It would’ve been enough had Sarah Harmer stopped after fronting Weeping Tile, one of the pre-eminent acts to help establish Canada’s indie rock scene in the early ’90s. Instead, she’s spent the two-plus decades that followed the Kingston, Ontario, band’s 1998 demise sharpening her craft to become one of the country’s most nuanced singer-songwriters. Harmer's solo turn came by accident, in a way, when she decided to record an album of back-porch folk songs as a gift for her dad—1999’s Songs for Clem. Within those covers is the DNA for the rustic, gentle tunes she’d write for her Polaris Prize-nominated 2005 LP I'm a Mountain—and for a number of other songs that speak to her commitment to environmental activism. But Harmer can just as quickly toggle back to her poetic rock instincts: On tunes like “Basement Apt.” and “The Hideout”, she finds a deep connection to places while also exploring the people and relationships they’re tied to.