Setting up permanent roots with his wife Tierney and their two daughters in the village of Queenston has reaped creative benefits that Tony Dekker, the Wainfleet-born leader of indie-folk band Great Lake Swimmers, could not have seen coming.
Released April 28, Uncertain Country is the band’s eighth studio album and perhaps its best. That’s saying a lot, considering the sonic beauty of the band’s debut independent self-titled release from 2003, 2018’s The Wave, The Wake, and everything in between. Their 2009 album Lost Channels was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize and garnered both Juno and Canadian Folk Music Award nominations.
Like the albums that preceded it, Uncertain Country sees Dekker praising the wonder and magnificence of the land on which we live, while at the same time expressing his deep concern for its future.
The genesis of the 15-track collection (11 songs, four quick sneak-peeks into the studio) was sparked by a 2019 trip Dekker took to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park on the Sibley Peninsula, east of Thunder Bay. He was accompanied by artist/filmmaker and fellow Queenston resident Adam C.K. Vollick and St. Catharines musician/producer Joe Lapinski.
During their journey the trio stopped at Pukaskwa National Park in Heron Bay to attend the Pic River Pow Wow. There was another detour to Manitoulin Island for a paddling session on the inland Lake Mindemoya, and they documented every step of the trek.
The goal for the three collaborators was to find inspiration from the landscape for a set of new Great Lake Swimmers songs Dekker had planned to release in 2020. But the pandemic pushed those plans back, giving him an opportunity to take the project in a different direction.
Dekker’s contract with Canadian label Nettwerk Records had expired around the same time, so he found himself unable to tour. He was also under no pressure to push a new release out into the world. So the recording process became more organic.
“It felt like we were just making demos the whole way through,” he tells The Local. “Over time the demos really became the album.”
The first sessions for Uncertain Country were held in the fall of 2020 at the Oddfellows Hall on James Street in St. Catharines, with Lapinski twiddling the knobs and adding some keyboards and tasteful pedal-steel guitar. Those sessions resulted in the hyper-speed title track, a requiem of sorts to a countryside long neglected.
“Rusted machinery, language and battery, years sitting idle, fading in front of me”, Dekker sings, “steel fingers in the earth determining its worth, bones on the surface left to weather.”
At the same time, there’s a joyous feeling to the song that Dekker says came naturally to the group of musicians who were kept from playing together during lengthy COVID lockdowns.
The second track on the album, the rolling, mid-tempo, When the Storm Has Passed, also shows the influence of that sojourn to Sleeping Giant.
“Big smoke in the rear view, escape and relief in a packed bag, I’m slipping back to the country and I won’t come back again.”
Other song titles such as Moonlight, Stay Above, Promise of Spring and Respect for All Living Things lay bare the singer/songwriter’s continued love and respect for nature.
Dekker co-produced Uncertain Country with Lapinski, while Vollick’s photography from their 2019 trip is used in the album art and for three videos for songs from the album so far. The cover was designed by St. Catharines artist Geoff Farnsworth, and a slew of local musicians contributed to the recordings. It’s bound to finally put the bountiful talent residing in the region on the national radar.
Besides those first sessions at the Oddfellows Hall, other tracks for the record were completed at Lapinski’s WOW! Recording Studio, Silver Spire United Church on St. Paul Street in St. Catharines and the Balls Falls Conservation Area chapel and barn.
“They all have their own character, they all work for different reasons,” says Dekker, who famously recorded the first Great Lake Swimmers LP in an abandoned Wainfleet grain silo. “It’s amazing how a space will inform the way you play.”
“I’m pretty proud of the fact that we recorded it all in the Niagara region,” Dekker continues. “And that we called on local players, too. I have to credit Joe with that, because he’s so immersed in the music world here in Niagara.”
Am I Floating in the Air and Quiet Before the Storm both feature a St. Catharines-based string quartet. And when Dekker envisioned that a choir would be perfect accompaniment for three of the new songs, Lapinski had a perfect ensemble in mind.
“He said he knew exactly who to call,” Dekker says. “So he brought Laurel Minnes into the mix. She did a wonderful job with the arrangements for the choir. And wow! She and the choir (Miniscule) did such a great job. I was so impressed with her talent and with the whole choir.”
Serena Ryder adds backing vocals to two songs on Uncertain Country, the beautiful, longing I Tried to Reach You and the third single, Swimming Like Flying, perhaps the best showcase for the core of the band on this record - Bret Higgins on bass, Kelsey McNulty on keyboards, Erik Arnesen on electric guitar and drummer Marshall Bureau (Ryan Granville-Martin takes the drum chair on some tracks).
The production by Dekker and Lapinski adds just enough reverb on most songs to create the ethereal quality and a wall of sound touch that drives home the message of the lyrics.
“Joe is such a true professional and a true friend,“ raves Dekker. “And the silver lining of the pandemic is that I got to spend all of this time working on these songs without any sort of clock. I spent a lot more time on the music than usual.”
Thus far videos for three songs have been released, each produced and created by Vollick, who is well-known as Neil Young’s videographer. They combine stills and footage of the trio’s trip up north with scenes shot in the recording studio. Each uses a swirling, perpetual motion approach that adds an immersive, visually compelling experience to the already compelling songs.
Each track on Uncertain Country was written by Dekker, who holds a degree in literature, poetry and prose from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University). Listeners may want to read the lyric sheet to more fully experience the music, but when it comes right down to it, Dekker’s songs could stand as poems without the music. Perhaps one day a collection of Dekker’s lyrics, all illustrated by Vollick’s visuals, may hit bookstores.
Uncertain Country is out now on Spotify and other streaming services. CD versions of the album are available at greatlakeswimmers.com and through the band’s Bandcamp page, where you can also pre-order copies of the record on vinyl, which will ship on May 30.