Thursday, February 19, 2009

Great Lake Swimmers Lost Channels

The sound of Great Lake Swimmers ranges from dour folk-like songs to AM gold hits of The Byrds or Gordon Lightfoot with a little Ralph Stanley thrown in for good measure.  The voice of lead Swimmer, Tony Dekker, is warm and familiar, sounding like a folky Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult.

The band is at it's best when it digs into the up tempo songs like "She Comes To Me In Dreams," "Palmistry" and "Everything Is Moving So Fast."  My favorite song on the album is "The Chorus is Underground," the banjo picking of Erik Arnesen is fantastic and the violin flourishes throughout the tune are top notch.  However, the down tempo songs like "Stealing Tomorrow" is somber and beautiful.

This is an early pick for favorite of the '09.  The band will be hitting up Hailey's in Denton on April 8.

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