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Great Lake Swimmers
Ongiara
(Nettwerk)
First Appeared in The Music Box, February 2008, Volume 15, #2
Written by Douglas Heselgrave
Tue February 26, 2008, 07:30 AM CST
Last summer’s dissolution of The Be Good Tanyas left a gaping void in the
Canadian indie-folk scene. Fortunately, the Ontario outfit Great Lake Swimmers
goes a long way toward filling it with Ongiara, its third outing for
Nettwerk. With this set, singer/songwriter Tony Dekker and his pals Erik Arneson,
Colin Huebert, and Julie Fader have created one of the most immediately likeable
and approachable albums of roots music to be issued in the past year.
Through a combination of simple instrumentation, haunting melodies, and
yearning vocals, Great Lake Swimmers evokes the spaciousness and mystery of
Canadian soul as projected through its landscape. Inspired by the same lights
and hues that, 40 years ago, gave dimension to The Band’s ramshackle work, Great
Lake Swimmers’ music immediately communicates a warm familiarity. Although his
songs travel through similar emotional territory, Dekker tempers Robbie Robertson and
Rick Danko’s hobo chic by singing with a bravado that is a little less overt than his
predecessors. There is no dirt nor are there farmers’ calluses in his material.
The melodies on Ongiara are often paper thin, and they are, at times, as
delicate as a butterfly’s wing carried on the wind.
Ongiara was the original name that the Iroquois gave to Niagara Falls,
and the influence of the vastness of the eastern Canadian landscape can be heard
throughout the endeavor. Recorded in November 2006 at the Aeolian Hall in
London, Ontario the warm reverberation of the vocals and the instrumentation
sometimes recalls the ambience that the Cowboy Junkies captured when it recorded
The Trinity Session, its breakthrough, in an old, Toronto church. Like
the Cowboy Junkies, Great Lake Swimmers wraps itself in a cocoon of sound that
seems to insulate the outfit from the emotional implications of the songs it
delivers. Taking on the world’s big questions, Dekker emerges like a young and
vulnerable Leonard Cohen. Without the ancient crucifixes and saints to shield
him, he paints a picture of a world that is mysterious and sad, one where all
love — it seems — is unrequited.
Ongiara works best when it is heard as a whole. The songs move seamlessly
from one to another as sparse banjo lines play off the guitar melodies, thereby
creating a kind of cinematic minimalism that often evokes the work of fellow
Canadians Daniel Lanois and Bruce Cockburn. Dekker’s voice fits his subject
matter perfectly, too, though listeners will wish, at times, that he sounded a
little less resigned to the universe. Nevertheless, his singing projects a sense
of warmth and intimacy that is very appealing. Standout tracks include Your
Rocky Spine, I Became Awake, and the majestic Where in the World
Are You. The latter cut’s gorgeous melody and suggestive lyrics conjure
images of geese alighting on a lake at dawn. The only clunker on the endeavor is
the overly sincere I Am Part of a Large Family. Its politically correct,
greeting-card homilies mar what otherwise is a fine composition.
Ongiara is a wonderful album that fans of North American folk-rock should
enjoy immensely. Great Lake Swimmers is well on its way to refining its own
style. If the group’s next outing continues to build upon the groundwork that
was laid with this release, Great Lake Swimmers will give fellow Canadian indie
darlings The Arcade Fire a run for its money at capturing the hearts and minds
of music fans on both sides of the border. Great Lake Swimmers is, without a
doubt, a band to watch.  ½
Ongiara is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box
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