The Sacred Heart Sessions

Clean steel strings ring out a catchy acoustic lick, followed by Kendl Winter's sharp serenade and Palmer T. Lee's warm croon cutting through on “Ruben's Fortune,” setting the tone for The Lowest Pair's sophomore album, The Sacred Heart Sessions. Recorded in a weathered cathedral in Duluth, Minn., the duo's harmonic howling and complementary banjo and acoustic guitar arrangements feel as spacious as the vaulted ceilings. The album is draped in grief and romance, revisiting memories of Minnesota or Olympia, Wash., the pair's respective homes. The most unforgettable songs, “Minnesota, Mend Me” and “Rosie,” echo the mourning of something lost, a persisting loneliness. While winter calls out in regret on the former (“Oh my Rosie Bee/I was wrong/But I learned my lesson/Won't you come back to me”), on the latter, Lee pleas, “Minnesota, mend me/I've been torn open/I need a friend like/I've never needed a friend.” It's a raw capturing of human frailty, beautifully arranged by two songwriters who transform their experiences into one emotionally and lyrically vibrant collection of folk songs.