Alan Sparhawk Lets Go on ‘With Trampled By Turtles’

Last year’s White Roses, My God—Alan Sparhawk’s first record since the 2022 passing of his wife and musical partner Mimi Parker—felt like an exorcism. Using a TC Helicon Voicetone pedal, Sparhawk twisted and distorted his voice while eschewing guitars for computers and keyboards; metal machine music to take the place of grief. 

Sparhawk returns less than a year later with his new album, With Trampled by Turtles (May 30), which feels like a truer expression of sorrow. Working with fellow Duluth musicians Trampled by Turtles, this album plays like a downbeat version of Neil Young’s 1978 album Comes a Time, leaning into and subverting the bluegrass sounds of his backing band to explore sadness and community. 

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Recorded in just two days, With Trampled by Turtles is everything White Roses, My God was not. The songs here possess a lived-in warmth, and Sparhawk’s unadorned voice, missing Parker’s harmonies, is front and center. Yet, the haunting melodies that gut-punch you on a Low record can be found here, through different textures.

Sparhawk had already played much of the record live earlier this year when touring behind White Roses, My God. After clearing out the glitchy discomfort of those tracks to start the shows, he would strip away the vocal effects and sing unreleased songs such as “Stranger” and “Torn & in Ashes.”

Without the splatter of electronics and the obscured vocals, these songs feel like more direct paeans to sadness. It’s as if the guardedness of White Roses has sloughed off, and the weariness of the grieving process has set in. Sparhawk even resurrects White Roses tracks “Heaven,” this time in a folky incantation singing, “Heaven / It’s a lonely place if you’re alone / I wanna be there with the people that I love” and “Get Still,” which now feels like a hymnal; scrubbed of any electronics or distorted vocals.

The addition of Trampled by Turtles, best known for their frenetic sound, offers tasteful accompaniment that enhances Sparhawk’s songs rather than drowning them in bluegrass trappings. Take “Screaming Song,” perhaps the rawest incantation of loss here. Sparhawk begins the song by singing, “When you flew out of the window and into the sunset / I thought I would never stop screaming / I thought I would never stop screaming your name.” The song then builds as Ryan Young’s violin gets louder, becoming a scream to mirror Sparhawk’s sadness.

Meanwhile, “Don’t Take Your Light” features restrained banjo as Sparhawk sings, “Don’t take your light out of me” like a desperate mantra. But perhaps the most arresting moment on the record is the spare “Not Broken” where he duets with his daughter, Hollis, whose vocals bear an eerie resemblance to her mother’s. The communal feel of With Trampled by Turtles shows that Sparhawk isn’t alone in his sadness. Instead, this collaboration gives us one of the most stunning albums of the year, a deeply moving record that rewards repeat listens.  

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