One of the biggest joys of being a music fan is being introduced to a great new band, loving their music and then exploring their excellent back catalogue. It's like discovering a gold nugget in a river, only to find out that you have found a treasure trove. Our LCM featured artists today are one of those bands, the indie-folk Great Lake Swimmers. Originally from Wainfleet, Ontario but now based in Toronto in Canada, the band is built around the melodic folk rock songs of singer-songwriter Tony Dekker. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the excellent 'Pulling On A Line' from their Lost Channels albums. Also worth checking out is their latest album 'A Forest of Arms' released in 2015.

The current touring line-up of the band includes Tony Dekker on lead vocals, acoustic guitar & harmonica, Erik Arnesen on banjo, electric guitar and harmonium, Joshua Van Tassel on drums, Bret Higgins on upright bass and Miranda Mulholland on violin and backing vocals. 

The band's style has been compared to Red House Painters, Nick Drake, Iron & Wine and Neil Young, as well as Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billy) and Sufjan Stevens. Dekker has said his influences include Gram Parsons and Hank Williams.

The band released two albums, 'Great Lake Swimmers' in 2003 and 'Bodies and Minds' in 2005, on the independent label (weewerk) before signing to the larger Nettwerk in 2007.

The band released its third full-length album, 'Ongiara', on March 27, 2007 in Canada and in May for the rest of the world. Although signing to Nettwerk early in 2007, Great Lake Swimmers continue to be managed by (weewerk). In September 2007, (weewerk) released a limited edition vinyl version of 'Ongiara'. 

Their fourth album 'Lost Channels' was released on March 31, 2009. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize and was nominated for a Juno Award, in the category of Roots & Traditional Album of the Year (Group) and a Canadian Folk Music Award.

The band's fifth studio album 'New Wild Everywhere' was released on April 3, 2012.The band also composed an instrumental soundtrack for photographer Ian Coristine's 'One in a Thousand', an e-book of photography from the Thousand Islands region of Ontario, also released in April 2012.

Dekker released a solo album, 'Prayer of the Woods', in October 2013. The album includes eight original songs as well as covers of Gordon Lightfoot's "Carefree Highway" and Human Sexual Response's "Land of the Glass Pinecones". In 2014 he followed up with 'Sings 10 Years of Zunior', an album of covers of other Canadian artists, including Old Man Luedecke, Chad VanGaalen, Christine Fellows, Ohbijou, Rae Spoon, Matt Mays, Martin Tielli, Jennifer Castle and Cadence Weapon, released to mark the 10th anniversary of Canadian web music store Zunior.

The sixth studio album by the full band, 'A Forest of Arms', was released on April 21, 2015.