Great Lake Swimmers – Caught Light
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS
ACCLAIMED INDIE FOLK BAND
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS
SHARE NINTH STUDIO ALBUM
CAUGHT LIGHT
OUT NOW–LISTEN
“FOR YOU TO COME AROUND” (LIVE AT ODD FELLOWS HALL) IN ONTARIO OUT NOW–WATCH
LIVE DATES ACROSS CANADA & THE U.S.
THIS FALL & WINTER BEGIN OCTOBER 15 + PLUS NEW SPRING 2026 CANADA SHOWS ADDED–SEE DATES
Today, Toronto-based indie folk band Great Lake Swimmers share their much anticipated ninth studio album Caught Light out now. Alongside the full project, the group shares soothing live footage of “For You To Come Around” from Odd Fellows Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario. The band will embark on a lengthy tour beginning October 15 through Canada and the U.S. with support from Elliott BROOD, Rita Visser, Justin Wells and Abe Partridge on select dates with several dates sold out or with few tickets remaining. See all dates below and find tickets and more information via greatlakeswimmers.com/shows.
Frontman and founder Tony Dekker shares, “‘For You To Come Around’ is about being stuck at the station, in a state between being and becoming. It’s about the baggage we carry and the emotional lifting it requires for us to endure, and ultimately, it is about loneliness and longing, and the inability to truly know someone. It might be ‘Waiting For Godot,’ if that were a 1970s country-folk inspired story song.”
Watch: “For You To Come Around” (Live At Odd Fellows Hall)
Led Dekker, holed up in the Canadian Ganaraska Forest, between Peterborough and Port Hope, with producer Darcy Yates (Bahamas) and engineer Jimmy Bowskill (Blue Rodeo), Great Lake Swimmers crafted their most realized work to date, tracked in just three days. Pulling from early ’70s folk/pop/rock like Gordon Lightfoot or Dory Previn, and ahead of recording, Dekker declared John Martyn’s 1971 album Bless the Weather required listening. Dekker adds the making of this record has given him, “a newly found zeal for not being precious and being more direct.”
On the meaning behind the title and themes throughout, Dekker says, “Where I grew up in a rural part of Niagara Region, on a farm, in the back 40 there was a very small airstrip with a skydiving club. As kids, we’d see these guys jumping out of planes, five, six at a time. Once, one of them landed in the fields around our house. That was such a powerful image to me as a kid: What happens when you don’t land where you intended, when life blows you off course? The phrase “caught light” refers to an unexpected situation where you don’t have as much as you thought you wanted or needed. Early on in the album process, it became apparent that would be the title track.”
Last month, the band shared a wistful offering with Youth Not Wasted” a twist on the famous Oscar Wilde quote, “youth is wasted on the young.” It’s a reflective, harmony-filled, acoustic tune that unfolds like a hazy memory and gently takes stock of life.Americana UK wrote the track is, “immediately nostalgic; it is reminiscence and memory in musical form. The combination of wistful melody, dreamy harmonies, and a found-footage style video reinforces the song’s smart, narrative observations.”
“Youth Not Wasted” (Official Visualizer) | Listen
Earlier releases include One More Dance Around The Sun (currently the number one song on the CBC Music Top 20) and Wrong Wrong Wrong, Dekker says the sunny “One More Dance Around The Sun” evokes, “riding around in the summertime with the windows down — maybe after a solid workday, maybe on route to an epic road trip, or maybe just seeing familiar surroundings with renewed vision. It’s about perseverance, new beginnings, and the searching that invites wisdom and perspective as the planet spins on.”
The textured “Wrong Wrong Wrong” is, about being on the edge, in deep despair,” shares Dekker. “The consolation is that it places trust in the understanding of the listener – it’s almost as if the song is speaking directly to a sympathetic friend.” Its fragility is met with an uplifting energy and a glistening pedal steel solo.
Over 20 years in, with an extended network of past collaborators who float in and out, Great Lake Swimmers have arrived with a body of work that captures the band at their core. The group emerged from Southern Ontario in the early 2000s, known for their distinct warmth, resonant sound and lush, intimate live shows. Great Lake Swimmers have been shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize and nominated twice for Canada’s Juno Awards, with the CBC calling them “a national treasure.” The band has received praise from a range of leading publications like TapeOp, Exclaim! American Songwriter and more.Early next year, they will perform an official showcase at Folk Alliance International in New Orleans and just added additional Canadian dates through Spring 2026.
Great Lake Swimmers’ ninth studio album Caught Light out now Don’t miss the band live on tour this fall and winter across Canada and the U.S. and connect with via Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Listen: “Wrong Wrong Wrong“
Listen: “One More Dance Around The Sun”
Listen: “Caught Light”
Artwork credit: Designed by Erik Grice / Photo by Colin Medley
Caught Light Tracklist
- One More Dance Around The Sun
- Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
- For You To Come Around
- Youth Not Wasted
- Endless Detours
- Running Out Of Time
- Caught Light
- Distant Star
- The Fledgling Jay
- All The Best
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS LIVE
ACROSS CANADA & THE U.S.
FALL/WINTER 2025 + NEW SPRING 2026 DATES ADDED
With Elliott BROOD:
October 15 – Regina, SK – Darke Hall *LOW TICKETS*
October 17 – Sherwood Park, AB – Festival Place Theatre
October 18 – St. Albert, AB – Arden Theatre *LOW TICKETS*
October 20 – Red Deer, AB – Bo’s Bar & Grill
October 21 – Vernon, BC – The Vernon Towne Theatre
October 23 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret *LOW TICKETS*
October 24 – Victoria, BC – Capital Ballroom
October 25 – Nanaimo, BC – The Queens *LOW TICKETS*
October 26 – Campbell River, BC – Tidemark Theatre
October 28 – Golden, BC – Golden Civic Centre *LOW TICKETS*
October 29 – Revelstoke, BC – Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre *SOLD OUT*
October 30 – Calgary, AB – Commonwealth Bar & Stage *SOLD OUT*
November 1 – Saskatoon, SK – The Capitol Music Club
November 2 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre *LOW TICKETS*
With Rita Visser:
November 4 — Thunder Bay, ON — Magnus Theatre *SOLD OUT*
November 6 – Sudbury, ON – Knox Hall
With Justin Wells:
November 17 – Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Iron Works
November 18 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe
November 19 – Columbus, OH – Natalie’s – Grandview *LOW TICKETS*
November 20 – Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark – Ann Arbor
November 21 – Cleveland, OH – The Beachland Ballroom and Tavern
November 22 – Indianapolis, IN – Turntable Indianapolis
November 23 – South Bend, IN – Stockroom East
With Abe Partridge:
December 7 – South Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
December 8 – Boston, MA – City Winery
December 9 — Northampton, MA — The Iron Horse
December 10 – Concord, NH – BNH Stage
December 11 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
December 12 – Elkton, MD – Elkton Music Hall
December 13 – Philadelphia, PA – MilkBoy *LOW TICKETS*
2026
January 21 – 25–New Orleans, LA–Folk Alliance International
Just Added: Canada Spring 2026
March 26 – Kingston, ON – Broom Factory
March 27 – London, ON – Aeolian Hall
April 8 – Gormley, ON – Harmony Hall
April 9 – Galt, ON – Farm League Brewing
April 10 – Toronto, ON – The Great Hall
April 11 – Highgate, ON – Mary Webb Centre
April 16 – Hamilton, ON – The Westdale
April 17 – Montreal, QC – L’Esco
April 18 – Ottawa, ON – The Bronson
ABOUT GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS
Featuring a blend of acoustic instruments, rural soundscapes, and wistful vocals, Great Lake Swimmers are a critically acclaimed indie-folk group led by Tony Dekker. Based in Southern Ontario, the group emerged in the early 2000s with a succession of heavily atmospheric albums recorded in old silos and rural country churches. The music developed in that pastoral warmth, performed and recorded in acoustically resonant and historical locales with a revolving cast of personnel. They are renowned for homespun folk and lush, intimate Americana in their live shows.
Their newest album, Caught Light, out now, is their most immediate and instinctive album to date. Recorded in just five days in Ontario’s Ganaraska Forest with producer Darcy Yates (Bahamas) and engineer Jimmy Bowskill (Blue Rodeo), it draws warmth from early ’70s folk-pop while embracing a new spontaneity and directness in Dekker’s songwriting.
Great Lake Swimmers have been shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize and nominated twice for Canada’s Juno Awards, with the CBC calling them “a national treasure.”
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