Sarah Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and activist. Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sister Mary started taking her to Tragically Hip concerts. 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 ... See more [+] 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". Her fourth album, I'm a Mountain, was released in Canada on November 8, 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. Harmer has also appeared as a guest vocalist on albums by other artists, including Blue Rodeo, Great Big Sea, Rheostatics, Bruce Cockburn, Luther Wright and the Wrongs, Skydiggers, The Weakerthans, Neko Case, Great Lake Swimmers, The Tragically Hip and Bob Wiseman. In February 2007, Harmer received three Juno Award nominations. I'm a Mountain was up for Best Adult Alternative Album and her DVD Escarpment Blues was up for Best Music DVD. Harmer herself was also up for Songwriter of the Year for her work on "I Am Aglow", "Oleander" and "Escarpment Blues". In 2010, Harmer released a fifth album, Oh Little Fire, which was nominated for three Juno Awards. The album signaled a shift toward a more rock-based sound. In 2011, Harmer participated in the National Parks Project, visiting British Columbia's Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site with Bry Webb, Jim Guthrie and filmmaker Scott Smith. She was also commissioned by CBC Radio 2 to write an original campfire song for the network.
