Even as American acts plying the sweet seventies alt-folk get too much praise (see: Fleet Foxes – QRO album review), Tony Dekker and his Great Lake Swimmers have been putting together great records north of the border. Latest New Wild Everywhere ups their game even more, though more in the upswing than the down.
While alt-folk is probably best known for sad, stripped, acoustic material, it also can deliver great bright pieces, and New Wild has some great ones, starting with the wonderful title track. Meanwhile, “Changes With the Wind” is a strong spirit-raiser, and “Easy Come Easy Go” has some great wry humor above a great strum rhythm.
Still, the core of Everywhere is in Dekker’s slow, sad songs, though this time he has brought more strings along, giving a ‘soundtrack to Civil War by Ken Burns’ feel – but an earned one with such tracks as “The Great Exhale” and flowing, traditional “Fields of Progeny”. Sometimes Great Lake Swimmers can get a bit too restrained and pretty (“Cornflower Blues”), and sometimes verges on orchestral in all the strings (“Quiet Your Mind”), but it is all done well.
Folk has always trafficked a little easier in the Great White North, with its history of frontier troubadours and all seemingly every city having a folk festival (QRO Festival Guide), and Great Lake Swimmers keep that great tradition going.
