Where wild water immersion comes ever more productive for Canada’s Great Lake Swimmers. You are only ever as cold as your heart, and this one is warm.

HAIL, HAIL CANADIANA!

Pop across to Bandcamp and you might think our title a misprint, and that Caught Late may more apposite, given it suggests this release stems from last year. Which, sort of, it does, if only now getting UK physical release, which is more than enough to celebrate the sheer loveliness these Canadians are capable of. The band are, as are so many, absolutely huge in their own domain, if often overlooked for those from their brasher more southern neighbour. But, like many a Canadian band before them, with Cowboy Junkies a clear template, this more northerly take on country shows it can more than match the best of Nashville and Bakersfield. Hail, hail Canadiana, then.

A FAIRLY FLUID RICH TAPESTRY

Based around singer and songwriter, Tony Dekker, the concept of the band as band is fairly fluid, touring most often as a trio. Here, however, they are considerably augmented by a team of faithful friends and acolytes, familiar across their 8 earlier albums, spread over the best part of 2 decades. Thus, alongside guitars, acoustic bass and drums, these 10 songs are rounded out by textures, variously, of piano, organ, pedal steel, banjo, mandolin and bouzouki. And a rich tapestry it is, shown off to best advantage by the co-production of Darcy Yates, previously bass player in the band, and Dekker, the first time he has shared that pivotal desk duty. Yates also picked the studio band, showing her ear very much for the sonic sought, duly delivered.

DANCE AROUND EVERMORE

The opening track, One More Dance Around The Sun, perfectly captures the sound and territory explored: aching vocals to start, developing into lush harmonies. Guitars strum, a Hammond swirls and a Wurlitzer tinkles, with a steady backbeat keeping a low key foot tap of time. Steel then laps in for the middle eight, and this is a sun I could happily rotate a good few more times. Dekker is the singer and the strummer, with Yates (back) on bass. Jim Bowskill adds the electric and steel guitars, with mandolin for good measure, Steve O’Connor the varied keys and Gary Craig the percussion. Bowskill and Colleen Brown are the additional singers. Sometimes just the list of instrumentation is enough to endear and this is a case in point.

The die duly cast, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong is a further steel drenched cruise controlled canter through how and when to safely ventilate your woes to a trusted friend, and get the feedback sought, even if not necessarily the anticipated. That may sound a heavy subject, but Dekker’s delivery renders it neither mawkish nor maudlin, it all ending curiously upbeat. Piano offers a rich basis to then launch For You To Come Around, a vaguely familiar tune and chord progression. carrying a song that amiably carries the hope inherent of waiting and waiting, however against the odds. Listen twice and relish the bass, adding runs that are anything but the obvious. Again, Bowskill’s steel guitar is exemplary.

FROM ELEGANT TO TRIPPY IN ONE MOVE

Youth Not Wasted sees Bowskill move to bass, if still handling mando duties, and is an elegant country ballad as wouldn’t disgrace any early Eagles release, or, possibly equally pertinent, Jackson Browne around the same time. It’s certainly good enough. The message, btw, is that youth isn’t wasted on the young, explaining possibly the sense of pining regret. Endless Detours sees more of the extravagant paired keyboards of O’Connor, the album blossoming out from the seeds sown thus far.

Running Out Of Time then takes a slight detour, with echo effects and trippy backwards, of course it is, guitar. This is the sort of song that could have equally appeared on the Byrds’ 5D as Head, the film and accompanying record by the Monkees. Which is, clearly, more than fine on any count. I gather they call Gary Craig the Jim Keltner of Canada, this showing why, a reliable pulse bereft of any excess, yet endlessly creative. The title track drops right back into the desert, a heat haze of sonic melancholy. Caught Light can means both atmospheric lucency and being found short of essentials, that dichotomy the rationale of the song, which, like the opener, stands out as one of the album’s statement pieces. An orthodox electric guitar solo from Bowskill is anything but. This must surely be the strongest set of musicians called together under this name.

SIMULTANEOUSLY REFLECTIVE & UPBEAT

A Distant Star is another that evokes the Browne/Eagles comparison, the organ taking it into something more individual. Now, all this talk of early Eagles begs one question, that of omission. Can you guess to what I refer? Well, be reassured, as, for The Fledgling Jay, Bowskill now turns his hand to banjo, and, whilst he’s at it, fiddle too. The way Dekker’s lilting tenor sits alongside this array of instrumentation is just grand. And why have we never heard of Bowskill? It seems he is world famous in Canada, with Juno nominations aplenty, as well as being a sometime member of Blue Rodeo. He also notched up a 2010 tour with Joe Bonamassa and Jeff Beck, suggesting eclectic may well be his middle name. Oh, and he engineered this disc, too.

All good things come to an end, and this is no exception. The final track is called Al The Best and is back on cruise control, another lament without pity, that mood seeming a constancy across Dekker’s songwriting. It ends the album both upbeat and reflective in mood, a good place to start any day. Or end and any part in between. Highly commended. Get yer swimmers on and jump in!

CAUGHT EARLIER

Here’s a stripped back live version of the title track, featuring Tony Dekker on guitar and vocals, Colleen Brown on organ and vocals, and Ryan Granville-Martin on drums and vocals:

Great Lake Swimmers: Website

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