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The Heart of Low

Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s marriage was one of the most extraordinary collaborations in rock. Now, a year and a half after Parker’s death, Sparhawk is back on the road.

In “Nothing But Heart,” from the album “C’mon” (2011), Sparhawk, adopting what I take to be the persona of God, sings, “I would be your king / But you want to be free / Confusion and art / I’m nothing but heart.” That last line is repeated at least twenty times, with Parker harmonizing, in the next several minutes, while the music builds to a whirlwind roar. They used their Gap-sponsored sabbatical to write and record “Things We Lost in the Fire,” which closes with what might be the sweetest song in the Low catalogue, “In Metal.” “Partly hate to see you grow / And just like your baby shoes / Wish I could keep your little body / In metal,” Parker sings to Hollis, whose laughter and babble can be heard throughout the track. “There’s sparsity, letting people fill in the gaps, to feel something that isn’t directly handed to them.” Like many of the women I spoke to about Parker, Bridgers emphasized that she had been a role model: a female drummer (rare enough in rock) who was also co-lead singer and songwriter, and who didn’t try to hide the fact that she was a mother.

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