Sarah Harmer: I Love The Escarpment Tour

[DevO]

I just came across this and thought its so great, it must be posted! Looks like Sarah Harmer will be hiking across the escarpment end-to-end and playing shows along the way. With other musician friends hoping on board at different shows too.

Burlington native Sarah Harmer is embarking on a seven-city concert and awareness raising tour along Ontario's Niagara Escarpment. The tour will begin in Owen Sound on June 14th and conclude at The Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington on June 26th.

Sarah got her musical start with country rockers The Saddletramps and then formed her own band, Weeping Tile, after moving to Kingston, Ontario. The group produced three albums before Sarah recorded Songs For Clem (1999), a collection of jazz and country standards, made as a Christmas present for her Dad. This led to her first solo album of original material, You Were Here, which received much critical acclaim, including Time Magazine's pick as debut CD of the year in 2000. 2004's All of Our Names earned Sarah her first Juno Award, winning the Adult Alternative Album of the Year

"The 'I Love the Escarpment' tour idea came to me this winter. I had been pouring over studies, reports, policies, websites, soaking in all I could about the precious UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve that is the Niagara Escarpment. The Niagara Escarpment is recognized as one of the world's unique natural wonders. It is a green corridor ridge in southern Ontario that runs from Niagara Falls northwest to Tobermory. It is home to the oldest trees in eastern North America- 1000+ year old white cedars, 40% of Ontario's rare plant species, countless endangered and threatened species, and ancient aquifers and wetlands that house and filter precious drinking water for Southern Ontarians. I grew up on the escarpment on Mt. Nemo in north Burlington; a wondrous plateau with remarkable woodlands, wetlands, prime agricultural soils, and headwaters of 20+ creek tributaries that originate on the high-ground and flow off the brow to Lake Ontario.

A recent application attempt by the aggregate industry to re-zone 200 acres of Escarpment Rural Land to Mineral Extraction Land has galvanized myself and many other concerned citizens to establish a campaign and committee. We have been at work for the past four months Protecting Escarpment Rural Land (PERL). The Provincial government needs to ban new quarries and quarry expansions on the Niagara Escarpment. PERL, a growing group of concerned citizens, is working to this end.

I figured that as well as going to meetings, hiring experts, learning about the application process, and meeting with countless planners and politicians, I could also round up some musical friends and set off to walk the Bruce Trail along the escarpment and play shows along the way. In this way we could get up close to revere the natural wonders of the escarpment- Southern Ontario's spine- and make merry music in communities along the way. This land is environmentally sensitive and ecologically diverse and is one of only three locations in Ontario that has the international distinction and recognition as a United Nation's World Biosphere Reserve.

I'll be playing acoustic versions of songs new and old with a fine blend of musicians. We'll also be experiencing the escarpment along the Bruce Trail and we encourage others to come out for a show, a hike, or both."

June 14 - Owen Sound

June 15 - Collingwood

June 17 - Avening

June 19 - Orangeville

June 22 - Georgetown

June 25 - Waterdown (w/ Jenny Whiteley)

June 26 - Burlington (w/ Jenny Whiteley)

July 2 - Niagara On The Lake

website

[shainhouse]

awesome. I love the escarpment too. we are very lucky to have it.

[Freak By Night]

That's really cool. Nice picture too. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the Niagra escarpment is on Manitoulin Island too.

[MarcO]

I am blown away.

What an incredible thing to do.

Awesome!

[paisley]

an echo of MarcO

[elemeno]

ya toilet-town does have a nice seat!

[timouse]

wow! sarah harmer is playing a show in georgetown at my local library theatre! this is good news indeed...i saw her on our local cable access channel earlier this week lobbying to have the quarries on the escarpment pay a higher premium for the aggregate they haul out. right now dufferin and the others pay $0.04 per tonne to the municipalities in order to blow up bits of the escarpment, truck it away and make roads out of it. apparently this is one of the lowest extraction fees on the planet, and to be chipping up something that the UN calls a "world biosphere reserve" just floors me.

i think it's amazing that she's using her celebrity for good, i'm going to get on the phone this morning & get me tickets....

thanks for posting this, KevO!!

[Tooly]

The Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington on June 26th

dude thats my birthday! woooooo!!!!!!!

such a good idea, i was so fuckin pissed that i missed her tiny little tree sitter show for the treesitters last summer, will have to catch her this time thru for sure

man i love the escarpment

[DevO]

Hey Tooly, my b-day is June 25th!

Sarah Harmer was at the Casbah a month or two ago on that Hootenanny Tour, with Luther Wright, Carolyn Mark, Oh Susanna, Jenny Whiteley, Dan Whiteley, etc. (twas an awesome show!!)

[Esau]

I think this is one of the coolest ideas I have ever heard...awesome.

Speaking of birthdays in june...mines the 3rd.Fat Cats & BNB for me.(Dave & Leigh's stag & doe).

Should look into reviving junestock...hmmmmm...

[ggrtrhhrtgg]

very cool..but, why stop in Burlington??? If she needs a cold bevy, or a heady offering, she can step down from the trail in Beamsville in my backyard---hehe..