It’s always a gift to sit down with a great artist — and even more so when that artist is an old friend.

Sarah Harmer is one of Canada’s most beloved songwriters, known for crafting songs that are intimate and expansive all at once. From her early days fronting one of my favourite 90’s bands Weeping Tile, to solo albums like her debut You Were Here and her most recent Are You Gone, her music has long been a reflection of both inner life and the natural world around us.

She’s also a passionate environmental activist — a driving force in efforts to protect Mount Nemo on the Niagara Escarpment and other threatened landscapes. For that work, and for the way she’s woven care and conscience into her music, she was awarded the Humanitarian Award at this year's Junos — and the key to her hometown of Burlington, Ontario.

We first met in Kingston back in the mid-90s, when I was hosting a college radio show on CFRC and she was already writing the songs that would later inform how I’d write mine.

This time, we’re catching up from her country home north of Kingston — where she’s waiting for a call from the lawnmower repair man — and talking about music, memory, activism, and the quiet work of keeping it all going.

Sarah Harmer on Instagram

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When We Wake with Andrew Shaver is written, hosted, edited, and produced by ⁠Andrew Shaver⁠. The weekly radio broadcast is syndicated across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

Theme song Got You by Noah Reid