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Founded in Athens, Georgia,
Great Lakes are a psychedelic-tinged indie pop/indie folk band led by songwriter
Ben Crum. Their music walks a line between pastoral accents of Southern-bred indie folk and an artful, introspective mood reflecting the sometimes gloomy conceits of
Crum's lyrics. In their early years, the group had ties to the Elephant 6 collective of offbeat pop bands, an era best represented by their self-titled debut LP from 2000. A more ambitious and full-bodied sound emerged when
Crum settled on the East Coast, with 2006's
Diamond Times emblematic of their stylistic growth.
Great Lakes are also capable of making powerful guitar-based rock, and 2022's
Contenders saw them embracing this side of their work.
The first edition of the group was assembled by
Crum and Dan Donahue, two musically inclined friends who met in high school; they began writing songs together, with Donahue concentrating on lyrics and
Crum contributing melodies. The two songwriters teamed up with multi-instrumentalist James Huggins, also a member of the Elephant 6 group
Of Montreal, to form the first edition of
Great Lakes. After issuing a debut single on the Happy Birthday to Me label, the band's self-titled first album was released by Kindercore Records in 2000. As Huggins was busy with
Of Montreal and a variety of other projects, he soon dropped out of
Great Lakes, and the lineup became something of a revolving door, with
Crum and Donahue overseeing the many players who performed with the group on-stage or in the studio.
Crum and Donahue relocated to Brooklyn, New York, and released the second
Great Lakes album, The Distance Between, on Orange Twin in 2002.
Diamond Times followed in 2006, but in 2009 Donahue opted to return to Athens, and
Crum became the band's primary creative voice, writing both the music and words while fronting a group that had swelled to nine members.
Ways of Escape, the first album from
Great Lakes'
Crum-led lineup, was released by Orange Twin in 2010.
Crum began work on
Great Lakes' next record in 2011, but the project was set aside for several years before he teamed with keyboardist
Joe McGinty, vocalist Suzanne Nienaber, bassist David Lerner, and drummer
Kevin Shea to complete the recordings. The album,
Wild Vision, was released through the group's own Loose Trucks label in January 2016. Two years later, the band delivered another full-length,
Dreaming Too Close to the Edge, again via Loose Trucks. For 2022's
Contenders,
Crum brought Suzanne Nienaber and
Kevin Shea back to the studio, along with Chris Ziter of
the Essex Green,
Louis Schefano of Little Red Rocket, and
Glen Hansard and
Josh Ritter sideman
Ray Rizzo. Produced by
Crum,
Contenders saw
Great Lakes returning to the roster of Happy Birthday to Me Records. ~ Mark Deming