Biography
Based in Olympia, Washington, singer/songwriter Kendl Winter has maintained a busy output both as a solo performer and through numerous group projects. She refined her singular mix of country, bluegrass, and lo-fi indie folk during the late 2000s while playing in the folk-punk band the Pasties, then spent the following decade contributing to outfits that included the bluegrass quartet Blackberry Bushes, the Americana duo Southern Skies, the indie rock group It's All Gotta Go, and the folk duo the Lowest Pair. A versatile player recognized above all for her banjo work, Winter issued several favorably received solo albums on the Olympia-based K Records, among them the 2013 release It Can Be Done!, before moving to Team Love Records for the 2018 album Stumbler's Business.
Originally from Arkansas, she launched her solo career in 2006 with the intimate album Still Life on French Road Records. Drawing on her command of banjo, Dobro, and guitar, Winter adapted several songs originally performed with the Pasties for this debut while also adding fresh material. A second collection of original songs appeared the next year with the loop-driven A Walk in the Shadows, followed in 2008 by the self-released Kite, also issued under the title Story My. In 2009 she began shaping songs for another project, tracking portions at her Olympia residence and portions aboard a boat on Puget Sound. The resulting album, the atmospheric and refined Apple Core, first appeared in a limited run of block-printed CD-Rs before receiving broader distribution via K Records in 2010. Her association with the label persisted, leading to the 2012 release The Mechanics of Hovering Flight, the first of her records she did not produce herself; instead she enlisted K founder Calvin Johnson as engineer. In 2013 she delivered the hopeful It Can Be Done!, backed by an informally assembled group billed as the Summer Gold. For several subsequent years Winter concentrated primarily on the Lowest Pair, the folk duo she formed with fellow banjoist Palmer T. Lee. Beginning with the 2014 album 36¢, the pair issued five studio albums across just three years. Returning to solo work, she signed with the New York indie Team Love Records and issued Stumbler's Business in 2018.
Originally from Arkansas, she launched her solo career in 2006 with the intimate album Still Life on French Road Records. Drawing on her command of banjo, Dobro, and guitar, Winter adapted several songs originally performed with the Pasties for this debut while also adding fresh material. A second collection of original songs appeared the next year with the loop-driven A Walk in the Shadows, followed in 2008 by the self-released Kite, also issued under the title Story My. In 2009 she began shaping songs for another project, tracking portions at her Olympia residence and portions aboard a boat on Puget Sound. The resulting album, the atmospheric and refined Apple Core, first appeared in a limited run of block-printed CD-Rs before receiving broader distribution via K Records in 2010. Her association with the label persisted, leading to the 2012 release The Mechanics of Hovering Flight, the first of her records she did not produce herself; instead she enlisted K founder Calvin Johnson as engineer. In 2013 she delivered the hopeful It Can Be Done!, backed by an informally assembled group billed as the Summer Gold. For several subsequent years Winter concentrated primarily on the Lowest Pair, the folk duo she formed with fellow banjoist Palmer T. Lee. Beginning with the 2014 album 36¢, the pair issued five studio albums across just three years. Returning to solo work, she signed with the New York indie Team Love Records and issued Stumbler's Business in 2018.
Albums
Singles
