Larkin Poe sisters' rock 'n' roll comes to Payomet + 7 more music/comedy acts to close out the Cape Cod summer

The Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro will fill the final weekend of summer with three back-to-back concerts, starting Friday with Larkin Poe. The southern roots rock and roll band is led by two sisters, neither of which is named Larkin or Poe. For more of their story, see below.

And here are 7 more music shows happening around the Cape this week, ranging from country to folk to cabaret. (And it's a 94-year-old icon who's got the most concerts.)

► While comedian/actress Amy Schumer’s “Whore Tour” stop is sold out for Saturday, Sept. 3 at the Cape Cod Melody Tent (51 W. Main St., Hyannis), there were still tickets available at the Times deadline for two other shows bringing music that has topped country charts to the stage-in-the-round. At 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, the music will be from Aaron Lewis and the Stateliners (single "Am I the Only One"; albums "Town Line" and "Sinner"), with guest Tim Montana.

Then at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, the Tent will host country music star Brett Eldredge, a platinum-selling singer-songwriter whose hits (including “Somethin’ I’m Good At” and “The Long Way”) have topped country music charts and been popular for all-genre sales, too. Guest for that show will be singer-songwriter Payton Porter. Tickets and information for all shows: https://melodytent.org/.

► Cabaret legend Marilyn Maye’s attitude about her singing and life could be summed up with the title of this year’s show “94: Of Course There’s More.” At that age, Maye is performing 10 shows of her hits and more in Provincetown, at 6 p.m. nightly through Sept. 3, at the Art House, 214 Commercial St. She’ll be joined there by Tedd Firth at the piano, Daniel Glass on drums and Steve Doyle on bass. Then Maye and Firth will move the show to 6 p.m. Sept. 5 to Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Falmouth Road (Route 28), with Mark Cortale producing in both towns. Information: https://provincetownarthouse.com/; https://artsonthecape.org/explore/marilyn-maye.

Maye is a singer, actress, director, arranger, educator, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist who appeared 76 times (more than any other singer) on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and who has recorded seven albums and 34 singles. Those include the first hit recordings of “Cabaret” and “Step to the Rear.” Her album with orchestra, “The Lamp is Low,” is considered a classic and her “Too Late Now” recording was selected for the Smithsonian Institution-produced album of the 110 Best American Compositions of the Twentieth Century.

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► Besides Larkin Poe, Payomet will bring folk icon Tom Rush back to the Cape to perform music and tell stories at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3 at Payomet (29 Old Dewline Road, North Truro). Now celebrating more than five decades of touring, Rush helped shape the folk revival in the ’60s and the renaissance of the genre in the ’80s and ’90s. James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty and Garth Brooks are among the musicians who have cited Rush as a major influence. His early recordings introduced the world to the work of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor.

Finishing up the weekend with a show at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4 will be Karan Casey, who performs Irish traditional and folk music. Her 25-year career includes early days as a jazz performer in Dublin, time in New York with the band Solas and her solo career that has sold over a half-million albums. Reservations and information on all: https://payomet.org/events, 508-349-2929.

► The final concert of the summer season at the Dreamland theater on Nantucket will be by The Lone Bellow, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. The trio is described as having “earthy three-part harmonies and songwriting as provocative as it is honest,” and includes guitarist Brian Elmquist, lead vocalist Zach Williams, and multi-instrumentalist Kanene Donehey Pipkin. Tickets:  $45-$65; https://www.nantucketdreamland.org/.

Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll

Sisters of Larkin Poe bring their southern roots to Payomet

When it comes to making music, you can’t beat the bond musicians share when they're an actual family. Just ask Rebecca and Megan Lovell, sisters who together have formed Larkin Poe, a southern roots rock and roll band that has a penchant to cut loose with an edgier rock vibe.

“We’re a very strong team together,” says Rebecca on a telephone call from a show in Las Vegas. “I think us being sisters has absolutely influenced every aspect of our lives and our professional lives, and we love it. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.”

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The sister duo is currently on a tour that is sending them everywhere from Australia to Canada to Mexico and the States. They’ll stop Friday, Sept. 2 at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro as they prepare to release their sixth studio album, “Blood Harmony.”

Growing up southern and the Poe connection

One of the first things you notice about Rebecca and Megan is that neither one of them is named Larkin or Poe, so where does the name come from? It turns out that the sisters are very distant relatives of the legendary author Edgar Allen Poe.

“Up in the family tree, our great-great-great-great grandfather was related to the one and only Edgar Allen,” says Rebecca, noting that their relative, Larkin Poe, and the writer were cousins.

Chances are neither of the Poes expected to become a band name in the year 2022, but it isn’t as far-fetched as you might think when talking to the sisters makes it clear how tight-knit they are with their family.

They say they grew up in a “very music-loving household” in Atlanta, Georgia where their parents would play a variety of music. Megan says their mother “really wanted (them) to have a voice in music” so she signed Rebecca and Megan up for classical violin lessons when they were 3 and 4 years old.

“There’s never been a time, really, when we haven’t been playing music,” Megan says.

From there, the sisters added piano to their repertoire as they stayed in the classical lane, but, being in the South, it was only a matter of time before they fell in love with the music around them. They say they would go to local music festivals, “porch pickin’ parties,” and opries. It was a folk music festival from their early teens that would influence them to change direction.

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“We were just blown away by the music — the improvisation, the joy of songwriting through mountain music. We were really struck, so we dropped our classical lessons cold turkey and picked up guitar — I picked up slide guitar — and it has just grown from there,” says Megan. She plays lap steel guitar while Rebecca plays electric guitar and has lead vocal duties.

What started out as a hobby turned into a profession and the now Nashville-based sisters have been touring for the past 15 years. They’ve recorded and self-produced numerous EPs and full-length studio albums. They earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Blues album in 2020 with their record “Venom and Faith,” which made it to  No. 1 on the Billboard blues album chart. Larkin Poe’s follow-up, “Self Made Man,” also made it to No. 1 on the same chart.

Rebecca says that she and Megan consider their group a “roots rock and roll band, which translates to meaning traditional American music.” But there is also an edge to some of their songs that helps set them apart from the pack.

“We grew up loving the Allman Brothers (and) Alison Krauss & Union Station,” she says, “while also loving Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin — a lot of rock bands that were playing blues music but with a heavier edge and blown-out electric guitars.”

The ‘sister connection’ and ‘Blood Harmony’

Rebecca and Megan never stumble over each other’s words while being interviewed together — it’s almost like you’re interviewing one person — and that respect and space also carries over to their music and stage performance.

“We can move like we’re a well-oiled machine,” says Megan. “And it works for us in the studio, and as self-producers we definitely have a language that is very unspoken that we can kind of look each other in the eye and there’s a conversation that’s happening back and forth.”

Rebecca says that they have a “special chemistry” not just from “growing up in the same household,” but also from their experiences working together professionally for a decade and a half now.

“Blood Harmony,” due out Nov. 11, is a continuation of that “sister connection,” and Larkin Poe’s most honest album to date, explains Rebecca.

“I think lyrically we’ve delved into some more vulnerable territories like family relationships,” she says. “More and more, we’re being able to embrace who we are and come into our own with our storytelling voice and show people who we truly are.”

Rebecca also notes: “We didn’t overdub a bunch of stuff. Just two guitars, drums, bass, vocals and some keyboards. It’s stripped back to the roots and raw just the way we like it.”

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As for the Payomet show, Megan says she wants those who go to see Larkin Poe perform to arrive ready for a memorable show.

“People can expect an energetic show,” she says. “We really like to connect with the audience so we hope the audience comes with open hearts so we can share a really important moment together.”

If you go

When: 7 p.m., Friday, September 2

Where: 29 Old Dewline Road, North Truro

Tickets: $38-$80, members $35-$77

Reservations and information: https://tickets.payomet.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=692

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod concerts: Larkin Poe, Amy Schumer, Tom Rush, Brett Eldredge