Prayer of the Woods

Taking a sabbatical from his duties as lead singer of Toronto’s Great Lake Swimmers, Tony Dekker ruminates on the mysteries of the North Country on his solo debut project. Prayer of the Woods is a quietly stunning song collection, concealing poetic subtleties and musical richness under deceptively simple musical surfaces. Dekker reveals flashes of deep feeling amid oblique lyric imagery, inviting comparisons with the early songs of fellow Canadian Neil Young. His understated yet evocative vocals and sparse, acoustic-centered arrangements conjure pictures of Ontario’s vast empty spaces and dark, dream-inducing forestlands. The title track sums up the compassionate, austerely reverent tone that pervades the album as a whole. Songs like “Somewhere Near Thunder Bay” and “Talking in Your Sleep” have a gently rolling flow powered by steady guitar strums, while “Empty Arms” and “Under a Magician’s Sky” are haunting, introspective pieces. In Dekker’s hands, Gordon Lightfoot’s “Carefree Highway” loses its pop-hit sheen to expose a lonesome, bluesy core.