Swimming in Harmony

The Great Lake Swimmers are one of my favorite bands, although I didn’t really understand just how incredible they are until I got a chance to see them live. Sitting in the front row of a small theater is the best way to experience them - unless you can somehow convince them to play you a concert in the middle of the woods somewhere, or on a beach, or a mountaintop. Because the Great Lake Swimmers write love songs to, for, about nature.

This is the first song of theirs I heard:

So damn gorgeous I found myself scrambling for a piece of paper in the middle of a coffee shop to write down some lyrics, so I could google the song and find it again. And what lyrics:

I was moving across your frozen veneer The sky was dark but you were clear Could you feel my footsteps? And would you shatter, would you shatter? Would you?

I love that motif, where you can’t tell whether nature is a metaphor for the human lover, or vice versa - or maybe both at once. My favorite piece of theirs is sung in the voice of one leaf to another at the end of autumn:

And my other favorite, a love song to a glacier:

Here’s a beautiful music video of theirs, to one of their newer songs, River’s Edge:

I could keep recommending songs of theirs until I made it through their entire discography, so I should probably stop. But - but - there’s also She Comes To Me In Dreams. And Still. From the latter:

I’m still swimming in harmony, I’m still dreaming of flight I’m still lost in the waves, night after night I’m still an arrow unshot, fixed in a bow, I’m still, I’m still I’m still a fire unlit, ready to go, I’m still, I’m still I’m still loaded and waiting, with anticipation to fly I’m still studying the patterns in the night sky

Doesn’t that reach right to the secret, earnest parts of your heart? Doesn’t it at least make you want to go stargazing and nightswimming?

Okay, I’m really done now. But if you want more recommendations ask and I’ll give ‘em in the comments. In the meantime, I’ll be over here listening to these songs. Over and over.