickname?
“Habibi” — Arabic for “my love” or “darling” — is Rebecca Lovell’s personal nickname, which her guitar tech Brandon Harris had engraved on the custom enclosure at the core of her pedalboard. The nickname appears on the custom XAct Tone Solutions routing box. Her sister Megan’s enclosure is labeled “Slide Queen.” The nicknames were applied by Harris specifically for their pedalboard configurations.

Why does Rebecca Lovell use her husband’s guitar?
Rebecca took one of Tyler Bryant’s Fender Custom Shop 1960s-style Stratocaster HSS guitars on tour after trying it and finding it suited her playing. “She snagged one of his Fender Custom Shop 1960s Stratocaster HSS’s and took it on tour,” as the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown describes. The guitar’s provenance — from Bryant’s collection — reflects the specific musical influence he has had on her Stratocaster approach: “I can hear how much of a Bryant flavor I do have,” she has said. The TB Drive by Rodenberg (Bryant’s signature overdrive) is also a central pedal on her board.

What is Larkin Poe’s musical background?
Larkin Poe is Rebecca and Megan Lovell — sisters born in Atlanta, Georgia, home-schooled and trained on classical violin from childhood. They won the A Prairie Home Companion Talent from Twelve to Twenty contest in 2005 as the Lovell Sisters (with their older sister Jessica). Rebecca won a mandolin contest at MerleFest 2006 and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest grand prize in 2008. When Jessica left in 2009, Rebecca and Megan became Larkin Poe — named after their great-great-great-grandfather, a distant cousin of Edgar Allan Poe. The band evolved from bluegrass through Americana into blues-rock, releasing albums on their own Tricki-Woo Records label.

How did Rebecca Lovell transition from mandolin to electric guitar?
Rebecca began with classical violin and then moved to mandolin as part of the bluegrass Lovell Sisters project. “A few years into the formation of Larkin Poe, as we delved deeper and deeper into the blues, it slowly dawned on me that the sonic palette I was searching for was the guitar.” She started with a seafoam green Fender Jazzmaster (inspired by Elvis Costello), then transitioned to Stratocasters as her primary instrument. The Allman Brothers’ albums were her guitar method books; Tyler Bryant and the Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan tradition provided the Stratocaster-specific vocabulary she developed. Her mandolin MerleFest competition win and her classical violin background informed the guitar technique she subsequently built.