Tag: singer/songwriter

BGS 5+5: Sarah Siskind

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Sarah Siskind
Hometown: Brevard, North Carolina
Latest album: Modern Appalachia

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I would say my biggest overall influence is The Story, which was an alt-folk duo out of Cambridge, Massachusetts in the ‘90s consisting of Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball. My dad used to bring cassettes home from the library of albums he would read reviews about and pass along ones to me he thought I’d like.

At the time I was way into Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman (about age 13 or so), so when he first gave me Grace in Gravity by The Story, it unnerved me a little. But, then I woke up one morning and had to listen to it on repeat or I thought I’d die! So I listened to it on repeat. For years. The songs on that album are ingrained in me now. Dissonant harmonies. Bold chord changes. Strong female perspectives.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My favorite memory on-stage is when Bonnie Raitt asked me to sing “Angel From Montgomery” with her as a duet for the first time… and then after… she handed her guitar to me and said, “Play one of yours.” I’ll never forget that feeling. I felt like I was flying.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

The most effective ritual for me is to straight up pray. I ask God for peace of mind and for blessings over every note that comes out of my mouth. For Him to guide the show and for me to be a vessel. I also do some floor stretches if I can. When I toured with Paul Brady, I had a mix on my phone I would listen to before every show and it was Snatum Kaur, Lauryn Hill, and Mahalia Jackson; I would do stretches as I sang along.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Water, definitely. The county where I live in North Carolina has the most waterfalls per capita in the country. However, I absolutely love rivers. When I’m really stuck, or having a rough day, I go to either the Davidson or French Broad River in Brevard, North Carolina, and trail run or just sit and pontificate. Watching the movement of water brings me back to center. The sound even more so. It reminds me how ultimately small we are in the big picture and that this vast earth was created through suffering way bigger than mine.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I love this question. I’m a closet chef. If I could have dinner with any musician, I would have a big southern meal of pulled pork, greens, and pintos with Danny Barnes.

Photo credit: Brian Boskind

MIXTAPE: Mike McKenna Jr.’s Canadian Dream

Posted on by Editor

We have some very chill vibes happening north of the border, so I’ve put together a playlist of my current isolation favourites, with a focus on the music scene here in my adopted home of Montreal. This is not a who’s who of club bangers or country twangers, although there’s a time and a place for both. Instead it’s my special collection of laid-back, Canadian, genre-fluid, slow afternoon-drive royalty. — Mike McKenna Jr.

Foxwarren – “Sunset Canyon”

I’ve been into this song somethin’ fierce lately so it’s at the top of the list, and it honestly makes me want to melt into my couch just hearing it now. If an ice cream sandwich started a band it would probably sound like Foxwarren, and no I don’t have any idea what I mean by that.

Deadhorse Beats – “Inglaterra”

When I first met Patrick Wade (AKA Dead Horse Beats) here in Montreal, through the small but tight-knit Nova Scotia community, we seemed to have skipped over the fact we were both musicians. Turns out he had some really fresh tracks up his sleeve, eventually showcased in his 2019 record Inglaterra, and since it dropped I’ve had it on repeat.

Hanorah – “Saturn Return”

One night I went out to meet a friend at a local dive bar, who told me she’d be singing backup for this artist named Hanorah. The bar was an absolute pile of trash, but as the music started this confident, natural voice cut through the nonsense… it was holiness.

Leif Vollebekk – “Elegy”

Another true Montreal gem, Leif is a piano and chill mastermind, with several other great songs from this album worth mentioning like “Vancouver Time” and “Into the Ether.” His music has a simple beauty and “Elegy” was a must include, or me getting stoned and making a playlist didn’t happen.

Buffy Sainte-Marie – “Helpless”

“Helpless” may have been written by Neil Young and first recorded by both Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but there is something raw and badass about Buffy’s 1971 rendition. She’s an icon, and this throwback has a little je ne sais quoi that I connected with as soon as it hit my ears.

Bahamas – “Lost In The Light”

The first time I heard Toronto-born songwriter Afie Jurvanen’s “Lost In The Light,” I was lost on a documentary binge, and it stood out while watching a short-doc about a guy from Nova Scotia living on a sailboat and cruising around the Caribbean. The melody cemented that image into my head; the clear turquoise water, the fresh fish, the freedom, the cool pocket knife… funny how vividly a great song can transport us somewhere.

Rosier – “Vie peníble”

This pastel-adorned, traditional turned indie band has strong roots in the folk music community here in Quebec, and it shows subtly throughout their youthful dream-pop songs à la française. My own newest release At the Edge of the World features two members of Rosier, so yes you’re right that I’m very biased, but unapologetically so.

Colter Wall – “Kate McCannon”

We’re deep into the session so we needed a dark horse, and “Kate McCannon” is not only an epic and old school tale, but my sister’s name happens to be Kate. So it sounds a hell of a lot like Kate McKenna to me sometimes when it’s on in the background, and then I have to stop whatever I’m doing and plan to avenge her death at the hand of this s.o.b. prairie boy. But honestly this song is captivating, vivid storytelling and I’m into it big time. Respect!

Andy Shauf – “The Magician”

The opening track to Andy Shauf’s 2016 record, The Party, sets the tone for an album written by an incredibly observational songwriter, and entirely about one awkward, eventful night. He’s the only artist to be featured twice on this list, and deservedly so, since he also happens to be the lead singer of Foxwarren.

City and Colour – “Sleeping Sickness”

This song reminds me of driving across Canada for the first time a few years ago, passing by fields and endless trees and more lakes than you could imagine. Although it doesn’t say in the title, “Sleeping Sickness” includes a guest spot by the late Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip, which makes this one a bit more special.

Geneviève Racette – “Magnetic Love”

My good friend, and a truly exceptional songwriter in both French and English, Geneviève Racette got some serious national attention last year after releasing her album No Water, No Flowers. It’s no accident that I placed this one right after City and Colour, since it was upon hearing her new track “Parachute” that lead singer Dallas Green became incredibly vocal about how strong of a record this truly was.

Jon Bryant – “Paradise”

People from my home in the Canadian Maritimes love to champion someone as our own, and even though Jon Bryant has relocated to the West Coast we know he’s a bluenosin’ Nova Scotian. “Paradise” is my favourite track from his new record, Cult Classic, and it demonstrates that he’s absorbed a lot of that laid-back, free-spirit energy BC is known for.

Mike McKenna Jr. – “At the Edge of the World”

It was suggested, maybe even encouraged, that I include at least one of my own songs, so I chose the single and title-track from my just released 8-song album, At the Edge of the World. It features some lush, dreamy production courtesy of Victoria, BC’s Quinn Bachand (Brishen, Kittel & Co., Rosier), and a ’70s-inspired, harmony laden, pedal-steel infused backing band.

Les Louanges – “La nuit est une panthère”

Yesterday I asked my bandmate Colin Savoie-Levac (Rosier, the Duhks) if he wanted to throw something into the mix that he’s really into right now. His pick was this sweaty, sexy number from Quebec’s indie pop powerhouse, Les Louanges, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Rose Cousins – “Freedom”

A live video recording of “Freedom” is what originally pulled me into a deep Rose Cousins wormhole, but the studio version is such a dramatic, powerful and universal piece of work. My natural conclusion is she’ll go down as one of our greats.

Mac DeMarco – “This Old Dog”

This song has been in a few of my playlists lately, as it’s strange but smooth lull makes me feel like I’m floating on a druggy cloud. Although I know “Chamber of Reflection” or something from his outstanding 2014 album Salad Days might be an easy crowd-pleaser, I really like the stripped-down, tight, melodic nature of “This Old Dog.”

Wild Rivers – “Thinkin ‘Bout Love”

I’ve been following the trajectory of this band for a while now, ever since we’d both entered a national song contest and I came across their soulful, catchy pop song “No Ribbons.” It was released under a different name, but when they launched into the mainstream as Wild Rivers and dropped “Thinkin ‘Bout Love,” I wasn’t surprised to see them selling-out shows and thriving.

The Sheepdogs – “The One You Belong To”

Trying to remember where I was when I first heard the Sheepdogs, but the memory is smothered by a thick cloud of smoke. The retro, soulful, southern-rockish band out of Saskatoon hits my nostalgia buttons with a Woodstock-esque punch, making this jam a perfect way to finish off my list!

Photo credit: Elena Samuel

On New Duet Album, Laurie Lewis Gathers Old Friends and Close Companions (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on by Editor

Laurie Lewis has lived most of her life in Berkeley, California, yet she’s primarily associated with music from Appalachia. A highly respected producer, she is admired equally for her singing, songwriting, fiddling and arranging, and her influences range from old-time and bluegrass to swing and jazz.

In 1986, Lewis released her first solo album, Restless Rambling Heart, which included seven original songs. Since then, she has recorded more than 20 albums with a variety of musical friends. She holds numerous honors from the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well as Grammy nominations for her own albums and collaborations.

Now nearly 35 years into her career, Lewis regularly pays tribute to female bluegrass pioneers, performs with and fosters a new generation of female musicians, and teaches at many of the nation’s most acclaimed music camps. BGS caught up with her by phone to discuss her new duet album, and Laurie Lewis, featuring old friends and new musical partners alike.

BGS: Why a duet album?

Lewis: It came about accidentally. I had an idea that I wanted to record a duet on (the Carter Family song) “You are My Flower.” Molly Tuttle and I got together to try it out and we had so much fun playing and singing that we went upstairs to my little studio. We turned on the microphones and just sang and played. It was so musically full, it didn’t need anything else. I thought, “Thank heavens, I have finally gotten around to singing this duet the way I’d wanted to for the last 20 or 30 years.” Then I got together with Tatiana Hargreaves. When we toured together, she and I worked up a tune I had written that she played on the fiddle, and I just loved that and I wanted to capture that. Then we got excited and did another song – and then I had three songs! I thought, “Maybe I’m making a duet album.”

Tom Rozum and I had worked out the Monroe Brothers’ version of “Will the Circle be Unbroken” for a Monroe tribute, and I just loved the way that sounded, and I thought we definitely should record that. It snowballed from there. I had lots of duet ideas where I thought a particular friend would be perfect on a particular song. So I went about collecting the versions of the songs. I recorded more things than are on the album. I have a few that are held back, just because I didn’t want it to be super-long and have people lose interest halfway through thinking they would never get to the end!

How did you decide to keep the instrumentation so spare – no more than two voices and two instruments?

After listening to what I recorded with Molly and Tati, I really liked what I heard. I fell in love with playing as a duet with Tom. We’re both essentially band musicians and used to having a whole band surrounding us, not just picking up the slack, but filling out the sound. When we started playing as a duo many years ago, it seemed really scary to both of us – and really empty. But we kept doing it, and I fell in love with the emptiness, that loose weave that you get with just two people and two instruments. And the way it becomes a conversation – my favorite way to have a conversation, just one on one.

How did you choose your partners and songs?

They’re all people who I have had long musical relationships or long friendships with. I’ve known Molly and Leah Wollenberg since they were babies. As the project went on, it felt as if these are some of my closest companions in life. These are the core people who have made a huge difference to my musical life in one way or the other

One of the last things I recorded for the album was “Old Friend” with Kathy Kallick. As the album started to take shape, I realized, “Oh my God, I have to have Kathy on here.” We have been singing partners and friends for more than 40 years. I just have to have her on here. But I couldn’t think of a song. The idea came to me as I was backpacking in the mountains: “‘Old Friend,’ of course!” It was recorded originally in 1989 and we’ve been friends much longer. It seemed like the perfect vehicle for us at this point.

Do you write specifically for an album, or do you just come up with songs, say, when you’re hiking, and then it shows up on an album?

Yes. I would say yes to both of those. For instance, I never expected “The Pika Song” [to end up] on the new album. I was just making up a little poem about pikas when I was hiking on the John Muir Trail. And then I was sitting around playing the banjo one day and I started singing it. When I mentioned it to Tatiana, she told me that some friend had just said that she thought the pika was [a perfect animal to match] Tati. She got really excited – she’d never seen one, but she got to hear all about them and play on the song and sing about them, so that was pretty fun.

Sometimes I will write things specifically for a group or for an album. I have lots of songs that I just don’t finish and sometimes the impetus of recording an album is what pushes me to commit to being done. So in that way I do write for albums. And sometimes just because the creative juices start flowing when you’re in a recording situation, a new song just comes along. And I’m grateful for that.

Did you choose songs that represented your own versatility?

Oh, no. I didn’t think about that. I really just thought about who was the right person to sing with on a particular song. Like the songs I did with Nina Gerber. There is nobody I would rather do certain songs with than Nina Gerber. “My Last Go Round” is a Rosalie Sorrels song. Nina worked closely with Rosalie and I got to play with her a few times. I recorded that song on a tribute album for Rosalie, and when we played the tribute concert, I played it for the first time with Nina. It felt so deep and healing. Music has a real way of being able to soothe and heal grief, and it really felt good to do it with her, and we’ve been doing it every time we play together since then. Nina’s electric guitar is the absolute perfect thing for “This is Our Home.” She fell right into it, just knew exactly what to play. She’s a mind reader.

Todd Phillips and I occasionally play “Baby, That Sure Would Go Good” in concert. We did it for years, but I never thought about recording it. When suddenly I was doing a duet album, I thought it would be perfect. And of course it was really fun. Todd’s bass playing is just out of this world. I mean that in every way you can think of. It’s crazy, but it’s great.

Tell us about “Troubled Times,” which is so appropriate right now. When you wrote it, were you thinking of something specific?

I wrote that about 20 years ago. I honestly cannot remember what inspired me to write it. It had some other verses, at least one other verse which I left out, because it wasn’t as good as the ones I used. I think it was politically motivated at the time, motivated to the outside world and my reaction to what was going on, but I can’t remember what specific event or events inspired it.

I had only performed with Leah Wollenberg once, at the Freight & Salvage, although I’ve known her all her life. One day I said to her, “Would you come over and sing one of my songs with me so I would have a recording of it”? I really didn’t know how it would go. So she came over and we recorded it. When I listened to it I said, “This is good! This is great!” So I asked her if she would be on the album. I think that I’ve just been sitting on that song waiting for the right combination of events, but also the right combination of voices to sing it with me.

Can you talk about the role of friendship in your music? You sustain such long-term friendships and musical partnerships. Is that unique to you?

I don’t think that’s unique to me. Musicians communicate very deeply through shared music. It’s impossible to play heartfelt music with other people without loving them, or at least learning to love them. And once you love somebody, you want to keep them in your life. So if there’s a problem, you work it out. You address it. You don’t let things go by and be on the surface. It’s what we do — we forge personal relationships that are strengthened through music, or are begun through music and continue past music.

Editor’s Note: Read part two of our Artist of the Month interview with Laurie Lewis.

Photo credit: Maria Camillo

LISTEN: Sarah Jarosz, “Orange and Blue”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Sarah Jarosz
Hometown: Wimberley, Texas (now living in New York City)
Single: “Orange and Blue”
Album: World on the Ground
Release Date: June 5, 2020
Label: Rounder Records

In Their Words: “I wrote this song with John Leventhal. He had most of the piano melody written and recorded, and within moments of him playing it for me I had this very clear vision of the cypress trees in my hometown of Wimberley, Texas. I rode the subway home from John’s studio that evening with the melody in my inbox and the lyrics just poured out of me. We tweaked the form and a couple of lines the next day. This is one of those songs that feels like it was always a part of me but was waiting for the right time to emerge.” — Sarah Jarosz

Photo credit: Josh Wool

LISTEN: Chelsea Williams, “Cornerstone”

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Artist: Chelsea Williams
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Cornerstone”
Album: Beautiful & Strange
Release Date: May 8, 2020
Label: Blue Élan Records

In Their Words: “Not all of my songs are heartache and drinking songs… just most of them. ‘Cornerstone’ is a real shift from this, it’s more of a ‘heartache gone wrong’ song. It tells the story of a girl who is used to being dealt all the wrong cards. When her luck changes she must learn to trust the universe and trust the new happiness she’s found.” — Chelsea Williams

Photo credit: Piper Ferguson

LISTEN: Rod McCormack, “Fingerprints”

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Artist: Rod McCormack
Hometown: Terrigal, NSW, Australia
Song: “Fingerprints”
Album: Fingerprints
Label: Sonic Timber Records

From the Artist: “‘Fingerprints’ was written for my beautiful wife Gina. As I flew over to the States to record this album, she reminded my that I hadn’t written a love song for her yet — and after 20-odd years I thought it was about time. I was so glad to work with John Scott Sherrill on this song idea, and then to have Gina sing on it with me was a real treat. I really wanted ‘Fingerprints’ to have an Appalachian feel to it, and hearing the fiddle and banjo weave around the acoustic guitar still takes me back to our early years together. Along with the current single, ‘Shimmers,’ ‘Fingerprints’ is probably the most requested song from the album.” — Rod McCormack

Photo credit: Steve Kearney

BGS Long Reads of the Week // May 1

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

It’s gonna be… May! Welcome to a new month of long reads, where each week we look back into the BGS archives for some of our favorite content from across the years. If you haven’t yet, follow our #longreadoftheday series on social media [on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram] and as always, we’ll put all of our picks together right here at the end of each week.

Our long reads this week are southern rock and blues, bluegrass and rock and roll, Americana and country, and a dash of… hard-to-put-a-finger-on-it, too. Read on:

Marcus King: A “Young Man’s Dream” Come to Life

A cover story from earlier this year, our conversation with 23-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist Marcus King digs deep into the creative processes that shaped his debut album, El Dorado — his first project outside of his critically acclaimed group, The Marcus King Band. With Dan Auerbach producing and an absolutely stacked roster of studio musicians, the project came together “on the fly,” yes, but that turned out to be a pretty natural pace. [Read the entire interview]

Canon Fodder: The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin

Given the canonization of Gram Parsons over the last few decades, as well as the gradual breakdown of genres and styles over time, it’s easy to forget just how contrarian it would have been for a West Coast rock band to embrace country and bluegrass. But that’s exactly what the Flying Burrito Brothers did. This edition of Canon Fodder explores their first album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, which despite its near-flop at the time of its release is perhaps their most important work. [Read more]

Linda Ronstadt Talks Bluegrass

One of the most important vocalists/artists in rock and roll and popular music over the last century, Linda Ronstadt also knows a thing or two about bluegrass — as evidenced in this 1996 interview from Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. We pulled this fascinating article out of the BU archives to commemorate the release of the documentary film, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice last year. It’s a two-parter, so we spread it out over a couple of days this week!
[Read part one] [Read part two]

John Moreland Figures out How to Love Music Again

Turns out there are drawbacks to any career – even when it’s your dream job – and you can confirm that with dark-folk and Americana favorite, John Moreland. The Oklahoman singer/songwriter released his latest album, LP5, earlier this year. The project surprised some listeners by exploring new sonic territory for Moreland — new territory that revived the spark that got Moreland into writing to begin with. [Read our conversation]

 

Artist of the Month: Laurie Lewis

Posted on by Editor

Generously sharing her gifts as a fiddler, singer, and songwriter, Grammy nominee Laurie Lewis has remained a beacon on the West Coast bluegrass landscape for more than 30 years. While she’s considered a seminal figure for women in bluegrass, today she’s creating music that’s just as vital as her acclaimed albums of the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s.

For her newest album, and Laurie Lewis, she gathers a new generation of admirers and longtime cohorts alike for a mix of covers and originals that draw on her folk and bluegrass roots.

“There are things that you can communicate musically together, which are hard to put into words,” she has said. “To have those conversations with people I love and who have been so significant throughout my career is a beautiful thing.”

An IBMA Award-winning vocalist and an advocate for equality, Lewis possesses a compelling voice that commands attention.  Read our two-part interview with our May Artist of the Month, Laurie Lewis, here: Part one. Part two. And while you do, enjoy our Essentials playlist.

Photo credit: Jeff Fasano

Building on Double Banjo, The Lowest Pair Concoct ‘The Perfect Plan’

Posted on by Editor

The Lowest Pair may be best known as a double-banjo folksinger duo, yet their new album is a full-band effort that somehow sounds like a complete departure without actually straying from home. It’s a fitting theme, considering that the release of The Perfect Plan – their sixth album in seven years – arrives during a global pandemic. BGS spoke with bandmates Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee as they were isolated in separate homes in Olympia, Washington.

“We’re supposed to have been on the road now — a couple of festivals the past couple of weeks,” says Winter, who spent this past winter in Antarctica working at a scientific research station and running the annual South Pole Marathon, in which she set a women’s time record. “We were thinking we were going to hit the ground running and now we’re just hitting the ground, trying to figure out how to promote the record in this new paradigm.”

On the bright side, with any luck, the fact that everyone is stuck at home will provide plenty of time to digest The Perfect Plan’s complex instrumentation and intuitive arrangements, worked out with multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes). Although previous efforts feature the stripped-down duo sound fans have come to enjoy in their live sets, this project is a little more aurally ambitious. Listeners still get their banjo and acoustic guitar, but these are afloat amid bass, drums, and electric guitar with all its effects.

“We wanted to hear what [our music] would sound like with a bigger sound,” Winter says. “We went into the studio pretty open to what Mogis was thinking, in terms of production. I think we both have dreamed about having drums and bass behind us. It’s not as easy to do on the road, but it was kind of a fantasy record.”

Lee, a Minnesota native who spent his winter at a writing retreat in Wisconsin, agrees. “We’ve definitely been talking about doing bigger band stuff in different ways over the years. Logistically, it’s a bit of a challenge and a bit of a gamble, I suppose. Being a duo, you keep your overhead pretty low. It’s just simpler that way. But it’s definitely been a dream of ours for a while.”

The Lowest Pair began when Winter and Lee were playing in other groups. They spotted each other at a bluegrass festival. “I remember seeing Palmer’s string band and noticing a kindred thing he was going for,” Winter says. “He played the banjo but differently from other people, putting more notes in it. He has a soulful voice, saying stuff that isn’t very common in bluegrass music. He had a song about tea and I had a song about tea, about drinking tea. I felt like … we’re going for similar things from really different places, with different vehicles.”

That night, they spent hours jamming around a campfire. Though they continued to follow each other on social media, it was another five years before their paths crossed again. Both were considering solo projects and decided instead to join forces, ultimately naming their duo after a John Hartford poem.

Winter remembers: “Palmer got a hold of me and said, ‘You look like you need a singing buddy.’ He proposed the idea of doing an album together. As soon as we started singing together people responded immediately. Both of us were like, ‘Well, we’ll just do this.’ We kind of had shows lined up before we even had a band, because I had been working on a solo project and no one really minded that I came with somebody else.”

As it happened, when that summer wrapped, Lee had studio time booked with Dave Simonett of Trampled by Turtles as producer. “I was going to do a solo record and then I [told Dave], ‘Hey, I’m working on this new project. Let’s do this instead.’ That’s when 36 cents happened,” Lee says of the duo’s 2014 debut album.

A string of quickly-released projects followed as Winter was on a roll, churning out great songwriting for one recording after another. Somewhere along the way, the duo got into a rhythm, barely even needing to break from a tour in order to jump into a studio and produce another album. But the idea of, at some point, slowing down long enough to put a full-band effort together kept gestating. They wanted to explore sounds beyond bluegrass, to see how their songs might be able to stretch them in new directions.

By the time they visited Mogis’ studio in Omaha last year, they knew almost instinctively that it would be the place. Though Winter and Lee stuck to the core of their sound on The Perfect Plan, balancing their banjos and vocals, there are a few tracks where they veered especially far from the norm.

On “Morning Light,” for example, Winter played most of the instruments herself while Lee simply added vocals. “We decided not to have banjo on the track,” she says. “That was one we actually did [with] layers and built it up. We had a vocal line that was … kind of an obnoxious vocal line that didn’t really work. We wrote lyrics for that song during the time we were there. That one got fleshed out in the studio. But, most of [the songs] we performed all together with the band, so it was really like, ‘Learn the song and let’s go.’”

“Mike had the demos for a couple of months before we came in,” Lee adds. “He had all sorts of ideas and had some musicians in mind. Then it kind of just happened organically. Kendl and I started playing through the songs and everyone would start jamming. It was pretty awesome.”

Mogis encouraged the duo to bring their own drummer, so they roped in Minneapolis mainstay J.T. Bates (Bonny Light Horseman, Big Red Machine). Fans of bluegrass know well that banjos and drums don’t always mix, as the latter can so easily overpower the percussive tonality of the former. Luckily Bates’ subtlety is so on-point his rhythms seem to follow the duo’s acoustic strings, rather than the other way around.

Lee explains, “On that ‘Wild Animal’ track, for instance, we just started jamming. Rather than drive the song in a particular direction, J.T. was able to find the best way to accent what was already happening.”

“Sometimes as we arrange, we fill up the space according to how we’re going to play as a duo,” adds Winter. “On the one hand, it gives us endless options. On the other hand, it gives us really limited options as to how many different sounds we can do as two people. But I think we left some space on these tunes to let people be creative. We didn’t want to get in there and have too strong an idea [of how everything should sound] because we knew Mike was magic and we wanted him to have a voice in it.”

Thanks to this somewhat laissez-faire approach, the arrangements are deeply intuitive, an extension of the intimate pairing of the duo itself. Rather than drown out the delicate subtlety that makes the Lowest Pair such a stirring band in the first place, The Perfect Plan centers the duo well and allows their unique vibe to lead the way.

The result is so sonically pleasing, it can be easy to forget there are so many people in the room behind the group. Winter and Lee had planned to pull that studio band together for a few live dates once the album dropped, but that part of the release schedule is on hold for now. Luckily, there’s plenty of richness on this album to dig into in the coming weeks.

But if The Perfect Plan is the album the Lowest Pair has been building up to for years, don’t mistake the duo for having hit their stride.

“A stride implies it was kind of smooth,” says Winter, provoking laughter from her bandmate. “I think we just got hooked on each other and the project has a momentum. I think we just kind of rolled into a lifestyle where this is what we do.”

Photo credit: Sarah Kathryn Wainwright

BGS 5+5: LULLANAS

Posted on by Editor

Artist: LULLANAS (twin sisters Atisha and Nishita Lulla)
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Latest album: Before Everything Got Real EP

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

It’s really hard for us to pick just one… honestly our music catalogue really started developing when we noticed the music in the background of tv/film/commercials. Once we saw how instrumental (pun intended) songs were to telling the story… that’s what really took our breathe away. Some artists who inspire us through that realm are Ingrid Michaelson, Peter Bradley Adams, and Gregory Alan Isakov.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

We drove down to Nashville for a week and got a chance to play at the Bluebird. It was a moment we built up in our heads for a while and it did not let us down. We only played a few songs, but as soon as Nishita strummed the first chord to our song “Melody” on her guitar… the room went silent. It was the kind of intensity every artist craves. We could tell that the audience was taking in every feeling, every lyric, every note and any intimate artist to listener moment like that is a favorite stage moment for us.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

When we aren’t creating music, we are in the kitchen baking up a storm. For us, baking is all about the process and attention to detail. The same goes for our music. One of our favorite things to do is create custom cookie designs inspired by artists who we look up to. We use baking as another outlet of artistic release. What we can’t write/sing about, we can bake about.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

We had the chorus scribbled on a page for one of our songs off our latest EP. It was just a chorus for about seven months. No matter how bad we wanted to finish it… we just couldn’t. Eventually, taking a step back from it was what helped us complete it. It was one of the toughest times, but also one of the most rewarding.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

To create music that helps people feel something in a world that can be a little numbing at times.

Photo credit: Lenne Chai