With a voice that can be sparse and serene and at moments desperately mournful, Sarah incorporates a rich texture of roots, pop and folk sensibilities into her music. Having previously led the Canadian rock band Weeping Tile, she presents her solo debut, a moving collection of 12 songs ranging from the whimsical to the forlorn, yet all featuring her impressive melodic and lyrical gifts. She has opened for artists such as Indigo Girls, and this release is sure to bring the charms of this talented Canadian artist to an appreciative Americn audience.

You Were Here is a 2000 album by Sarah Harmer.

It was her commercial breakthrough in Canada, after years of almost reaching the pop charts with Weeping Tile. Ironically, the album's first big hit, "Basement Apt.", had previously been a Weeping Tile song, appearing on that band's 1995 release eepee. Harmer also had a big hit with "Don't Get Your Back Up", which she had previously recorded with The Saddletramps. Three other songs, "Weakened State", "Lodestar" and "Coffee Stain", had also been previously recorded by Weeping Tile, on 1998's This Great Black Night.

The album's title track is a tribute to her former Weeping Tile bandmate Joe Chithalen, who died in 1999.

Critical reception

The album was also warmly received by critics in the United States. TIME ranked You Were Here in its year-end Top Ten list, calling it the year's best debut album. Harmer also appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on October 2, 2001, in a famous appearance in which stage manager Biff Henderson jumped in to sing impromptu backing vocals., Jam!, October 18, 2001. She had originally been scheduled to appear the previous week, but was bumped when Rudy Giuliani's first post-9/11 appearance ran overtime.

You Were Here was named the 24th greatest Canadian album of all time in Bob Mersereau's 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.

Personnel

*Sarah Harmer - vocals, guitar, organ, harmonica, tambourine, Wurlitzer

*Gord Tough - guitar

*Benji Perosin - trumpet

*Al Cross - drums

*Jason Euringer - background vocals

*Spencer Evans - clarinet

*Maury LaFoy - bass, upright bass

*Kevin Fox - cello

*Damon Richardson - drums

*Jenny Whiteley - background vocals

*Luther Wright - guitar

Production

*Produced by Peter Prilesnik and Sarah Harmer

*Mixed by Eric Ratz

*Engineered by Pete Prilesnik

*Mastered by Brett Zilahi

*Editing by Blair Robb, Steve Webster and Brett Zilahi

*Cover photo by Yael Staav

*Photography by Luther Wright

*Design by Greg Hall

References

Category:2000 albums

Category:Sarah Harmer albums

Category:Zo%C3%AB Records albums

This text has been derived from You Were Here on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0

Artist/Band Information

Sarah Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and activist.

Biography

Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sister Mary started taking her to concerts by the well-known Tragically Hip. At the age of 17, she was invited to join a Toronto band, The Saddletramps. For three years, she juggled The Saddletramps with her studies in philosophy and women's studies at Queen's University.

After leaving The Saddletramps, Harmer put together a band of her own with several Kingston, Ontario musicians, and settled on the name Weeping Tile. The band released its first independent cassette in 1994. Soon afterward, they signed to a major label, and the cassette was re-released in 1995 as eepee. The band quickly became a popular draw on the rock club circuit and on campus radio with their subsequent albums, but never broke through to the mainstream, and broke up in 1998 after being dropped from their label.

Also in 1998, Harmer recorded a set of pop standards as a Christmas gift for her father. After hearing it, her friends and family convinced her to release it as an album, and in 1999 she released it independently as Songs for Clem. Harmer quickly began working on another album, and in 2000, she released You Were Here.

A poppier, more laid-back effort than her work with Weeping Tile, You Were Here became Harmer's mainstream breakthrough, spawning the hits "Basement Apartment" and "Don't Get Your Back Up". The album also appeared on many critics' year-end lists, including TIME magazine, which called it the year's best debut album. It was eventually certified platinum for sales of 100,000 copies in Canada. Almost half of the album (including both of its major hits) consisted of songs she had previously recorded with Weeping Tile or The Saddletramps.

In 2004, she released All of Our Names. The album included the singles "Almost", which made the top 20 on Canadian pop charts, and "Pendulums".

Her fourth album, I'm a Mountain, was released in Canada on November 8, 2005 and in the United States in February 2006. It was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize, a jury-selected $20,000 cash prize for the Canadian album of the year.

Harmer has also appeared as a guest vocalist on albums by other artists, including Blue Rodeo, Great Big Sea, Rheostatics, Bruce Cockburn, Luther Wright and the Wrongs, Skydiggers, The Weakerthans, Neko Case and Great Lake Swimmers.

In February 2007, Harmer received three Juno Award nominations. I'm a Mountain was up for Best Adult Alternative Album and her DVD Escarpment Blues was up for Best Music DVD. Sarah herself was also up for Songwriter of the Year for her work on "I Am Aglow", "Oleander" and "Escarpment Blues".

In 2010, Sarah Harmer released a fifth album, Oh Little Fire, which has been nominated for three Juno Awards.

Activism

In 2005, Harmer co-founded PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land), an organization which campaigned to protect the Niagara Escarpment from a proposed gravel development which would see some parts of wilderness near the escarpment removed. To support the organization, she and her acoustic band embarked on a tour of the escarpment, hiking the Bruce Trail and performing at theatres and community halls in towns along the way. A documentary DVD of this tour was released in 2006 as Escarpment Blues.

Harmer has performed and canvassed in support of the NDP and Marilyn Churley, her friend in the fight for the protection of the Niagara Escarpment.

Discography

Albums

Singles

In 2007, Harmer also reunited with Weeping Tile to record a song, "Public Square", for the Rheostatics tribute album The Secret Sessions.

Publications

*Peter E. Kelly, Douglas W. Larson, Sarah Harmer, The Last Stand : A Journey Through the Ancient Cliff-Face Forest of the Niagara Escarpment, Natural Heritage Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1897045190 (paperback).

References

This text has been derived from Sarah Harmer on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0