A SHEROES Tribute to MIMI PARKER OF LOW

This week, we are paying tribute to drummer, vocalist, songwriter and co-founder of the band Low, Mimi Parker who passed away at the age of fifty-five last week from ovarian cancer. As we honor her this week on SHEROES with a special communal space that features voices from throughout the Low community of fans, local radio hosts, and collaborators, we will also hear the voice of the very woman we are here to celebrate and mourn. Mimi Parker was my guest on SHEROES back in January of this year, and it was during that conversation that she first shared the news of her cancer diagnosis and recent treatment. It was a shocking revelation, and listening back now, a moving experience that I wanted to share with you this week. When I spoke with Mimi, Low had just released their thirteenth album, 2021’s critically hailed Hey What. That album was the first that Mimi and her husband and bandmate Alan Sparhawk made as a duo, and tragically, it would be their last.

I knew almost immediately that this audio tribute should be communal. So I cast the line out on social media asking for fans to send in their requests and remembrances, reached out to my radio affiliates in Minnesota (Low’s home state) - The Current and KAXE Northern Minnesota Community Radio - and, in a flash of inspiration, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, a friend of the band who produced Low’s tenth album (and one of my personal favorites), The Invisible Way, released in Low’s 20th anniversary year, 2013. In just a few months that album will be 10, and Low’s 30th anniversary.

What a gift to have lived in the age of Low, to have had the angel on earth (as so many have described her), Mimi Parker. Her sublime voice, her songs, her presence, her rhythms. It was an honor to hold space for her when we spoke, and this week, humbling to put together an expanded, two hour edition of SHEROES, with songs 100% selected by everyone invited. Music is community. I am so grateful to everyone who showed up to honor Mimi. I hope you will find some comfort while you listen, knowing that this was made like a patchwork quilt of songs and thoughts. I shed many a tear sewing it together, and felt immense gratitude throughout. Thank you.