After their 2016 dual album release Uncertain As It Is Uneven / Fern Girl & Ice Man, both Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, whom together make up The Lowest Pair, decided to spread their wings, both releasing solo albums via Conor Oberst’s Team Love Records. Kendl’s, Stumbler’s Business, was a stark folk affair, a natural extension of the work her duo work, while Lee’s album Winebringer, was influenced by the Sufi poet Hafiz and his masterwork of poetry “The Book of the Winebringer.”
They reunite on their new album ‘The Perfect Plan‘ with Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes in the production chair. The accompanying press hints at a spirited album with complex soundscapes that pushes well beyond the traditional boundaries of Americana, while remaining grounded by clawhammer banjo and acoustic guitar. The fleshed-out sound of The Perfect Plan leans gently into Winter’s punk past, as well as the sonic playground of her mind, to set the band down a new path on their musical journey. Following its release on April 24 via Delicata Records / Thirty Tigers, they are undertaking an extensive UK tour in May (see dates below) so be sure to catch them. In the meantime check out their new single Too Late Babe…
Talking about the album Winter shares
“I sometimes feel like my creative interests are too varied to make sense together. One second I’m trying to learn how to use a digital synthesizer to make drum beats and the next second I’m scratching away at some ol’ fiddle tunes and all the time I should be practicing banjo, but then I’m making a screamy electric guitar song in my head…It was a whole new creative journey, and super exciting and fun, for us to open up the songs to Mogis’ beautiful production aesthetics.”
That is not a statement to be taken lightly, as both artists took time out to ground themselves through outward and inner exploration before heading to the studio. Heading to the South Pole to work in a scientific research station wouldn’t usually be at the top of anyone’s list but that’s what Winter chose to do. While there, she left her footprint on Antarctica by winning the Annual South Pole Marathon in -36 degrees, at a pressure altitude of 10,300 feet, and setting a new record time in the competition for women. On Facebook, she admitted “I think three months is the longest I’ve spent in one place for many many years” – but hey, she sure made it count.
Meanwhile, Lee went north to a small, wooded cabin in the Driftless hills of Wisconsin for a writer’s residency where his lessons in presence involved lots of wood chopping and water carrying. “My objective wasn’t necessarily a list of goals or things I wanted to create, but to learn to observe my process — the way I live and how it lines up against the way I want to live — to learn more about the way I construct a day and could construct a day,” he confesses.
Of the album he says “I love the stripped-down versions of these songs. I think they leave a lot to the imagination, and I trust people have enough juice to choose their own adventures in the space that the band fills out on the record. But we also can’t wait to tour with a full band and to see how that magic translates on stage. It felt really exciting in the studio, and the songs pack a much greater punch with the added instrumentation.”
Be sure to catch that magic in May…
The Perfect Plan is out on April 24, 2020, via Delicata Records / Thirty Tigers.
The Lowest Pair On Tour:
March 21 — Music and Art at Oak Glen — New Cumberland, WV
March 27 — Treefort Festival — Boise, ID
May 2 — Mid West Music Fest — Winona, MN
May 6 — The Greystones — Sheffield, UK
May 7 — Flow — Hay on Wye, UK
May 8 — The Slaughtered Lamb — London, UK
May 9 — The Chapel Art Stop — Abergavenny, UK
May 10 — The Canteen — Bristol, UK
May 11 — Bressingham Village Hall — Bressingham Diss, UK
May 12 — The Bell Inn — Bath, UK
May 13 — The Forge at the Anvil — Basingstoke, UK
May 14 — The Rose and Monkey — Manchester, UK
May 15 — The Wexford Arts Centre — Wexford, IR
May 16 — The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre — Dublin, IR
May 18 — Nick Murphy’s — Ballymore, IR
May 20 — Hawk’s Well Theatre — Sligo, IR
May 24 — The Voodoo Rooms — Edinburgh, UK
May 29-30 — Steamboat Stringband Jamboree — Olympia, WA
June 3 — SPACE — Evanston, IL
June 4 — Turf Club — Minneapolis, MN
June 5 — The Winnebago — Madison, WI
June 6 — Bonfire Music and Arts Festival — Hillsboro, WI
June 7 — Sacred Heart Center — Duluth, MN
Photo credit: Sarah Kathryn Wainwright