Thoughtful folk-wisdom underpinned by sensitive banjo and guitar work and sweet vocal harmonies, delivered with arresting emotional intensity.
The indie-folk duo, The Lowest Pair, return with Always As Young As We’ll Ever Be, their eighth album and their first studio release in six years. Kendl Winter grew up in Arkansas but has lived in Washington State for the last two decades, and Palmer T. Lee, is a native of Minnesota. The duo first joined forces back in 2013 and their previous self-produced albums have relied heavily on their memorable vocal harmonies and their impressive bluegrass-styled musicianship, limiting the music they recorded mainly to their own beautifully played banjo and guitar parts.
The Lowest Pair specialise in listening carefully, following and responding to each other’s voices and playing with delicacy and sensitivity. Winter sings with a gentle, honeyed rasp that has hints of Bonny Light Horseman’s Anaïs Mitchell, while remaining very much in Winter’s own distinctive style. Lee’s warm, gentle and precise singing, combines with his bandmate beautifully. As he notes, “We’re trying to make space for each other rather than crowd each other out. We’re doing a lot of listening and reacting to what the other person is doing”.
While the vocals, banjo and guitar remain front and centre, it seems the six year recording hiatus has inspired the duo to shake things up on this album, with Winter and Lee assembling a production team that perfectly matches the duo’s sensitivity. Production duties have been entrusted to the always reliable Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket) and the recording session features some excellent musicians including Leif Karlstrom (fiddle), Sydney Nash (bass/piano) and Adam Roszkiewicz (guitar, mandolin, synth). A key addition to the overall sound is drummer J.T. Bates, his work with Bon Iver and Bonny Light Horsemen, equipping him to fit perfectly into the intimacy of these songs.
The album opener, Give It All Away, muses on the cyclical nature of life, the push and pull of when to hold on and when to let go. How and where we place ourselves in the midst of all this bewildering chaos is a theme that runs through the album. They’re not throwing out glib answers, just using their exquisitely beautiful music to provide a space where the listener can quietly contemplate their world and perhaps even begin to find their own answers.
Across the album, Winter and Lee find themselves musing on a wide range of existential matters: such as the patience required when searching for inner peace and grace, how we process the pain of loss and suffering, the uplifting, aching beauty of the natural world and a great deal more. There’s a lightness and optimism underpinning this album, heightened by the wonderful playing. The songs range from having an almost indie-pop sweetness (Diamonds, The uncertain Seas), through more folky-influenced arrangements (What Is This, Quantum Physics, Shitty Light), the delicate, waltzing Thorn, to the hauntingly, almost-gothic Tiny Rebellions.
Twelve years into their creative partnership, The Lowest Pair have found another gear to gently power them along on their musical journey – essentially, still just doing what they’ve always done so well… and so beautifully.
