Folk act the Lowest Pair worked at a quick pace for the first half of their career (so far), releasing more than an album a year in the mid-2010s. They seemed to hit pause for a minute after 2020, though, putting out a collaborative release with Small Town Therapy, but otherwise keeping a low profile. They return now with their eighth album, Always As Young As We’ll Ever Be, and the break seems to have had no lasting effects. If anything, it’s allowed them to develop assurance and confidence as they flow through the new record.
The act centers around vocalists/banjoists/guitarists Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee. The Lowest Pair writes easy-moving folk music, often driven by banjos (or, increasingly, guitars) and vocal harmonies made distinctive in large part thanks to Winter’s tone. The format still applies, even as they’ve expanded their arrangements (drummer JT Bates and multi-instrumentalist Adam Roszkiewicz have become a vital element of the act). Tucker Martine’s production finds a balance between warmth and brightness.
“Give It All Away” begins the record with Winter’s steady voice, but the song doesn’t truly start until Lee joins her. New elements build until the increasing weight shifts into a pure melody and some solid picking. The Lowest Pair don’t push anything here, but their performance is smart and precise, making their thoughts on change effective. The addition of synths adds the proper texture for the mood, setting the duo in just the right place to get things started.
That track provides a foundation for “The Uncertain Seas”, in which Winter wonders about the vagaries of life and romance. She knows there are things she doesn’t know, but she’s able to comfort herself after a loss by thinking through these issues. Change comes, and questions don’t always find a resolution, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find peace, articulated here as much by the guitar as by the lyric itself.
“Tiny Rebellions” provides a wonderful surprise, the duo moving away from their folk sound into something more gothic (not to the level of, say, Wovenhand, but still an unexpected sound from the pair). The darkness, developed through a sharp fiddle, has moments of hope, but it’s the transitions that drive the singers’ thoughts. Religion—or at least spirituality—comes and goes, but the “angel of light” remains. “Ineffable beauty and a tiny rebellion” fight the darkness, suggesting a transcendental relief available to those who look for it.
It’s a twist in Always As Young As We’ll Ever Be, but it also fits. Winter and Lee are searching in their lyrics right now—uncertain in love, oscillating in faith—but they’re finding peace despite the transitory nature of life. They know that “Tomorrow’s not a guarantee / Not as solid as a thing,” but they’re comfortable in that knowledge. The record, steady and confident, sounds like both a journey and its end point, not in finishing the trip or finding simple solutions, but in finding peace within turbulent seas.