The Lowest Pair (WA) 

The Lowest Pair, their name taken from a John Hartford poem, features Arkansas-born, Kendl Winter and Minnesotan Palmer T. Lee. The two alternate between picking banjos and strumming guitars while singing sweet harmonies over each other—no other musicians or instruments needed. “So with their bare-bones instrumentation and country-inspired, heartstring-tugging narratives, The Lowest Pair might be one of the best under-the-radar Americana duos today“. (Paste)

The rootsy twosome’s debut album, 36¢, was released through Team Love Records and was recorded and engineered by Trampled By Turtles member Dave Simonett. Draped in Kendl’s high lonesome harmonies and Palmer’s Midwest croon, their debut was hailed by many outlets and American Songwriter praised their ”earnest, earthy songcraft.” 

After a year of traveling the country playing clubs, house shows, back yards and street corners, the duo found their way back up to Minnesota, where they sat down to record their follow-up album, The Sacred Heart Sessions, in an old church. The album allows the listener to enter the space that surrounds its creation. One can virtually feel the walls and vaulted ceiling of the old wooden church rising up, creating a natural reverb and warming the air. Their follow up album was released this past February.

Be it Kendl’s punk roots, her talent and admiration for the traditional American songbook, the gravitational pull that drew her to Olympia combined with Palmer’s creative impulses, Midwestern charm and the strange moment of fate that left him with two inherited banjos as a young man, along with the long winters spent listening to Townes Van Zandt and John Hartford recordings, that have spawned the unique and original sounds that are The Lowest Pair.