Great Lake Swimmers 'Lost Channels' album

With their fourth album LOST CHANNELS set for release on March 31st, Toronto folk rock favorites are taking to the road to showcase their outstanding new batch of songs. The US tour will kick off on the west coast in Seattle on March 31st and includes marquee dates at Spaceland in Los Angeles and The Bowery Ballroom in New York.

Their live show has won them ever-expanding audiences in the United States and Europe, and of course their native Canada. In 2008 GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS shared the stage with an impressive list of artists, including Feist, Bela Fleck & The Sparrow Quartet, Hayden, Goldfrapp, Bill Callahan of Smog, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. And with select opening dates for Wilco's Jeff Tweedy later this month, the list continues to grow.

The anticipation for the full-length follow up to the highly praised 2007 album ONGIARA has already started to accumulate. Feature album previews have already popped up everywhere from Brooklyn Vegan and Pitchfork to Paste, Venus and Time Out New York.

LOST CHANNELS, their fourth album, finds them once again recording at historic locations, this time in Thousand Islands region of Ontario and New York state, telling tales of hidden histories, still "mining for light in the dark wells," still "tuned to an instrument of greater and unknown design."

The instrument in question is the singular voice of Tony Dekker, a voice that summons ghosts from times past. It's a voice that is capable of conveying heartache and comfort all in the space of a single phrase. Though his supporting cast has changed over the years--with the exception of longtime right-hand man Erik Arnesen--Dekker has always encircled himself with sympathetic players who value spacious arrangements that frame his vocals. Over time, the band has evolved from a sparse, delicate and hushed unit into a well-rounded folk rock band, sacrificing none of their original intimacy while upping both the volume and tempos when necessary.

Lost Channels also features the talents of Julie Fader (flute/backing vocals), Greg Millson (drums), Darcy Yates (bass), along with special guests / Swimmers collaborators Serena Ryder with vocals on "Everything Is Moving So Fast" and Bob Egan on pedal steel.

Great Lake Swimmers tour dates
Jan 29 - Kalamazoo, Michigan @ The State Theatre (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
Jan 30 - Indianapolis, Indiana @ Locals Only
Jan 31 - Urbana, Illinois @ Univ. of Illinois (w/ Jeff Tweedy)

Lost Channel's Spring Tour Dates:

Mar 31 - Seattle @ The Tractor Tavern
Apr 01 - Portland @ Doug Fir
Apr 03 - San Francisco @ The Bottom of the Hill
Apr 04 - Los Angeles @ Spaceland
Apr 05 - Tucson @ Plush
Apr 07 - Austin @ Stubbs Bar-B-Q
Apr 08 - Denton @ Hailey's
Apr 10 - Atlanta @ The Earl
Apr 13 - Charlottesville @ Gravity Lounge
Apr 14 - Washington @ Black Cat
Apr 15 - Philadelphia @ Johnny Brenda's
Apr 16 - Northampton @ Iron Horse Music Hall
Apr 17 - New York City @ The Bowery Ballroom
Apr 18 - Cambridge @ The Brattle Theater
Apr 20 - Newport @ The Southgate House
Apr 21 - Chicago @ Schubas
Apr 22 - Minneapolis @ 7th Street Entry
Apr 23 - Madison @ High Noon Saloon

All Tour Dates With Kate Maki

press quotes
"The group's songsmith Tony Dekker has without doubt created a repertoire of songs that belong to a dreamtime--ones that could easily have been sung for hundreds of years." - New York Press

"Banjo-fueled indie folk that pushes the boundaries of traditional songwriting." - Top Indie Releases in 09, Denver Post

"Dekker's bare-bones songs have played out like an afterword to a watery schlep across Erie or Ontario: He's empty and downtrodden from the journey, but wiser for the hardship." - Time Out NY

Great Lake Swimmers biography
Fifty-five years ago, Marilyn Bell took a plunge and traversed Lake Ontario. Back then, being a Great Lake swimmer was a big deal; now, it's an astonishing physical feat taken for granted. It's a rapidly forgotten part of history, like a faded map or a tattered photograph. Or a lost channel.

Tony Dekker's Great Lake Swimmers have spent the past seven years performing on stages around the world—though, like Bell, they should never be taken for granted. LOST CHANNELS, their fourth album set for release on March 31st, finds them once again recording at historic locations. This time in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario and New York state, telling tales of hidden histories, still "mining for light in the dark wells," still "tuned to an instrument of greater and unknown design."

The instrument in question is the singular voice of Tony Dekker, a voice that summons ghosts from times past. It’s a voice that is capable of conveying heartache and comfort all in the space of a single phrase. Though his supporting cast has changed over the years—with the exception of longtime right-hand man Erik Arnesen — Dekker has always encircled him self with sympathetic players who value spacious arrangements that frame his vocals. Over time, the band has evolved from a sparse, delicate and hushed unit into a well-rounded folk rock band, sacrificing none of their original intimacy while upping both the volume and tempos when necessary.

Dekker chooses to record in old churches, community halls, abandoned grain silos and rural locations. It's easy to hear why. His voice doesn't need any studio embellishment, standing at its strongest when bathed in natural reverb and enriched by the historical context surrounding it.

To record LOST CHANNELS, Dekker and company went upstream on the St. Lawrence River to the Thousand Islands, halfway between Toronto and Montreal, a historic and picturesque area that straddles the Canadian/American border, and has been designated a World Biosphere Region. Great Lake Swimmers arrived at the invitation of fan and Thousand Islands photographer/regional historian Ian Coristine (www.1000islandsphotoart.com).

Coristine was able to arrange for the band to record in a number of acoustically unique spaces within the region, including one of the area's most storied landmarks, Singer Castle on Dark Island, near Hammond, NY (www.singercastle.com); as well as the historical Brockville Arts Centre (www.brockvilleartscentre.com); and at St. Brendan’s Church in Rockport, ON.

Additional recording took place at Halla and the Lincoln County Social Club in Toronto and the album was woven into a cohesive whole at the House Of Miracles, in London, ON, with long-time Great Lake Swimmers collaborator, Andy Magoffin.

That the album was created in both rural splendour and urban Ontario makes perfect sense for a band that has always navigated the parallels between natural and urban rhythms. River imagery recurs throughout LOST CHANNELS; the title of the album is a reference to a certain passage of the St. Lawrence, close to the recording locale, where a reconnaissance boat from a British warship went mysteriously missing in 1760. There’s no specific reference to the incident in the lyrics, though there are plenty of night skies, howling winds and raging rivers in almost every song which captures an elusive sense of mystery. As the album closes, Dekker sings the final lyrics—“Like the unstoppable river… Your beauty is gentle/ but forceful, and fast”—before the band ends on a suspended note. There is no resolution there, only eternity, a continuum, an endless river.

LOST CHANNELS also features the talents of Julie Fader (flute/backing vocals), Greg Millson (drums), Darcy Yates (bass), with appearances by Erin Aurich on violin; Mike Olsen on cello; and Paul Aucoin on vibraphone; along with special guests / Swimmers collaborators Serena Ryder with vocals on “Everything Is Moving So Fast” and Bob Egan on pedal steel.

Four albums into an already-rich and storied career, Great Lake Swimmers’ live show has won them ever-expanding audiences in the United States and Europe, and of course their native Canada. In 2008 Great Lake Swimmers shared the stage with an impressive list of artists, including Feist, Bela Fleck & The Sparrow Quartet, Hayden, Goldfrapp, Bill Callahan of Smog, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

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Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels