Sarah Harmer

Sarah Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist.[1]

At the age of 17, Harmer was invited to join a Toronto band, The Saddletramps. For three years, she performed with The Saddletramps while pursuing her studies in philosophy and women’s studies at Queen’s University.[4]

After leaving The Saddletramps, Harmer put together a band of her own with several Kingston, Ontario musicians, and chose the name Weeping Tile.[2][3][5] The band released its first independent cassette in 1994.[6] Soon afterward, they signed to a major label, and the cassette was re-released in 1995 as Eepee. The band performed regularly 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.[4]

Also in 1998, Harmer recorded a set of pop standards as a Christmas gift for her father.[2] 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.[2] Harmer began working on another album, and in 2000, she released You Were Here.[4][7] In 2001 she toured around Canada and the US in support of the album.[8][9]

A poppier, more laid-back effort than her work with Weeping Tile, You Were Here was a commercial success, and led to the hit singles “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.[8] 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 2002, her song “Silver Road” was featured as the lead track of the soundtrack of the film Men With Brooms.

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 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.