Great Lakes – Ways Of Escape (From Athens to Brooklyn)

Their newest album, Ways of Escape, is described as the most personal that singer/songwriter Ben Crum has worked on, and the first where he’s the primary songwriter.  “In the past,  Great Lakes consisted of Crum and his longtime collaborator Dan Donahue, and had always been his Donahue’s lyrics set to Crum’s music.  In the early days of their collaboration they had very similar ideas about the musical direction of the band.  However, in 2008, they began to feel at odds.  Psychedelic music just wasn’t resonating with Crum in the same way anymore.  With its frank and personal folk- and country-influenced songs, the record has a bare emotional style that’s far from the innocent optimism and lighthearted psychedelia of the band’s early records.”  This somewhat mellow folk acoustic with some female backing vox, country organ and pedal steel, feels as if they have lived the sadness and joys in this life and have come out with a new voice and hope for the future.  One may swim these Great Lakes yet never plunge its depths.  These are life stories and biographical sketches wherein you choose to drown and after this immersion, find joy and cleansing that only that certain slant of light first perceived  from beneath the surface, can make real.

 

Great Lakes – Half Your Life Gone

 

Great Lakes – Sorrow and Woe

Great Lakes began in Athens, Georgia in 1996, released an eponymous debut in 2000, and relocated to Brooklyn in 2002. The Distance Between appeared that year, and with 2006 came the release of Diamond Times. A new record, Ways of Escape, will come out in October of 2010.

Over the years Great Lakes’ sound has gradually moved away from the psychedelia of their debut, and toward more folk and country influences. With Ben Crum on guitar and vocals, the new record features Kevin Shea (drums), David Lerner (bass), Jay Israelson (piano), Phillip Sterk (pedal steel), Joe McGinty (electric piano and organ), Jon Natchez (bass clarinet and baritone sax), Heather McIntosh (cello), and Suzanne Nienaber (backing vocals).

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/greatlakesband#ixzz0yP3QSQb6

http://www.myspace.com/greatlakesband

~ by castleqwayr on September 2, 2010.