GREAT LAKES

AGENT: JIMMY

AVAILABILITY: SEE AVAILS / UPCOMING SHOWS

TOOLS: MAKE AN OFFER / PROMO MATERIALS / PUBLICITY

BAND SITES:  MYSPACE PAGE

LABEL: ORANGE TWIN RECORDS (US)

HOMETOWN:  Brooklyn, NY

DISCOGRAPHY:

2010 - WAYS OF ESCAPE CD

2006 - DIAMOND TIMES CD

2002 - THE DISTANCE BETWEEN CD

2000 - GREAT LAKES CD

BIO:

Great Lakes formed in Athens, Georgia in 1996.  Founded around the songwriting partnership of Ben Crum and lyricist Dan Donahue with multi-instrumentalist Jamey Huggins, they released an eponymous debut in 2000.

Over time Huggins switched his focus to his sideman role in Of Montreal, and Crum and Donahue relocated to Brooklyn, releasing The Distance Between in 2002  Diamond Times appeared in 2006. In 2009 Donahue moved back to Athens, leaving Crum to carry on in New York.

2010's Ways of Escape is the first of their records to feature Crum as the primary songwriter, though he has also filled any free time over the past several years playing as of member of The Ladybug Transistor and The Essex Green.  With its frank and personal folk, and country-influenced songs, Ways of Escape has a bare emotional style that's far from the innocent optimism and lighthearted psychedelia of the band's early recordings.  Adorned with gentle guitar, stately piano, beautiful pedal steel, soulful organ, and subtle yet powerful drumming, Ways of Escape is distinguished by the accomplished musicianship of the group of veteran players who created it.  With Crum singing and playing guitar, it also features Kevin Shea on drums, David Lerner on bass, Jay Israelson on piano, Joe McGinty on electric piano and organ, Jon Natchez on bass clarinet and saxophones, Heather McIntosh on cello, Linda Rosenbury on violin, Phillip Sterk on pedal steel, and Suzanne Nienaber singing backing vocals.

Great Lakes will tour Europe and the USA in 2010 and 2011 as a duo, Ben Crum playing with long-time collaborator Kevin Shea on drums.

REVIEWS:

Four stars... accomplished pop music with grandiose guitars, weeping pedal steels, honking saxes and barrelhouse piano.  The results (Diamond Times) are utterly great.

-Uncut

(Diamond Times is a) stunningly mature, rich-sounding third album.  A beguiling blend of elements: fuzzy garage pop, country twanging and dustbowl balladeering all tied together with soft psychedelic glue.

-Plan B

(Diamond TImes) makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck sometimes it's that great.

-American UK

(Great Lakes) can spew out a fuzz-laced garage assault (with) a knack for fusing The Band's post-Civil War melancholy with Spiritualized's feats of ballroom levitation.

–Magnet Magazine

A luminous paean to late '60s psych-pop crafted with obvious skill and affection.

-Allmusic

Anyone with even the slightest predilection toward the hopelessly romantic notions underlying pure pop music will find plenty to identify with in Great Lakes 12 songs.  Every summer deserves an album like this

–Austin Chronicle

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