MMB On The Road: Great Lake Swimmers Catch Light in L.A.

Some nights on the road find you, not the other way around. On a Monday in late October, friends and I climbed the stairs to the second floor of a renovated 1922 Masonic lodge in Highland Park. Great Lake Swimmers were soon to be on stage inside, playing to an incredible room on the Caught Light Tour. Here's the ride:

Lodge Room is one of those venues that does half the work for the band. Under the old arch and the painted mural, with a disco ball turning overhead, it feels like a hall built for gatherings, which is exactly what it was. That fits Great Lake Swimmers perfectly. Since the early 2000s, Tony Dekker and a revolving family of collaborators have built a catalog in places with history and echo: grain silos, rural churches, old halls across Southern Ontario. The CBC has called them "a national treasure," and they've been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize and nominated twice for Junos.

Their ninth album, Caught Light, came together faster than anything Dekker had made before. It was tracked in three days in Ontario's Ganaraska Forest, Nashville-style, with producer Darcy Yates (Bahamas) and engineer and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Bowskill (Blue Rodeo). The detail that caught my ear as a roots guy: before a note was recorded, Dekker had everyone listen to John Martyn's 1971 album Bless the Weather. Martyn was the British folk singer who bent his songs toward jazz and the blues, with loose, breathing grooves and that echo-soaked guitar. Add the warmth of Gordon Lightfoot and the gentleness of Dory Previn and you have the recipe for Caught Light. It's a reminder that folk and Americana have always drawn from the same deep well as the blues and jazz we chase on the Bus every Thursday.

Live, the band was a trio that kept trading jobs. The drummer moved over to bass late in the set. Tony went from acoustic to electric and back. Their bandmate moved between guitar, keys and harmony vocals that floated over everything. The quiet stretch in the middle, with Dekker by himself on acoustic in a wash of purple light, had the whole floor leaning in. Later, gold and green beams lit up a great house for the run to the finish.

Dekker says the album title is about "what happens when you don't land where you intended, when life blows you off course." That's a pretty good description of a great night out with my favorite people, Amy and Sonny, on the road.

Rock on!

DJ Mateo