Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sister Mary started taking her to concerts by the then-unknown The Tragically Hip. At the age of 17, she was invited to join a Toronto band, The Saddletramps. For three years, she juggled The Saddletramps with her studies in philosophy and women's studies at Queen's University.
After leaving The Saddletramps, Harmer put together a band of her own with several Kingston, Ontario musicians, and settled on the name Weeping Tile. The band released its first independent cassette in 1994. Soon afterward, they signed to a major label, and the cassette was re-released in 1995 as eepee. The band quickly became a popular draw 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.
Also in 1998, Harmer recorded a set of pop standards as a Christmas gift for her father. 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. Harmer quickly began working on another album, and in 2000, she released You Were Here.
A poppier, more laid-back effort than her work with Weeping Tile, You Were Here became Harmer's mainstream breakthrough, spawning the hits "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. 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 2004, she released All of Our Names. The album included the singles "Almost", which made the top 20 on Canadian pop charts, and "Pendulums". The album has a rustic earthy live-of-the-floor sound with some of the instrumentation, programming pre-production recording conducted in her home Northeast of Kingston, Ontario. The album was co-produced by Gavin Brown [Metric, Billy Talent, The Tragically Hip,]
Her fourth album, I'm A Mountain, was released in Canada on November 8, 2005. Sarah has performed and canvased in support of the NDP and Marilyn Churley, her friend in the fight for the protection of the Niagara Escarpment. The album states that it has been: "Engineered, mixed and produced by Sarah Harmer and Martin Davis Kinack at her house."
In 2010, Sarah released her fifth release, Oh Little Fire, which was co-produced by Gavin Brown, who assisted with her earlier All Our Names and features Neko Case on guest vocals.
Sarah, during her five year break between her last two recordings, appeared as a guest vocalist on other artists' albums, including Blue Rodeo, Neko Case, Bruce Cockburn, Great Big Sea, Rheostatics, The Skydiggers and The Weakerthans.
Discography
1999 - Songs for Clem
2000 - You Were Here
2004 - All of Our Names
2005 - I'm A Mountain
2010 - Oh Little Fire
Open Window
Sarah Harmer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Adrift on the air
Floating by the open window
Ah, the sentiment of love
Reflections I speak of
What can enter when our hearts are open
And recognize how sacred love can be when stated
Shared, shown for all to see
The beauty that can be when love is cultivated
Well our love is a sacred thing
Like the mysteries of the night
In the darkness unwavering
And still so strong come the light
Well our love is an infinite thing
Like the sun's last ray on the sea
As it sets low in the west
And the moon rises
Love, I see you there
Adrift on the air
Floating by the open window
Ah, the sentiment of love
Reflections I speak of
What can enter when our hearts are open
Here, witnesses appear
And recognize how sacred love can be when stated
Shared, shown for all to know
The beauty that can grow when love is cultivated
Well our love is a sacred thing
Like the mysteries of the night
In the darkness unwavering
And still so strong come the light
Well our love is an infinite thing
Like the sun's last ray on the sea
As it sets low in the west
And the moon rises
In these lyrics, Sarah Harmer is using the metaphor of an open window to represent the way love can float in and out of our lives if we allow it to. She suggests that when we are open-hearted, we create an opportunity for love to enter our lives in unexpected ways. In the first verse, she observes that love is adrift, floating by the window, waiting for someone to welcome it in. She speaks of the sentiment of love, the feeling of warmth and connection that surrounds us when we open ourselves up to it. In the second verse, Harmer goes a step further by suggesting that when we are open to love, we become witnesses to its power and beauty. She says that love can be sacred when we recognize and acknowledge it, and that this recognition can be shared with others, bringing even more beauty and magic into our world.
Throughout the song, Harmer emphasizes the idea that love is a sacred, infinite thing that can bring light into our lives. She uses the image of the "mysteries of the night" to suggest that love is something awe-inspiring and mysterious, something that we may not fully understand but can still appreciate and cherish. She also compares love to the sun's last ray on the sea, a moment that is fleeting and yet intensely beautiful, just like the experience of falling in love.
Overall, the lyrics of "Open Window" speak to the power of love to transform our lives when we are open, receptive, and willing to recognize its beauty.
Line by Line Meaning
Love, I see you there
The feeling of love is present and visible
Adrift on the air
Love is floating and uncontained
Floating by the open window
Love is passing by, open for experience
Ah, the sentiment of love
Love is an emotional response
Reflections I speak of
The act of considering love in thought
What can enter when our hearts are open
When our emotions are receptive, what can come in
Here, witnesses appear
Observers witness the presence of love
And recognize how sacred love can be when stated
And acknowledge the holiness of love when expressed
Shared, shown for all to see
The act of showing and sharing love for all to witness
The beauty that can be when love is cultivated
The wonderful results of nurturing love
Well our love is a sacred thing
Our love is a precious entity
Like the mysteries of the night
Comparable to the enigma of night
In the darkness unwavering
Unfaltering and constant in obscurity
And still so strong come the light
Resilient and powerful even in the face of illumination
Well our love is an infinite thing
Our love is an unending concept
Like the sun's last ray on the sea
Similar to the final beam of sunlight on the ocean
As it sets low in the west
As it descends into the western horizon
And the moon rises
And the moon ascends into the sky
Contributed by Eli S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.