Americana-UK.com

Black, bleak, bleary…

…but in a good way naturally. The Deep Dark Woods (if ever there were a more befitting title of a band I’ve yet to come across it) are a four piece troupe out of Saskatchewan, Canada. Sharing a northern latitude with the plethora of Scandinavian bands pursuing this brand of Americana obviously has some merititious effect on their musical outlook – probably something to do with lack of serotonin or some such thing – because this work is of the highest (lowest) melancholic order. In fact when listening to the opening track (“Five Hundred Metres”) you could be forgiven for thinking that they were playing it for laughs (if that isn’t an oxymoron). But no, these guys have the balance between a sort of sly, knowing smile and being in deadly earnest absolutely spot on. And in what might be considered a rather limiting musical palette (the usual plucked guitars, swampy electric, pedal steel and harmony vocals) there is sufficient range to keep the listeners attention rapt. Occasionally they fit traditional lyrics into their country rock setting (“Hang Me Oh Hang Me”, “River In The Pines”) but most often Singer/Guitarist Ryan Boldt handles songwriting duties (with contributions from bandmates Burke Barlow – guitar and C. S. Mason – bass) to very good effect. Standouts include the shuffling, spine tingling “Redwood Forest” (sample lyric “There’s something out there/Looking around in the midnight air”) and the almost (in this company at any rate) upbeat “Glory Hallelujah”. If you want musical comparisons look no further than the aforementioned Scandinavian effect or, if really pushed, consider the fact that they are Canadian and go figure…

This is their second effort and one would be well advised to seek out their debut if it is half as good as this.

-Paul Villers