Escarpment Blues

Director Andy Keen filmed Harmer's 2005 I Love the Escarpment tour for this concert DVD release. Of the title song, Harmer says: Escarpment Blues tells the story of a current land-use conflict in Southern Ontario on the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. I grew up on the escarpment on the farm where my family still lives, within a long green corridor that is prized for it's fresh water resources, it's endangered species habitats, it's prime agricultural soils and it's wetlands and forests. These lands are under serious threat from the aggregate (sand, gravel, shale) industry. The problem is that large multinationals companies want to open new quarries on top of the escarpment and extract the rock below these ecosystems, thereby removing and destroying them. So, after writing the song, I got the idea for the I Love the Escarpment Tour and set out in June 2005 with some of my best musical mates to hike the escarpment and make music along the way.