Show Details: Great Lake Swimmers - A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Haley Bonar - Daniel Martin Moore Great Lake Swimmershttp://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=64414991http://www.greatlakeswimmers.com/Tony Dekker, the singer/songwriter behind the musical project Great Lake Swimmers, will release his third full-length album "Ongiara" in Canada on March 27, 2007. weewerk will release the vinyl version of the album, containing a special gatefold jacket, and the CD will be released by Nettwerk Records. Like the first two critically acclaimed albums ("Great Lake Swimmers" in 2003, and "Bodies and Minds" in 2005), "Ongiara" continues to explore the worlds of indie folk, roots music and alt-country pop, with a focus on lyrics and the craft of songwriting. The new record is permeated with a rich natural reverb, courtesy of London, Ontario's Aeolian Hall, which creates the magical background on which the songs are painted. These ten new songs are largely inspired by Canada's majestic natural environment ("Your Rocky Spine") and our reciprocal relationship with the land ("Put There By The Land"). "Where In The World Are You", "Passenger Song" and "Changing Colours" touch on themes of grace and understanding in life journeys, and the latter reflects on the cycle of living and dying. "There Is A Light" is a love song thinly veiled as a protest anthem, and similarly, "I Am Part Of A Large Family" contains a message of peace. Album closer "I Became Awake" is a country-infused lullaby which speaks to revelation and self-realization. In addition to the core band of Tony Dekker (voice, guitar), Erik Arnesen (banjo, electric guitar) and Colin Huebert (drums, percussion, glockenspiel, timpani), the new album features special guest appearances by singer-songwriter Serena Ryder (backing vocals, autoharp), Bob Egan of Blue Rodeo (pedal steel and dobro), Sarah Harmer (backing vocals) and Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy and Arcade Fire (string arrangements). Mike Overton (upright bass), Darcy Yates (electric bass), Mike Olsen (cello), and Mike Bonnell (organ) also contributed their talents to this recording. The title of the album was taken from the Toronto Harbour boat that carried the band to their initial recording sessions on Toronto Island with Dale Morningstar. However, "Ongiara" was mainly recorded in the Aeolian Hall, the centuries-old acoustic jewel in the heart of London, Ontario. It was engineered by Andy Magoffin, and mixed at the renowned House of Miracles. Renowned artist and Juno Nominee James Mejia (HolyFuck, Wintersleep) created the artwork for both releases. Great Lake Swimmers have toured extensively in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia since 2004, and has shared the stage with musical acts as diverse as Feist, Andrew Bird, Vashti Bunyan, Final Fantasy, Akron/Family, Jon-Rae Fletcher, Album Leaf, Crooked Fingers, Jason Collett, Amy Millan, and Joel Plaskett Emergency. The songs of Great Lake Swimmers have appeared on numerous compilations alongside such artists as Sufjan Stevens, Hot Chip, Broken Social Scene, Junior Boys, Mark Kozelek, Hayden, Beulah, Joss Stone, Hawksley Workman, Montag, Rheostatics, Tobin Sprout, Richard Buckner, and The Shins. Great Lake Swimmers have been compared to Nick Drake, Iron and Wine, Red House Painters, and "After the Gold Rush"-era Neil Young. They were awarded the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Galaxie Rising Star Award in March 2005 and were voted Favourite Folk/Roots Artist at the 2004 Canadian Independent Music Awards.A Hawk and A Hacksawhttp://www.myspace.com/ahawkandahacksawhttp://www.ahawkandahacksaw.co.uk/A Hawk and a Hacksaw is a band from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The band mainly consists of percussionist Jeremy Barnes (formerly of Neutral Milk Hotel) and violinist Heather Trost (formerly of Foma). The music is mostly instrumental, usually centred around Jeremy's accordion. There are occasional unintelligible vocals, shouts and cheers, although the latest album, 2006's The Way The Wind Blows, has more vocal pieces. When playing live, Jeremy plays many of the instruments himself simultaneously; strapping bells and drumsticks to his body enables him to play percussion while playing accordion. He has recently been accompanied by Heather Trost, who joined him on his recent tour with The Olivia Tremor Control. -Last.fmHaley Bonarhttp://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=24098022http://www.haleybonar.com/Haley Bonar is twenty-four years old, and already on her fourth album. Her new album, Big Star, is a watershed moment for her—a record like a Cormac McCarthy short story: simple on the intake, but revealing universal truths with a powerful emotional impact as it sinks in. In the words of filmmaker Ali Selim (Sweet Land) "Her voice is an invitation to amazing places." Bonar was born near Winnipeg, raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and cut her teeth on the winters of Duluth, Minnesota. She presently calls St. Paul her home. Her first album, Haley Bryn Bonar, was recorded when she was seventeen. It bore the signature of someone who was punk, but not really punk rock—she owned an acoustic guitar and created folk songs of her own style, yet liberally innocent of the concept of "anti-folk." Her follow-up release, The Size of Planets, landed her on the radar. It was released on Low's Chairkicker's Union label, and inspired by the greats: Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Loretta Lynn. Voted one of the best albums of 2003 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, it received rave reviews from the likes of the Philadelphia City Paper, Minneapolis City Pages, Chicago Sun Times, Pulse Magazine, and Alternative Press. At twenty-one, she self-released Lure the Fox, a gritty, lovely, and haunted album. It struck a fierce chord with old and new fans and earned the Best American Roots Recording in the 2006 Minnesota Music Awards, where she also received recognition as Best American Roots Artist. Minneapolis City Pages gave her the distinction of Artist of the Year, and the Star Tribune and Pulse placed the album on year end top ten lists. Lure the Fox was then picked up for re-release and national distribution by Minneapolis-based Afternoon Records. Meanwhile, she kept busy with other projects—she sang a song for the closing credits for the film "Sweet Land", toured with Andrew Bird, and contributed vocals to Bird's 2007 album Armchair Apocrypha. Which brings us to 2008 and the completion of Bonar's new and most accomplished collection of songs, Big Star, an album loosely themed around the struggle of wanting something that elicits both dislike and desire—whether it be fame, success, or love. The album was recorded at the Terrarium in Minneapolis and mixed by noted engineer Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, The Bad Plus, Elvis Costello, Pearl Jam) who brings all of the subtle textures of the recordings to life. Haley played guitars, melotron and keyboards, and was joined by Chris Morrissey (Ben Kweller) on bass, Dave King (The Bad Plus) on drums, and Luke Anderson and Bill Mike on electric guitar. The album will be released June 3, 2008. Bonar has toured with Andrew Bird, Mason Jennings, Mary Lou Lord, Richard Buckner, and Charlie Parr—domestically and internationally—as well as shared stages with Neko Case, Pedro the Lion, the Arcade Fire, and Wanda Jackson. Daniel Martin Moorehttp://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=62910624http://www.danielmartinmoore.com/You've never heard of Daniel Martin Moore, from Cold Spring, Kentucky. That's okay. Before we got his unsolicited demo in January 2007, neither had we. Luckily, he'd heard of us, and contacted us the way people in Cold Spring still do—he sent us a package, just to see what would happen. In all honesty, his odds were quite slim, but occasionally we'll take down that "no solicitation" sign on our door. Eventually, we opened his package and gave his four songs a listen and decided to contact him—we happened upon Daniel while he was working at a friend's bed and breakfast in Costa Rica. He'd been a bit of a drifter up until this point, studied photography in college, joined the Peace Corps in 2006, traveling to Cameroon for his service. What was supposed to be a two year commitment was cut short due to illness. So he came back to the states, lived in Minnesota for a while with his brother (who plays piano on several tracks), and began to focus on music. The first thing you'll notice about his debut, Stray Age is its simplicity. It's a folk record, evoking certain feelings (as all good records should), but there's a gentle approach to its sound and the way Moore's voice phrases his words. Stray Age was recorded in Los Angeles in three different spurts, the first two sessions taking place in October and December of 2007, then the third in February of 2008. He even got some people you've heard of to help him out. Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, U2, The White Stripes) took on co-production, recording and mixing duties. Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Tori Amos) played upright bass. Jesca Hoop lent her voice to "The Old Measure" and "Restoration Sketches." And Petra Haden (Bill Frisell, Beck) adds violin to "It's You," "The Hour Of Sleep," and "The Old Measure." Those reference points are really just that, though. Moore is most captivating as a singer, one who doesn't seem concerned with usual folkie fodder. If you ask him what his music's about—a legitimate question—he just politely shrugs his shoulders in a way that says, "that's up to you to figure out." But, the insights in Stray Age are not secrets and would never hope to be. That's a good thing, as Moore's much more of an optimist, hopefully anticipating the things that are just around the corner. "That'll Be The Plan" strums along to a soft drumbeat, a traveling narrative centered around delicate mandolin solos. The one cover on the album, "Who Knows Where The Times Goes," has Moore slowly, softly singing Sandy Denny, coupling his gentle coaxing with a faint vibraphone. Yet as simply as Daniel Martin Moore thinks of Stray Age, it's rich with understated complexities that take you to places that people like Nick Drake and Mojave 3/Slowdive principal Neil Halstead have been cited as doing. There's a soft swing in the vocals reminiscent of Chet Baker. But the one thing with Moore, that we like to think of as separating him from the pack, is he's looking forward. He wants to go places, he wants you to come with him, and we're finding him right in that moment. Stray Age is a work that welcomes a listener to know it. This is Daniel Martin Moore. He comes from a place both geographically and personally removed from any sense of the independent music scene. Clearly, that's okay.
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