Great Lake Swimmers

Lost Channels (Nettwerk)

Plaintive echo from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James to Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell and even the Fleet Foxes’ choral has caught up to Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker. Neither freewheeling (MMJ) nor Foxy, Dekker’s tremulous intimacy precedes Bridwell’s underwater Americana. GLS’ first pair of (then local) Misra Records, 2003’s Great Lake Swimmers and Bodies and Minds two years later, built to Nettwerk debut Ongiara in 2007, wherein songcraft trumps affinity. Lost Channels comes in even louder and clearer, opener “Palmistry” approaching Reckoning-era R.E.M. as the gauze on Dekker’s voice recedes and jangle (mandolin, banjo, pedal steel appear throughout) brightens. “Pulling on a Line” dials up TV ready, while “She Comes to Me in Dreams” could be Dekker’s “Losing My Religion.” Hushed pledge “Stealing Tomorrow” cuts GLS’ early diary entries to a diamond-fine point, “New Light” close behind. Toronto’s got something in the water: Great Lake Swimmers. (GLS follows Ratatat indoors at Stubb’s, Tuesday, April 7.)

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This article appears in April 3 • 2009.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.