We are super excited to share Lowland Hum’s new EP Four Sisters today!
Husband and wife folk duo Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans deliver an extraordinary amount of power with just two voices and a guitar.
The opening track, “Four Sisters Part One” is starkly beautiful, punctuated by a lyric that echoes the delivery. “Use your voice,” it says. And Lowland Hum does so perfectly.
The following two tracks (Parts Two and Three) continue to build on this luscious beginning. Lovely harmonies interwoven with compelling instrumental lines result in a striking collection.
My only criticism is that I wish there were more!
Hear Four Sisters here:
They’ve created videos to accompany the tracks that are art pieces on their own.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
They share, “"The videos are not intended to literally illustrate or narrate a specific story of isolation from the songs, but to continue that exploration in the visual realm. I am interested in the ways that colors, shapes and movement can pull forth emotions in the same way that a familiar smell or song can.
“The imagery used to investigate isolation and reconciliation in the videos accompanying Four Sisters was sourced from public domain home movies. Home movies document the world and human experience in personal and often intimate ways. Because the movies used in the Four Sisters videos are from the middle of the 20th century, the people in them did not live in a digital culture where all things can immediately be reviewed and revised. No one had conceived of the possibility that movies made in the privacy of your home could be broadcast to thousands, even millions, of people across the globe. Though these personal films are now available to the public, I feel uniquely privileged to have been given these glimpses into the private lives of these anonymous people.
“There is a sacredness to these preservations. Watching them is like being allowed to read the letters or journals of someone deceased. Furthermore, we can't help but read ourselves into them. We see the way a figure smiles or a house sits, and we suddenly remember the smile of our own grandfather and the way our childhood home looked in the summertime. This contemplative quality makes home movies a perfect medium for exploring concepts that are so much a part of our internal lives. It is our hope that these videos offer to the listener additional entry points to the themes explored in the songs of Four Sisters."
Watch "Four Sisters Part Two" here.
Lowland Hum tour relentlessly and, with each show, they include a multilayered, illuminated installation and hand-made lyric books so listeners can read along if they so choose. They have now performed in about 30 of the United States and have had opportunities to play a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR’s All Songs Considered.
Daniel started writing songs when he was 12 and has been writing songs ever since. In 2003, Daniel moved to Chapel Hill, NC for college and almost immediately joined a band. After seven years of writing and touring with Chapel Hill/Nashville based The War, followed by two years of writing and self-producing two solo folk albums, the stage was set for Lowland Hum to be born. Lauren, also a NC native, spent her early childhood out west where her love for paper and music was born. Although her love for music was strongest, her shyness drew her to study visual art, where her creative processes could be pursued in the privacy of the studio setting.
In late 2009, Daniel met Lauren at her own farewell party meant to send her off to France. He wasn't invited to the party since they’d yet to meet, but they had some mutual friends. While listening to some background music Daniel realized the harmony he heard was coming from a beautiful woman nearby. Says Goans, “I remember politely introducing myself and explaining that I admired her dulcet tones, but her memory of the moment was different. She remembers me blurting out, 'You should sing with me.'” Many other things happened between the two in the months that followed. Two years after singing on one of Daniel’s solo folk records, the pair married.
After the wedding in 2012, Daniel asked Lauren to join him on the road performing the songs he’d written. Soon they realized that it was no longer just a solo project and started their band: Lowland Hum. In August of 2013, they released their first fully collaborative record Native Air.
Says Daniel of the development of the follow-up FOUR SISTERS EP, "At the end of 2013, Lauren and I wrote 'Four Sisters: Part One' and we envisioned that we would write a few other songs in the 'Four Sisters' series. Originally we intended for these songs to be part of a full-length album, but when all three parts were written, it became clear that they needed to be released on their own because of the meaningful way they inform one another. All three songs explore concepts of isolation, confession and reunion, investigated within the context of complicated and often beautiful sisterhood.” Hence FOUR SISTERS. The band is releasing the three songs on vinyl (and digitally) along with the three accompanying videos.
Lauren says of her vision for the videos, ‘The videos are intended to continue the exploration of the EP's themes. I am interested in the ways that colors, shapes and movement can pull forth emotions and transport the viewer like a familiar smell or sound can.'
Laura B. Whitmore is a music industry marketing veteran, music journalist and editor, writing for Parade.com,Guitar World, and others. She has interviewed hundreds of musicians and hosts the She Rocks Podcast. As the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, she advocates for women in the music industry and produces the annual She Rocks Awards. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, making the world safe for guitar exploration everywhere! A guitarist and singer/songwriter, Laura is currently co-writing an album of pop songs that empower and energize girls.
