Duluth remembers Mimi Parker with Low 'Christmas' EP listening party
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Mark Nicklawske | The Current
Friends say Low singer, songwriter, and drummer Mimi Parker loved Christmas and always made the season bright for everyone — whether it was with baked goodies, perfectly wrapped gifts, decorating a tree, or making a now-classic Christmas record.
Those same friends and fans will remember Parker, who died Nov. 5 of ovarian cancer, with an open-to-all gathering that will feature her favorite holiday traditions and an airing of the Low record Christmas. (Read more: Low's Mimi Parker remembered by family and friends in Duluth)
The family-friendly event, “A Very Mimi Christmas: A Low Christmas Album Listening Party,” will be held Wednesday, Dec. 21 at Sacred Heart Music Center in Duluth. The night will also be live-streamed on the Sacred Heart YouTube channel. Money donated during the evening will go to support the Duluth low-income and homeless population.
Scott “Starfire” Lunt says a spontaneous public vigil for his friend Parker on the evening of Nov. 5 inspired the holiday idea. About 200 people attended the vigil and Low music was played over the Sacred Heart sound system. “It was just so beautiful and sounded so good,” he says. “I thought we should do something, we should listen to the Christmas record together.”
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Parker’s husband and bandmate Alan Sparhawk gave the idea his blessing and Lunt put together a group to plan the event. Friend Laurel Lindahl says the holidays are a perfect time to honor Parker. While the funeral service helped with the grieving process, she says, something seemed to be missing.
“I just wanted something with a little more joy,” she says. “Not that the service didn’t have those elements, but it was so soon after she died and we were all just kind of walking around like zombies. So this is something — number one — to channel that sadness and to make something beautiful for her.”
Lunt says Parker loved Christmas and all the traditions that go with it. “A Very Mimi Christmas” will include a cookie potluck where attendees can bring and exchange sweets and a craft table where people will decorate a commemorative tree ornament.
Sacred Heart Music Center, located in a historic 19th Century church, will receive special holiday decorations and lighting. (Full disclosure: This reporter sits on the Sacred Heart Music Center Board of Directors).
Lunt and Lindahl said a highlight will be an airing of the Low Christmas EP, an eight-song, 30-minute record that was released on the Kranky label in 1999.
“I just love that record,” he says. “I mean, that first time every season that you listen to it — it’s just special. It’s a perfect mix of a few covers, and some of the originals just kill me.”
“It’s so reverent and it’s so celebratory,” says Lindahl. “There’s nothing glib about it. It’s just really honoring and it doesn’t go on and on and on.”
Rolling Stone ranked the record #18 on its Top 40 most essential Christmas albums of all-time in 2019. The A.V. Club called it “the religious album that even heathens can love” and Low’s cover of the classic “The Little Drummer Boy” was famously used for a Gap television commercial in 2000.
Lunt says the record is slowly becoming part of the Christmas music pantheon. “This is sort of an indie record, but when was the last time a song got to be in the Christmas canon?”
The record is so good, and so short, it might be played twice.
“We’ll do this one,” Lunt says. “But for me it already feels like this is going to be an annual tradition.”
Families, church members and Low music fans of all ages are invited to attend the event. A suggested $10 donation will go to Churches United In Ministry (CHUM) located in downtown Duluth.
A Very Mimi Christmas: A Low Christmas Album Listening Party. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21 at Sacred Heart Music Center, 201 W. Fourth St., Duluth. RSVP