Deep Dark Woods' sophomore record is no It Still Moves, but it comes mighty close. Like My Morning Jacket's potentially final defining record, Winter Hours is a slow-burner -- a record that continues to haunt your every notion as you wade through it time and time again.
Winter Hours, the sophomore release from Saskatchewan’s Deep Dark Woods sounds exactly as its name suggests. It’s an album that hunkers down against the cold and darkness of winter, keeping you warm with lilting, poetic lyrics but none of the upbeat energy that summer sunlight would bring.
The Deep Dark Woods is a Canadian band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. For those American readers out there, it’s in the middle of the summer dust and -40 degree winter chill. It seems unlikely that anything could survive out there, let alone a good group of artists emerge from those flat plains. Saskatoon, though, isn’t terribly unlike Winnipeg.
Saskatoon’s a pretty town in the winter, but only when you’re sitting inside looking out of a window. Outside, it’s bitter cold. Winds sweep across the surrounding prairie and slam into the bridges bolted like rungs on a ladder over the South Saskatchewan River, which lazily weaves through town. From inside the Yard and Flagon on Broadway, it’s pretty though.
My respect for Saskatoon’s Deep Dark Woods began when I picked “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” as the 38th best album of 2007. I loved the bands smart mix of traditional bluegrass and Americana, which made it sound classic and traditional all at the same time. Lead singer Ryan Boldt sounds as old as Jerry Garcia, but his voice much stronger.
after criss-crossing the nation on tour since late two thousand and seven in support of their album, hang me, oh, hang me, the deep dark woods of saskatoon found themselves holed up in a studio late last year with juno award winning producer/musician steve dawson to hammer out their latest effort, winter hours, which just hit the shelves and online retailers on february seventeenth.
its hard not to listen to the deep dark woods’ winter hours and not feel something, anything. the album’s tones of despair, regret, and pure shit luck make for a pretty heavy record, but like will oldham, you will actually find hints of the opposite if you give it a chance to sink in.
The Deep Dark Woods use a simple formula to determine when it's time to make a new album. They ask themselves, "Do we have enough songs?"
The exhaustive planning most bands suffer through in crafting a new disc — choosing songs from a pool of possibilities, then recording, re-recording, overdubbing and arranging the tracks — is a process that's lost on this Saskatoon quartet.
Those who fell in love with The Deep Dark Woods' under-the-radar sophomore effort, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me, and were expecting something mind-blowing from its follow-up may initially be disappointed with Winter Hours. The Saskatoon-based four-piece had every right to make this a crashing jamboree, but they pulled back on the reins and instead focused on intricacies.
A reporter once asked Lou Reed what he thought of The Band. His reply was something along the lines of “they’re great, if you want to sit on your porch and pretend it’s 1832.”
Robert Frost predicted correctly: the Woods are lovely, dark and deep. Especially on their new album, Winter Hours, which is the most enjoyable cold 'n' gloomy record to come out of -30C temperatures.
Anyone calling this third album from Saskatoon's Deep Dark Woods sombre has completely missed the point. Singer/guitarist Ryan Boldt's tales of lost love, life and money are delivered with such weighty tones that "How Can I Try" and "Two Time Loser" merely sound like the consequences of an adventurous life.
With this band name, album title and songs called "The Gallows," "All The Money I Had Is Gone" and "The Sun Never Shines," you know you're not in for a sunny pop record. Sure enough, the third album from Saskatoon's Deep Dark Woods is a sombre, melancholy, oft-bleak affair, but it is also a highly compelling and convincing work.
Ryan Boldt is not the world’s most original songwriter, but he’s alright with that. As far as he’s concerned, this just lands him in good company, given that icons such as Bob Dylan and Tom Waits have also been known to steal a line or two from time to time.
Saskatoon's The Deep Dark Woods has created an album to help you fill winter's long, dark hours with appropriately sad, introspective music. Produced in Vancouver by Steve Dawson, the band's third album is reminiscent of Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne---not surprisingly, both were recorded live off the floor.
Is it just me, or is 2009 already the best year for music ever? We’ve got some serious gems headed our way very soon and February 17th is poised to be this year’s Indie Music Super Tuesday. Both M. Ward and The Deep Dark Woods are releasing albums and the fine folks at Black Hen Music were kind enough to give us a sneak peak at DDW’s latest effort, Winter Hours. It is phenomenal.
To be honest, this review could have been as simple as rewriting my initial reaction when I heard the first song from The Deep Dark Woods new record. As soon as the harmonies on All the Money I Had Is Gone started, I stopped what I was doing and wrote to my friend that passed along the track, "Wow. I always liked The Deep Dark Woods, but this song is incredible."
Translating the bleakness that a Prairie winter can impose into memorable bursts of inspirationally muted song is no easy feat. But for Saskatchewan roots-rockers The Deep Dark Woods, it is second nature.
Their excellent new record Winter Hours was released this past February and will see the group playing two shows in New Brunswick in support of it.
There are very dark things indeed hiding in the Deep Dark Woods. These twelve tales of frontier tragedy weave an alt-country pastiche of hanging trees and impending doom. When the Deep Dark Woods aren’t singing of sudden death, they’re crawling into some dark hollow looking for it.
With an album title like Winter Hours and track names such as “All The Money I Had Is Gone,” “The Gallows,” Two Time Loser” and “The Sun Never Shines,” you might think this would be a bleak listening experience. But despite the themes covered, this is a well-crafted, highly listenable collection of original songs by the Deep Dark Woods.
The Deep Dark Woods is Ryan Boldt (guitar), Burke Barlow (guitar), Chris Mason (bass), and Lucas Goetz (drums), with all four sharing songwriting and vocal duties. Winter Hours is their sophomore release on the Black Hen Music label and was recorded and produced in Vancouver at The Factory by Steve Dawson.
There is so much lo fi indie music coming out of Canada these days that any new artist hoping to make a splash had better have something special up their sleeves if they hope to stand out.
It can be a difficult task to find a band whose lyrical content tends to stray away from the clichés of love and the emotions caused by it. Although I enjoy a diverse range of topics, it is hard to blame most of these artists. After all, if there is one thing that all listeners can personally relate to, it is the feeling of loving one another or being loved.
Like the name of the band and the album title, there’s something elemental about the music of Saskatoon’s The Deep Dark Woods, something that bespeaks the influence of geography and climate, something from the soil.
If you couldn’t tell by the title, the Deep Dark Woods’ Winter Hours is a pretty sullen album. But its downtrodden sound works, by and large, as Ryan Boldt and company subtly explore different sounds without straying from the foot they have set firmly in the country tradition.
While The Deep Dark Woods' third album Winter Hours provides the perfect soundtrack for hard economic times and cold Prairie climes, the Saskatoon roots quartet's latest effort was largely written in B.C. long before the markets recoiled
love Neil Young's eponymous debut album from 1968. It is the most gorgeous, un-jadedly truthful rendering of the entirety of North American heel-spurrin', gun-slingin', whiskey-gluggin', bank-robbin', saloon-hoppin', wench-ridin', love-losin', land-grabbin' mythology as ironic, pseudo-honky tonk-country-folk-rock country.
The Deep Dark Woods’ third full-length release, “Winter Hours” is inappropriately titled. All 12 of the tracks featured on this album are far too rich with character and warm tones to be considered a winter-themed project. There are no lapses of hibernation or icy stares signaled in their songs at all, even if the album art encourages that sentiment.
“It seems to me that a lot of people will call anything with an acoustic guitar ‘folk,’ even though when you really strip it down, it has nothing to do with the genre,” laughs Burke Barlowe, guitarist and vocalist of The Deep Dark Woods.
Music of specific, gentle power, Winter Hours' stuff proves that some of the best and boldest music in this country comes from the Prairies. Saskatoon's Deep Dark Woods are, succinctly, a grand band; their songs are haunting, gothic, well-worn, lived in and sometimes even fun. Truth told, Winter Hours is remarkable for its panoply of moods and thoughtful textures.
The Deep Dark Woods, a foursome from Saskatoon, have created an album of well-crafted country tunes with vocals that run through your body like whiskey, keeping you warm on a cold winter’s night, and harmonies like the north wind blowing softly through the trees.
There's a surprisingly light vibe to The Deep Dark Woods and their new album, The Winter Hours. The band's use of cold winter and dark woods imagery may lead you to expect stagnant, dark, and sombre sounds. However, they produce an album that is surprisingly warm and full of life.
A lot of bands working in the so-called roots realm get hyperbolic comparisons to such luminaries as the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons. Saskatoon quartet Deep Dark Woods actually touches upon these California country-rock progenitors for real. Case in point, the chiming harmonies in "Nancy" the second track from the band's latest Black Hen Music release, Winter Hours.
The Deep Dark Woods do sadness incredibly well. It's unlikely there was a more downbeat and affecting song in 2007 than "Five Hundred Meters", from the Saskatoon quartet's sophomore album. Winter Hours begins in a similar fashion - both the ominous "Farewell" and the old-timey "Nancy" deal with departures.
WINTER HOURS IS The Deep Dark Woods’ third foray into the ambiguous genre of alt-country. The album relies heavily upon twangy guitars, copious harmonies, and monotonous drumming. Thankfully, though, the band has taken country away from songs about ma’ dog, ma’ girlfriend, and ma’ truck and back towards the ear-pleasing, finger-tapping country your parents liked so much.
Winter Hours, the third full-length effort from The Deep Dark Woods, is aptly titled. Like the season for which it's named, the record is both strikingly beautiful and profoundly depressing, as the Saskatoon alt-county troubadours are hyper-visual storytellers who spin vivid tales of sadness, loss and loneliness.
Dark songs of betrayal, remorse and redemption, steeped in traditional American songwriting—from the whispered, wistful opening track, the Deep Dark Woods delivers 12 captivating songs, hinting at influences from the Band to Gram Parsons to outlaw country. Gone are the jazzy, organ-fused blues ballads of 2007’s Hang Me, Oh Hang Me.
Saskatoon's the Deep Dark Woods is a band that has a way of locking into a piece of music on stage, each instrument and voice intertwining and melding into something that is larger than the individual pieces. It's a result of the kind of chemistry that can only come about through many hours of shared songs, both with and without instruments in hand.
“I don’t think we really listen to a lot of new music, that’s probably the biggest factor.” That’s the reason guitarist Burke Barlow of The Deep Dark Woods gives when asked how he and the band manage to sound so old-timey.
With three singer-songwriters offering up a constant barrage of new material, you'd think that the Deep Dark Woods would already be at each other's throats for space to get it out.
"No, it actually hasn't been an issue," laughs bassist Chris Mason. "We're pretty good about how we divide things up, and yeah -- there's a lot to choose from."
By all accounts, 2007 was a landmark year for The Deep Dark Woods. The band formed in August 2005 with four friends playing music for fun, and things have been growing steadily since their first show.
Deep Dark Woods has certainly made a splash in the last half year. The Saskatoon-based band - signed with Steve Dawson’s Black Hen Music label - is riding on the strength of a new album, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me. Released at the beginning of August, it’s an impressively mature sophomore release, a strikingly written, confidently played batch of songs that bespeaks experience beyond their years.
Saskatoon alt-country artists the Deep Dark Woods are no strangers to the hazards of the road. Just last month, the quartet drove from Toronto to Thunder Bay in the middle of a snowstorm.
‘We have way more songs than we’ll ever record,” laughs Burke Barlow, vocalist/guitarist in Saskatoon’s the Deep Dark Woods over a scratchy phone line that is on the verge of collapse. “There are certain songs that we’ll play live and then there are certain songs that we rehearse and they don’t really work so they just kind of get left behind.
Hailing from Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, they have just released their sophomore album Hang Me Oh Hang Me on Black Hen Music. According to the band they drew their inspiration from the long, depressing Saskatchewan winters. However, this is far from a depressing album. The songwriting is diverse and covers many genres.
A more upbeat, and more traditional, sound comes from Deep Dark Wood’s sophmore album, Hang Me Oh Hang Me. I really love this album. I haven’t heard anything this rootsy and smooth in a long time. “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” borrows its lyrics heavily from “Been All Around This World,” and I suspect both traditionals have similar roots.
Country never needed a makeover back when some started glamming it up. Good songs played well by musicians who are jubilant and sorrowful in equal measure have always been the genre’s sweet spot.
The fans know this, and it’s obvious that the Deep Dark Woods knows this too.
The Deep Dark Woods have just released Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Black Hen Music.) With an opening troika that rivals anything dropped by the Bottle Rockets, Son Volt, or Whiskeytown in their prime, the Saskatoon band has produced a memorable collection of songs that hold the listener within a sparse, moody musical world of the band’s creation.
Saskatoon country artists Deep Dark Woods hit pay dirt with the sophomore release Hang Me Oh Hang Me.
Anchored by songwriter Ryan Bolt on Neil Youngesque vocals and guitar, Burke Barlow on guitar, C.S. Mason on bass and Lucas Goetz on drums, the album filters folk, rock, bluegrass and gospel through a true-blue, country sensibility.
Deep Dark Woods on the other hand tastefully wove their way through a balanced set of up-tempo twang and moody country waltzes. Singer/guitarist Ryan T Boldt led the band through the lyrical country landscapes, punctuating each song’s finale with a yowlping “Yeah.” The bearded rhythm section provided a rollicking backbeat and some sweet falsetto backgrounds.
The bottom three: One I know you’ve heard of, another you may have, and a third you probably haven’t. But that one, Deep Dark Woods, is my favorite of the three. Chalk it down to the Deadhead in me, but the wonderful combination of jamming, extended guitar solos, and old-fashioned traditional songs makes me nod my head and shout for more. As for Parkas–it’s just plain great indie rock.
A Saskatoon quartet that sound like they've spent many long hours playing in basements as the Prairie winter howled above. They're as rootsy as carrots, with songs populated by delicious death and destruction. B
