Two of my favourite bands in the world are Great Lakes (Ben Crum’s indie-americana project from Georgia) and Great Lake Swimmers, the quintet currently based in a little known village north of Athens called Toronto. I often go to play one and then plump for the other. This happened on the weekend where I reacquainted myself with the Swimmers’ ‘Bodies and Minds’ record from 2005 which was quiet and melancholic, but left me feeling euphoric at times. The track ‘When It Flows’ was a highlight with its reflection that “The roar of an action silences all the words, The cry of an accomplishment Drowns the whimper of ten thousand words”.
Tag: Great Lake Swimmers
Great Lake Swimmers “The Waves The Wake” (Nettwerk Records, 2018)
Over their 15-year career, Canada’s Great Lake Swimmers have crafted to perfection their version of folk informed chamber songs led throughout by Tony Dekker. While their last release, ‘A Forest of Arms’ added a more muscular beat to the songs than one expected from them ‘The Waves The Wake’ finds them back in a more ethereal mood. However, Dekker forsakes his usual style of acoustic guitar based writing for a set of songs featuring elaborate arrangements of instruments normally found in orchestral surroundings. Continue reading “Great Lake Swimmers “The Waves The Wake” (Nettwerk Records, 2018)”
Great Lake Swimmers have new album and tour dates
That’s right – it’s been a long time since ‘A Forest of Arms‘ , fully 3 years, but at last Tony Dekker’s band return with a new full-length release ‘The Waves, The Wake‘ which is out on the 17th of August. This, the seventh full length release by Great Lake Swimmers, also comes in the fifteenth year of the band’s existence. Over all these years and all those albums the heart of the band’s sound has remained a cool, almost existential, take on folk-rock, occasionally on more recent releases seeing the rock part of the equation weighted just slightly heavier. Continue reading “Great Lake Swimmers have new album and tour dates”
Great Lake Swimmers ride the waves with new album, EP
2018 marks the 15th anniversary of one of our favourite indie-folk/rock bands here at AUK, Great Lake Swimmers (not to be confused with the also great Great Lakes) and today they’ve announced a new album: ‘The Waves, The Wake’ comes out on 17th August via Nettwerk Records. Recorded in the 145-year-old Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church in London, Ontario and produced by Chris Stringer, lead singer-songwriter Tony Dekker decided to challenge himself by writing new music without any acoustic guitar, which has always been his instrumental mainstay. He further digressed from previous songwriting patterns by looking at each track individually and then tailoring the instrumentation to bring each song to life in its own distinctive way. Continue reading “Great Lake Swimmers ride the waves with new album, EP”