#mimi parker

[vyva-melinkolya]

Low (1996)

[nofatclips]

Untitled #5 by Low from the album The Exit Papers, originally part of the Travels In Constants series

[jt1674]

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[dustedmagazine]

Alan Sparhawk — With Trampled by Turtles (Sub Pop)

When Low ended and Alan Sparhawk figuratively lost his voice and made the only record he could, there was a certain subsurface tension that ran through fans of the band. Some of us loved White Roses, My God, and thankfully only a small subset of those who didn’t sulked about it. But there was a larger group you could almost hear reassuring each other, don’t worry, I hear he’s already working on another album and it’s going to sound a lot more like Low. As even the title of his new, collaborative LP indicates, With Trampled by Turtles is indeed closer in the sense that these are verse/chorus/verse songs largely performed by acoustic instruments. Anyone familiar with the sometimes-bluegrass, wide-reaching folk band Trampled by Turtles might guess, though, it still doesn’t sound much like Low. And the record is better for that.

Sparhawk hasn’t been at all shy in interviews about what Low was: without Mimi Parker, there’s no band of that name. And Trampled by Turtles (like Low, from Duluth Minnesota and well established in their own right) are no anonymous session players devoted to recapturing something already past. Although this LP shares two songs with White Roses, My God (an almost chorale take on “Get Still” and a nearly twice as long, lovingly emphatic version of “Heaven”), some of the best examples of what Trampled by Turtles add sonically come on songs that were written or finished for With Trampled by Turtles. The gently searing climax of “Don’t Take Your Light” circles around the cello, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin of the ensemble, and even the initially stark “Screaming Song” (almost a sequel to Low’s “Death of a Salesman”) erupts into squealing strings as the sorrow and intensity build.

All of which means that this isn’t really a “solo” record, for whatever that’s worth. Sparhawk’s White Roses, My God collaborator Nat Harvie is producing again, keeping the humane warmth of these songs and performances front and centre. All six of Trampled by Turtles surround Sparhawk’s voice and guitar like an embrace. And on “Not Broken,” one of three songs Parker and Sparhawk were working on for the next Low record, their daughter Hollis Sparhawk sings the chorus in a voice just enough like her mother’s to break your heart in a particularly bittersweet way. But one more reasons to be glad Sparhawk made White Roses, My God first is that this is not an album sunk deep in grief, seeing no light. It begins with the lovely combo of “Stranger” and “Too High” (the latter which Low used to play live sometimes as “High + Right”), directing empathy both outwards and inwards.

Sparhawk starts “Not Broken” with the lines “one of these days I’m gonna learn/something I probably already heard.” Both life and mourning are like that, things slowly accumulating until one day you realize the truth of something that’s been staring you in face for a while. Sometimes that’s dark, like viscerally understanding that everyone you love won’t be here someday. Sometimes it’s not, like realizing that life continues, and that death can’t take away the love you have in life. With Trampled by Turtles closes with “Torn & in Ashes,” one of the more somber songs here (albeit still sweetened by those strings). It ends by restating those lessons, poetically: "confused by the lashes burning time took/leaving you now with only what's good." In community, here Sparhawk has found some more of that good.

Ian Mathers

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and I don't wanna be there when they drag you out

[batteredshoes]

Farewell, Mimi 

There and gone

[alberto-balsalm]

destiel shippers (and Tumblr shit posters in general) going ham while v for vendetta fans (and anyone else observing guy Fawkes day) observe in their traditional manner and Low fans are quietly remembering Mimi Parker 1 year later. The 5th of November really has everything doesn't it

[stuffaboutminneapolis]

RIP to Mimi Parker from Minnesota band, Low 😥