Horse Camp

In 2020, while camping in the Pacific Northwest, Kendl Winter (vocals, banjo, guitar) and Palmer T Lee (vocals, banjo, guitar), who perform 21st-century old-time string music under the moniker The Lowest Pair, were sharing songs around the fire with Adam Roszkiewicz (guitar, mandolin) and Leif Karlstrom (violin, mandolin), who perform similarly styled music under the name Small Town Therapy. Suitably inspired, the two duos decided to develop the nascent ideas sparked by the encounter into what became Horse Camp, named for the wilderness facility that served as the quartet's proving ground.

‘This House’ opens the ten-track album with a welcoming natural harmonic on guitar accompanied by droney violin, which broadens into a lilting mid-tempo melody with the addition of a banjo and second guitar. The combined effort feels as naturally exhilarating as hiking down a dappled dirt path on a warm spring morning. Next, ‘Couple of Jerks’ features Winter jauntily ruminating on the quirks of friendship (‘Can't we be guardians/Of each other's solitude’). At first exposure, Winter's distinctively juvenile singing voice can take some getting used to, but by song's end, her soft intonation and natural drawl carry the day with assured grace. After that, it's all part of Horse Camp's endearing charm.