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Great Lake Swimmers
An abandoned silo in lovely rural Ontario, a lonely voice in the wilderness, a serene acoustic guitar: these things and more are the tools of Great Lake Swimmers' Tony Dekker. The delicate, understated music of Great Lake Swimmers evokes slowly flickering motion pictures and your grandmother's old-fashioned lace. Quietly beautiful, the tiny, hushed folk masterpieces of Great Lake Swimmers have slowly been winning over converts with lush instrumentation and graceful country-pop majesty. And although the band is Canadian in heritage, they could very well be mistaken for successors to Gram Parsons, Red House Painters, or Neil Young with their special brand of restrained, reverb-heavy Americana that sticks in your head, and makes impressions on your heart.
Great Lake Swimmers are at their best when evocative of hidden landscapes and vast empty skies. The echo-filled songs cover the familiar territory of nostalgia, romance, and spirituality, making beguiling jigsaw puzzles of melodies and harmonies. On the band's newest, guests provide an even lusher sound of pedal steel, strings, female vocals, and on the plucky "Your Rocky Spine," an at-once familiar banjo picking.
At once both haunting and soothing, Great Lake Swimmers create intimate folk sound that compares most closely to Iron and Wine, but with a more lively spirit and a soul of steel. While Sam Beam often sounds like he's given up, Tony Dekker is still pondering the moment. Dekker's voice is sweet, creamy, and fills the room, expansive and embracing. His does not float above the songs, but rather, acts as an anchor for the gently strummed guitar, singing lap steel, barely visible banjo, and sound of crickets; it's music meant to be enjoyed in quiet meditation on a still summer night, rocking on a swing under an antique porch light.
Great Lake Swimmers - Moving Pictures, Silent Films
Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies and Minds
Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine
Visit Great Lake Swimmers' official site. Buy Ongiara from iTunes.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 03.09.07 at 10:34 PM
Comments
Great songs, thanks ! I think I'll go to their concert (the're coming soon in Belgium).
Posted by: Tibo at 03.10.07 at 4:32 AM
Great Lake Swimmers are wonderful, but they're not at SxSW this year...?
Posted by: frank at 03.10.07 at 10:38 AM
Damn, you're right; they were on the list at some point and must have gotten removed. Oops!
Posted by: Queen of the Front Row at 03.10.07 at 2:23 PM
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