Go North Music Festival Band Spotlight: Harrow Fair

If you love Great Lake Swimmers, that doesn't mean you'll love Harrow Fair.

If you love Sunparlour Players, that doesn't mean you'll love Harrow Fair.

But if you rebel against the "if you love this then you'll love that" mentality like we do, and instead love when two great talents come together to form something old and something new, then you'll absolutely love Harrow Fair at the Go North Music Festival on July 14 (that's less than a month!).

We first experienced the fortuitous union of Great Lake Swimmers' flame-haired former fiddler Miranda Mulholland and Sunparlour Players' Andrew Penner in 2016 at Home County. After the revelation that Mulholland has a voice as wicked as her bow, their stripped-down, hometown tent revival sound and powerful duets made us repent and then put their album A Call to Arms on repeat.

Show Alerts: The best of Canadian indie comes to Detroit

Fri., May 15
Great Lake Swimmers ~ Majestic Cafe
Hey Rosetta! ~ The Shelter

If you love beautifully crafted indie folk/folk rock, it doesn't get any better than Friday in Detroit. Our choice was a little easier than our last show conflict, as we saw Hey Rosetta! at The Ark in February. We last saw Great Lake Swimmers at a nearly sold-out show at The Ark as well-- in 2011. To help you make yours, here's how these two seminal and incredibly talented bands compare.

	Great Lake Swimmers	Hey Rosetta!
Home base	Toronto	St. John's, Newfoundland
New album	A Forest of Arms	Kintsukuroi
On our top 10 albums of all time list	Lost Channels	Into Your Lungs
Our favorite song	"Your Rocky Spine"	N2D: "New Goodbye" S2W: "Black Heart"
Lead singer	Tony Dekker	Tim Baker
Violinist extra- ordinaire	Miranda Mulholland	Kinley Dowling

Our take: It's absolutely impossible to choose a favorite here. Both bands are equally remarkable in all the right ways: voices you won't forget, melodies and poetic lyrics that take up permanent residence in your head and heart, musicianship that sets the standard for Canadian indie.

Show Alert: Great Lake Swimmers at the Ark

Weds., Jun. 20
The Ark, Ann Arbor
Doors at 7:30, show starts at 8:00 p.m. ~ tickets $15

On the heels of yet another Polaris nomination for their new album, New Wild Everywhere, the Great Lake Swimmers return to Ann Arbor, Mich. Here's our show review from last August. If you're still not convinced there's no better way to spend your Wednesday evening in the company of beautiful folk music, check out their video below for one of our favourite GLS songs.

The 'Keet Tweets for the week of Nov. 14

What's Bob been singing about (and to) this week?

"In Your Light" - Bruce Peninsula (from their great new album, Open Flame)

"Boring Horror" - Born Gold

"Way Home" - Molly Rankin

"See You On The Moon" - Great Lake Swimmers (hey, it mentions parakeets!)

Show Review: Great Lake Swimmers Fill The Ark

Pop quiz: What Canadian indie bands have drawn the biggest crowds out of all the shows we've attended in the Detroit area?

There's no prize for the correct answer, so we'll make it easy: the New Pornographers and Sam Roberts Band (at the Crofoot Ballroom and St. Andrews Hall, respectively; they have approximately the same capacity-- around 1,000-- so we'll call it a tie). Now, think you can guess which one of the following was the next most well-attended show (all were near sell-outs): Hot Hot Heat, Destroyer (both in the Crofoot's Pike Room, capacity 250) or Great Lake Swimmers?
















We wouldn't have guessed Great Lake Swimmers (GLS) either. But nearly 375 people (venue capacity) paid to see them at The Ark in Ann Arbor on Thurs., Aug. 25. Why the great turnout? The Toronto-based GLS is a perfect fit for The Ark's folk-centric programming and they've played there before, so Ann Arbor's musically cultured community shared our appreciation-- objectivity be damned-- for a band making some of the most beautiful folk music on the planet.
















It's a complete package lead singer/songwriter Tony Dekker has been refining for almost 10 years. Poetic lyrics full of evocative imagery set to gorgeous melodies, Dekker's floating tenor and a supporting score tuned to the great key from GLS' current lineup-- Eric Arnesen, Bret Higgins, Miranda Mulholland and Greg Millson. Within the 17-song set in a rare soft-seat setting for N2D, we were treated to a sampler from GLS' four LPs plus a generous preview of the follow-up, due sometime in 2012, to the Polaris short-listed Lost Channels (2009). In general we like to see bands put a little different spin on their established sound/catalog. In the case of GLS, we didn't hear any need for improvement.



















Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Show Alert: Great Lake Swimmers @ The Ark

Thurs., Aug. 25
The Ark /  Ann Arbor / 8:00 p.m.
Opening: The Pines

This show easily ranks as one of our most anticipated of the year, because Great Lake Swimmers (Toronto) are easily one of our favourite bands performing some of the most beautiful folk in Canadian indie. To say anything else just seems extraneous; we'll let lead singer/songwriter Tony Dekker and the rest of the band do the talking. Listen here, or below.




I was lost in the lakes
And the shapes that your body makes
That your body makes, that your body makes
That your body makes

The mountains said I could find you here
They whispered the snow and the leaves in my ear
I traced my finger along your trails
Your body was the map, I was lost in it

Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you, and now youýre mine
Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you, and now youýre mine

I was moving across your frozen veneer
The sky was dark but you were clear
Could you feel my footsteps
And would you shatter, would you shatter, would you

And with your soft fingers between my claws
Like purity against resolve
I could tell, then and there, that we were formed from the clay
And came from the rocks for the earth to display

They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind blows a venomous rage through your hair
They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind rages through your hair