Tony Dekker’s project, expanded in the form of Toronto trio GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS has released a third album ‘Ongiara’.
Banjo and extra percussion thicken the introspective rolling country sound of Toronto’s GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS, along with a warm stand-up bass. Dekker’s oddly melodic, and helplessly melancholic vocals carry the opening tune (‘Your Rocky Spine’) superbly on and into the drifting half-step of ‘Backstage With The Modern Dancers’, a song that’s alive with childhood memories and harmonic strings.
The comfortable folk sound is alive with the California sound of the 60’s, and looks both inwards and out to the Rocky mountains for inspiration, often using the poise and grace of the female body as inspiration for this wistful and beautiful set of songs.
“Stop, Listen and Feel” urges Dekker as the band slow it right down with the chiming mini-epic ‘There Is A Light’, the studied arpeggios following an age-old path through the brushing drum patterns and gentle accordion.
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Slashes from an echoing semi-acoustic during the bass-twanging ‘Put There By The Land’ are the only discernible electric instrument sounds on the entire album, but the wealth of strings includes not just the banjo, but also fiddle, lap steel and cello.
Narrative snapshots offer a past tense look through an intriguing mental scrapbook, and the gentle structures offer a suspended-judgement view of a world without conflict, one that recaptures childhood memories more effectively than cine-film ever could.
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