Great Lake Swimmers Return With New Album “Uncertain Country”, Share Two New Tracks

By: Staff –

Doubt, followed by discovery. Demos that ended up as finished tracks. New beginnings, rear-view reflections, and ruminations on the fluidity of time.

The new Great Lake Swimmers album, Uncertain Country, is a soundtrack that captures those feelings and so much more. It will be released on April 28, 2023 via Harbour Songs / Fontana, and features singer songwriter Tony Dekker’s first new music in nearly five years. It was worth the wait.

Great Lake Swimmers emerged twenty years ago as a songwriting vehicle with a series of atmospheric albums recorded in old silos and rural country churches. Ever since, Dekker has continued to create acoustically-inclined compositions, with layered, lush and intimate recordings that linger long.

The landscape and human’s connection to our external environment has loomed large in Dekker’s songs and is intrinsic to his aesthetic. No surprise to learn that relationship—and nature as an instrument—comes through on Uncertain Country. What started out four years ago as a 10-day trip to the north shore of Lake Superior, inspired a collection of musical field recordings at various locations around the Niagara region (where Dekker now lives) which served as the album’s organic recording studio.

Great Lake Swimmers preview a duo of tracks today, taken from the new LP. The first, “When the Storm Has Passed” according to Dekker is “about changes, moving…looking backwards and forwards…the elasticity of time.”

And, the second song, “Moonlight, Stay Above” is a lonely, wistful tune. In a voice barely above a whisper, Dekker pleads: “don’t strand me and leave me alone.” The song ends with whistling, which is usually a solitary act, but the 10 voices of Minuscule—an all-woman identifying choir based in Niagara region led by choral arranger Laurel Minnes—rises behind him to offer hope and reassure.

Dekker also notes that this song epitomizes what Great Lake Swimmers represents. “The band is fluid and always evolving. It starts and ends with my writing, but the songs themselves suggest what players and instruments might fit best with each new record and version of the live touring band.”

Uncertain Country Track-List

1. Uncertain Country
2. When the Storm Has Passed
3. I Tried to Reach You
4. Since January
5. Swimming Like Flying
6. On A Ship
7. Moonlight, Stay Above
8. Riverine
9. Quiet Before the Storm
10. Into It
11. Promise of Spring
12. Think, Think
13. Respect for all Living Things
14. Flight Paths
15. Am I Floating in the Air