American waters are looking just fine for the Canadian band Great Lake Swimmers, diving into a seven-week U.S. tour this summer that stops at The Ark on Saturday.

Leading the Toronto-based alt-folk group, which recently released its fourth album, “Lost Channels,” is vocalist/singer-songwriter Tony Dekker.

To record “Lost Channels,” Dekker and company went upstream on the St. Lawrence River to the Thousand Islands, halfway between Toronto and Montreal, a picturesque area on the U.S.-Canada border. They recorded in a number of acoustically unique spaces within the region, including one of the area’s best-known landmarks, Singer Castle (one of the album’s tracks is a recording of the castle’s bells).

“It adds a layer of sound, an acoustic layer,” Dekker explained. “I first started recording in places like that purely for the acoustics. We’ve been using the rooms we record in as an instrument, like a backdrop, as a canvas for the songs. As we’ve progressed over the last couple of records I’ve come to realize (the location) has a lot to do with the creative process as well. There’s a certain intangible quality that gets picked up when you are recording in a special place like that.”

With a name like Great Lake Swimmers (Dekker says he doesn’t really know why the band’s name is Lake singular rather than Lakes plural) it comes as no surprise to find he was raised on the north shore of Lake Erie, and has swam in all the Great Lakes

“There’s a certain water theme that runs through all of our records and particularly on the new one,” he adds.

Listen to Great Lake Swimmers “Pulling On A Line” (MP3).

Although Canada has produced some great musical exports — Gordon Lightfoot, the late folk great Stan Rogers and Leonard Cohen come to mind — Dekker is hesitant to include Great Lake Swimmers with those more exalted names, although he does cite Cohen as an influence.

“I definitely hesitate to put myself in the same sentence as any of those people,” he said by phone from his Toronto home shortly before the tour began. “I have such a huge respect for them. …Being a Canadian songwriter, definitely Leonard Cohen has been a huge guiding light.”

At the moment, Dekker said he’s satisfied at the slow-but-steady way the band has been building its fan base.

“It’s been a pretty natural progression for us. It seems people are really starting to take notice.”

Fans include NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, cyclist Lance Armstrong and singers Feist and Robert Plant.

“I think it’s great when lots of different people are able to respond to (the music),” Dekker said, “that they can find something in there that’s interesting.

Great Lake Swimmers perform “She Comes To Me In Dreams”:

“I see us first and foremost as a band that has a folk aspect to it, but not in a traditional sense, although at times in our music we use traditional tools. For me, as a songwriter, I came at folk from a more independent standpoint, meaning music that isn’t tied to corporate machinery. My take on music in general was do-it-yourself music, fiercely independent stuff. I think that when I came back around to start songwriter myself I approached folk music through that lens.”

The Internet, he added, may be responsible for some of Great Lake Swimmers’ growing exposure.

“With the Internet and so much music being available at the touch of a button, I think that it’s easier and easier to find out about different bands,” said Dekker. “People circulate music a lot on the Internet and if you stumble across a song you like you can easily track it down. It’s a great thing for music in general that it’s become so widely available.”

Roger LeLievre is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.

PREVIEW

Great Lake Swimmers
What: Toronto-based alt-folk group fronted by ethereal-sounding vocalist-songwriter Tony Dekker.
Where: The Ark, 316 S. Main St.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
How much: $12.
Info: 734-731-1451or The Ark web site.