Great Lake Swimmers

Tony Fekker is very proud of his roots and origins and these 10 gentle ballads proclaim a mutual relationship. The dominant sound of the album is Dekker’s softly sung vocals, his voice reminiscent of a softer and less strident Neil Young.

Recorded at the Aeolian Hall in London Ontario, the acoustics of the album have an ethereal quality and the space of the acoustic lends itself to the almost churchly quality to the sound. The folky arrangements are uncluttered and open with banjos and upright bass allowed to play in the natural space behind the vocal. When the music demands a more electric treatment, as on 'Changing Colours’ there is still an unhurried and uncompressed feel to the increase in sound. On 'There Is A Light’ in those sections where Dekker accompanies himself on guitar alone one finds oneself huddling closer to the speakers to gain the maximum insight and closeness to the music but when the music opens back out there is no sense of aggression or stridence from Erik Arnesen’s harmonium and Colin Huebert’s Glockenspiel, rather they appear naturally as though grown by the music.

The influence of Canada’s natural environment is clear on songs such as 'Your Rocky Spine’ or 'Where In The World Are You’ but Dekker also crafts a rather lovely love song in 'There Is A Light’. Pick on any track and the likelihood is that the listener will be entranced by the quality of the music on offer and quite lost in the mood of introspection and happy searching. Altogether this is an album of gentle mood and peace but without any of the artificially relaxed mood of some of the band’s contemporaries and as it finishes on the country style 'I Became Awake’, featuring Bob Egan’s pedal steel, one realises that there has been almost no sense of time passing, just well used and enjoyed.