Saturday, October 25, 2008

Your Rocky Spine

Great Lake Swimmers is a trio form southern Ontario who put out the wonderful album Ongiara in 2007. It’s a very mellow, mid to low tempo record, perfect for a rainy or snowy Sunday afternoon. The opening track, “Your Rocky Spine,” displays beautiful banjo picking, along with backing vocals from Sarah Harmer. There's a feeling of deep longing and melancholy throughout this record, but there is also a feeling of hope. The songs are recorded using minimal instrumentation - mostly acoustic guitar, banjo, double bass, and drums played with brushes. Music critics categorize this as “indie pop” and compare it to the work of Elliott Smith and Iron & Wine, but I believe that, like the other two artists, this record has large crossover appeal to many genres and age groups. Very consistently gorgeous throughout the record.

Great Lake Swimmers is playing tonight at Lee's Palace. I can't go for various reasons (most of those being that I suck).

Your Rocky Spine.mp3
I Am Part Of A Large Family.mp3

Buy: Ongiara (2007)
Listen: Ongiara is streaming in its entirety here.

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