The Deep Dark Woods

For a while it seemed that if a band gained comparisons to the Grateful Dead, it was an outrage.

Yet it's hard not to describe the slightly psychedelic folk-rock of Saskatoon's The Deep Dark Woods without evoking the Dead, with hints of Neil Young and the Flying Burrito Brothers thrown in as well. After all, you'd need the Grateful Dead's entire tour rider from 1974 to make a drive through Saskatchewan's barren lands seem interesting. But after listening to the yearning musings of The Deep Dark Woods, perhaps there's more to 'Saskabush' than apocalyptic winters.

Performing at the ARTery tonight as part of the Western Canadian Music Awards' festival, the band's latest release Hang Me, Oh Hang Me has received a WCMA nomination for outstanding roots recording and the group will be at Sunday's awards ceremony at the Myer Horowitz theatre, which thrills drummer Lucas Goetz.

"It's nice to get that kind of recognition and we were pretty surprised when we heard," Goetz says from his Saskatoon home.

An early incarnation of The Deep Dark Woods featuring Goetz, Burke Barlow and Chris Mason, kicked around Saskatoon playing alt-rock and releasing the odd homemade release. It was when lead singer Ryan Boldt joined up that the final lineup gelled. Barely three years old, the band's music speaks of an entirely different era: rollicking modern death tales lucidly sung and propelled by good-time guitars and harmonies as slick as a puddle of reflected moonlight. The music of The Deep Dark Woods is not forced, coming across as a natural extension of what Bob Dylan and the boys in The Band were trying to do in their Big Pink house during the late '60s.

Goetz explains the band's first album was only sold online and at shows, but after hooking up with Black Hen Music, the follow-up release, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me, was properly distributed and slowly began to find an audience, thanks to the band constantly hitting the road.


"We tour quite a bit," says Goetz. "We've been keeping the tours short and doing them frequently, 'cause if it goes too long, like three weeks, it starts to get a little tedious and people start to get on each other's nerves."

Aside from a few shows in New York, The Deep Dark Woods have yet to venture south of the 49th parallel, which is expected to change with the upcoming release of its third album in January.

"It's a little different than the last one," Goetz says of the new album. "Steve Dawson produced it and I'm really happy with it. It features some different kinds of songs that Ryan's been writing and Chris has a song on it. Ryan's been getting into a lot of old English folk music, so there's some of that. We brought in a fiddle player to play on some songs as well. It's still all recorded live and we added some instruments after, but it's still got a bit of that live feeling to it."

Goetz also admits Saskatoon's music scene is steadily growing, especially with folk musicians.

"We basically only play in Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. It's kind of hard to draw people in. The other bigger city is Regina and there's not a huge scene for our kind of music there, but we do play there once a year. There wasn't much of (a scene) a couple of years ago, but there's lots of new bands coming out.

"We've had really good luck, I guess," muses Goetz. "It's kind of like any other business, you got to know who your friends are and take advantage of opportunities." - Edmonton Sun

The Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours
-Doug Heselgrave

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. Saying that, Winter Hours, the second full length CD from Saskatoon’s Deep Dark Woods is so understated and low key that it should have as much chance as a single snow flake making itself seen in a prairie snow storm, yet it has become one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

A month ago, I hadn’t even heard of the band, but since the disc dropped into my stereo for the first time two weeks ago, it’s been in near constant rotation. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s so endearing about the music that The Deep Dark Woods make. After all, they wear their influences so prominently on their sleeve that it’d be quite a stretch to say they’re doing anything original. One spin of the disc and any music lover will be able to point out the influence of The Band, early Neil Young, and American beauty era Grateful Dead on the group’s singing and songwriting. Yet, somehow the combination of their influences stitched together with a healthy dose of Cowboy Junkies style minimalism works beautifully. There is something so truthful, sincere and unaffected about the stance and approach The Deep Dark Woods take towards their music that it’s impossible not to throw cynicism aside and enjoy the twelve songs that make up Winter Hours.

Like The Band before them and Gillian Welch and My Morning Jacket of their own generation, the members of The Deep Dark Woods have obviously spent a fair amount of time with Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and have conjured up a selection of songs that reflect all the yearning, hurting and dysfunction that Old Weird America has to offer. But, unlike Gillian Welch and My Morning Jacket, The Deep Dark Woods don’t attempt to update the subject matter of their songs to create a kind of weird intersection between antiquated sounds and modern sensibility. In this way, they take an approach more like the Band on their early albums in that they unabashedly draw from the well of North American frontier culture and sing their songs as if they were written yesterday. Nothing on this disc is as specific as say Levon Helm singing “Virgil Caine is my name” and throwing the listener back into the days of the American civil war, but there is no irony in Deep Dark Woods’ delivery as they sing about missed trains and unlucky young men swinging from impromptu gallows. Indeed, the whole album has a kind of Big Pink or Basement Tapes sensibility and informality about it as the songs the band sings seemed to have organically emerged from the earth and sky rather than the human voice. The songs sound as if they play through the musicians rather than by them.

The whole disc - with one exception - is comprised of originals, yet the songs these young prairie dwellers have composed feel timeless and sound as ancient as an old Carter Family 78. The one cover version on The Winter Hours, When First into this country, fits so snugly and unobtrusively into the flow of the album that it acts like an invisible thread that holds all of the songs together, giving credence and weight to their originals.

On Winter Hours, the band has been able manage the not inconsiderable feat of adopting the language of the old folk classics they are so obviously enamored with and incorporated it into their songs. Borrowing from the lexicon of the greats, The Deep Dark Woods rival Dylan’s last few albums for the sheer amount of lines lifted right out of the great American songbook. Yet, this is not a weakness and these tales of unfortunate souls going down the wicked path of sin and running out of cash as their girlfriends pass onto the great by and by are – without exception – exhilarating and a Hell of a lot of fun.

The stand out track on Winter Hours has to be All the Money I had is gone with its simple three chord melody and aching chorus that embeds itself in the listener’s memory after just one listen. Sure it’s a song about being sad, broke and alone after having just missed a train and you’ve heard songs like it a hundred times before. Still, there’s something magical about hearing the young men who make up The Deep Dark Woods sing these songs of love, loss and redemption in a way that is completely free of artifice and expectation. It would be easy to dismiss them for trodding such a well-worn musical path, but the musicians here and young and the music is new to them, and they sing it with the joy and power of new discovery. It’s impossible not to get caught up in the exhilaration they obviously feel when playing these songs.

Jerry Garcia had a life-long love affair with songs from the back alleys and dirt roads of popular music, and to hear the Deep Dark Woods rip through Polly with its melody that evokes Pretty Peggy O - a standard from the last century - o - No Depression

Album Review
The Deep Dark Woods
Winter Hours
[Black Hen; 2009]
7.3 / 10


What do candy, lipstick, and country music have in common? When the job market's as dry as an Arizona ditch in August and flour canisters start subbing for IRA accounts, consumption historically trends towards confections, cosmetics, and calamity narratives. I'll let economists and Adbusters types unpack the first two, but the last needs no explaining: Even without 20-foot high billboard titles like "All the Money I Had Is Gone" and "The Sun Never Shines", banjos, fiddles, and twangy vocals just plain old holler HARD TIMES. More important, country music's accoutrements signal the inclusive, populist sentiment that we're all in this mess together-- even when the actions of hedge fund managers and insurance company executives say otherwise. Put it this way: When the Coen brothers wanted to gently mock earnest Depression-era social realism while also acknowledging that capitalism indeed co-opts everything in its path, including music and misery, they used "old-timey" "Man of Constant Sorrow" as shorthand.

I doubt it's an intentional act of class warfare, but with the release of their third full-length album, Winter Hours, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, alt-country band Deep Dark Woods could hit cultural paydirt. As Winter Hours' warm and fully fleshed string arrangements, quaint subjects and syntax, and willingness to let its bluegrass hang out (particularly on "Nancy" and "As I Roved Out") imply, the quartet isn't especially shy of the "country" part of that taxonomy or, despite coming from rock backgrounds, anxious to prove their "alt" credentials. And harmony-heavy, traditional-sounding folk is having its moment. Venn diagram the record collections of Deep Dark Woods and Pitchfork's 2008 album list topper Fleet Foxes and you'd round up a sizeable stack of Neil Young, Gram Parsons, and the Band LPs. But while Fleet Foxes have taken their influences and crafted them into pretty, abstract musical excursions and ahistorical hymns to nature, Deep Dark Woods work the material, storytelling aspects of the tradition. Winter Hours abounds with ballads about small mistakes swollen large, petty misunderstandings never mended, poverty, heartbreak, death, and a whole lot of wandering in the wilderness. (The album's only public-domain standard, "When First Into This Country", pretty much nails all of those in one whack.)

"All the Money I Had Is Gone" is the album's standout, a gentle highway-strip-tracing pedal steel and banjo number in which a self-described "wayward son" calls out "All the greedy hands/ That live around this land" and also admits his part in his penurious position. Strike any chords? Singer and primary songwriter Ryan Boldt's steady tone is mournful but not maudlin, as he recounts disasters in "The Gallows", "Two Time Loser", and "Farewell", the album's counter-intuitively titled lead track about marriage and murder. Despite some Pinetop Seven-recalling gothic textures ("The Birds on the Bridge", written by bassist Chris Mason, is a sinister paean to paranoia) and jam-banding noodles ("The Sun Never Shines"), Deep Dark Woods-- particularly Boldt-- keep emotions tightly wrapped, opaque. This is both to the album's advantage and detriment. Storytelling needs a narrator, preferably a reliable, sympathetic one that's easy on the ears, but it also needs a strong voice capable of venting horror, frustration, sadness, anger, outrage. And god knows we've got enough to be outraged about these days.

— Amy Granzin, April 22, 2009
- Pitchfork media

The Deep Dark Woods
Winter Hours
(Black Hen)

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. There’s a lovely ageless quality to Winter Hours that abides in the intertwining of four voices, the patient shuffle and strum of a prairie ballad and the carefully layering carried off by deft multi-instrumentalists—among them ubiquitous producer/multi-frettist Steve Dawson. The band has nailed down a distinctive sound with confining themselves to a particular style, the dozen songs touching on acoustic balladry, gentle ‘60s style country rock and the occasional up-tempo barn-burner. Lovely though it is, the album nonetheless turns on the roots-music staple of hard times, as on album stand-outs like All the Money I had is Gone and Two Time Loser. Deep is the right word for what’s happening on this recording, and I have no doubt I’ll still be delving into this album long after winter hours are over
– By Scott Lingley


http://www.penguineggs.ab.ca/peggs.php?page=reviews - Penguin Eggs magazine

Deep Dark Woods “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” (Black Hen Music 2007)




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.



Date review added: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Reviewer: Paul Villers
Reviewers Rating: 8/10
Related web link: www.blackhenmusic.com
- Americana-UK

Deep Dark Woods
Saskatch-e-bush country boys dig into the past
By Matt Chomistek

Our neighbour to the West gets a bit of a tough go here in Alberta. The “Land of Living Sky” ends up being the butt of many a joke about bad roads, featureless landscapes, rats, and grasshoppers.

In terms of music, though, the last year has shown Saskatchewan to be much more than just that long stretch of road between Calgary and Winnipeg, with artists based there like Little Miss Higgins and Shuyler Jansen releasing albums to much acclaim. Joining them in proudly raising the green, yellow, and red flag are The Deep Dark Woods from Saskatoon.

The Deep Dark Woods’ second full-length album Hang Me, Oh Hang Me feels like the Canadian roots album a lot of us have been waiting for. At times dark and foreboding, at others raucous and light-hearted, the album cuts a wide swath through genres and themes of country music, only without seeming unfocused. Luke Goetz, drummer and vocalist for the group, attributes this to the variety of their influences.

“We’re really influenced by old songs.” Goetz says. “[Guitarist and Vocalist] Ryan’s songs are really inspired by English folk songs from the 30s and 40s, but the instrumentation is inspired by 60s folk rock like Neil Young, The Band, and The Flying Burrito Brothers.”

In addition to proving their clout as songwriters, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me showcases the Deep Dark Woods’ talent for composition and arrangement that was not as apparent on their first, self titled release in 2006.

“The first one was a bit rushed,” remarks Goetz. “It was a little less polished and a little more raw. The new one has more instruments. The arrangement was different. Ryan will write a song, and we'll play through it. Then, the band will decide how the song is going to work. Our producer, too, had some good ideas that we ended up using on the record.”

Despite the fact that they have adopted a more drawn out approach to their recording as opposed to the one-day, live off the floor attack of their first record, their live performances still remain true to the corresponding cuts off their albums. Good thing too, because in addition to recent shows in Calgary and Edmonton, the band will be returning in November, and yet again in January. Their upcoming shows will feature their own set, as well as them backing Shuyler Jansen.

“He was in Saskatoon with us,” says Goetz, “and he approached us about it. We started rehearsing, and it really worked out. Our styles really complement each other.”

I hate to draw parallels, but the story of the Deep Dark Woods, up to this point anyways, seems to follow very closely with the early days of another country-inspired, relentlessly touring Canadian band that often coupled their own sets with gigs as one of the best backing bands around. The Deep Dark Woods may not be as tall as The Sadies, but in their own way, they may end up with a following just as big. - Beate Route (Alberta)

To be honest, this review could have bern 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."

The band creates a nostalgic feel over the four minutes, but the song focuses on the struggles of a band instead of the more classic themes of heartbreak and loss. A simple picked riff starts the song and the band adds lap steel, keep-time drums and eventually spot on harmonies and a heavy Wurlitzer that coat the sound in sepia, but the juxtaposition of more modern lyrics makes this more than a simple rehash of the tried and true. You can't help but fall in love with the band, wanting bigger and better things to happen for them.

But when I hear a record as complete and rock solid as Winter Hours, I want to talk about it. I want to convince someone that has never heard of the band to take the time to listen. I want to point out the little things that forces me fall in love with the band and listen to the songs over and over. With all the music at our finger tips thanks to p2p networks and overzealous PR firms, finding a record with the purity that runs through Winter Hours is extremely rare and these types of records are why I keep blogging and why I will always be more of a fan than a critic.

The Deep Dark Woods honors the tradition of roots music and took the time to ensure their songs deserve the classic comparisons that are destined to follow. Gospel, traditional folk, pure country rock and dark roots all make an appearance, and remarkably, all are handled with aplomb and respect. A powerful, stripped down arrangement like the chilling opener Farewell, relies on nothing more than a fiddle, guitar and some harmonies but stands alongside playful, more spontaneous jams that are more about Sunday afternoon porch sessions and cold drinks that painful emotions.

The band is able to slow things down and tell a tale that draws you into the narrative, but is just as successful when they pick up the pace on gentle orange and brown toned country rock (Nancy) that feel as free as the morning’s first light. With harmonies and spirit, The Deep Dark Woods can make you smile and make you cry, but make sure to never rely on one emotion more than the other. That’s why a song like Polly - one that could have been unearthed from the a time capsule and was formed in a simple jam session - or the slow build that they execute so well on When First Into This Country can be nestled into the folds between more upbeat tracks like All the Money I Had is Gone, the Wilburys-ish, foot stomping Two Time Loser or the swirling chaos that ends the record (the last few minutes of the 8+ minute adventure, The Sun Never Shines reveals yet another wrinkle in the bands sound).

It must be mentioned that the work Steve Dawson put into recording the album was invaluable. Plain and simply, Winter Hours sounds terrific. His skilled touch and appreciation for the style of music The Deep Dark Woods plays lets the band revisit the past, but ensures they never let the record breakdown into a “sounds like” game. Even with the heavy Neil Young influence on the acoustic driven The Birds On The Bridge, the harmonies and band gives the song enough of their own personality. The sprinkling of piano and steel on the achingly sad, but equally beautiful How Can Try complete the song, but don't overwhelm the fragile emotion the band creates.

When a band grows this much on one recording, you can’t help but appreciate the results. The Deep Dark Woods have delivered a record that will surprise critics and fans alike. On the surface you could simply point out that Ryan Boldt has become a better storyteller (as As I Roved Out or The Gallows prove), but the confidence and skill of the entire band has improved considerably, allowing the quartet to move around the melodies and textures like a single unit. This might be the best roots act in the country right now, and they've set the bar high for any that want to challenge for the title. - herohill.com

Deep Dark Woods
Saskatch-e-bush country boys dig into the past
By Matt Chomistek

Our neighbour to the West gets a bit of a tough go here in Alberta. The “Land of Living Sky” ends up being the butt of many a joke about bad roads, featureless landscapes, rats, and grasshoppers.

In terms of music, though, the last year has shown Saskatchewan to be much more than just that long stretch of road between Calgary and Winnipeg, with artists based there like Little Miss Higgins and Shuyler Jansen releasing albums to much acclaim. Joining them in proudly raising the green, yellow, and red flag are The Deep Dark Woods from Saskatoon.

The Deep Dark Woods’ second full-length album Hang Me, Oh Hang Me feels like the Canadian roots album a lot of us have been waiting for. At times dark and foreboding, at others raucous and light-hearted, the album cuts a wide swath through genres and themes of country music, only without seeming unfocused. Luke Goetz, drummer and vocalist for the group, attributes this to the variety of their influences.

“We’re really influenced by old songs.” Goetz says. “[Guitarist and Vocalist] Ryan’s songs are really inspired by English folk songs from the 30s and 40s, but the instrumentation is inspired by 60s folk rock like Neil Young, The Band, and The Flying Burrito Brothers.”

In addition to proving their clout as songwriters, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me showcases the Deep Dark Woods’ talent for composition and arrangement that was not as apparent on their first, self titled release in 2006.

“The first one was a bit rushed,” remarks Goetz. “It was a little less polished and a little more raw. The new one has more instruments. The arrangement was different. Ryan will write a song, and we'll play through it. Then, the band will decide how the song is going to work. Our producer, too, had some good ideas that we ended up using on the record.”

Despite the fact that they have adopted a more drawn out approach to their recording as opposed to the one-day, live off the floor attack of their first record, their live performances still remain true to the corresponding cuts off their albums. Good thing too, because in addition to recent shows in Calgary and Edmonton, the band will be returning in November, and yet again in January. Their upcoming shows will feature their own set, as well as them backing Shuyler Jansen.

“He was in Saskatoon with us,” says Goetz, “and he approached us about it. We started rehearsing, and it really worked out. Our styles really complement each other.”

I hate to draw parallels, but the story of the Deep Dark Woods, up to this point anyways, seems to follow very closely with the early days of another country-inspired, relentlessly touring Canadian band that often coupled their own sets with gigs as one of the best backing bands around. The Deep Dark Woods may not be as tall as The Sadies, but in their own way, they may end up with a following just as big. - Beate Route (Alberta)

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. It makes me want to cuss.

Oz and I have had access to it for a couple weeks now and we’ve both
been listening to it nonstop and sending each other embarrassingly
giddy emails talking about how much we like it. I honestly can’t get
enough of Winter Hours. It’s gotten to the point where I’m starting to feel like Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and poor Winter Hours is Jake Gyllenhaal. I wish I knew how to quit you, Deep Dark Woods.
Woody first introduced us to The Deep Dark Woods with a glowing review back in January of 2008 (occasionally Woody hits one just right), but I’d contend Winter Hours
is even better. Twangy slow rollers like “All The Money I Had Is Gone”
and “The Gallows” draw you in on the first listen. And the more you
listen to the album as a whole, the more it starts to sound like a
timeless, magical masterpiece. The arrangements are absolutely gorgeous

– The DDW deftly blend acoustic guitars, pedal steel, some keys, and
even toss in some banjo and strings for good measure. But what stands
out most are the vocal harmonies. These guys will absolutely melt your
face off.
- HearYa.com

So my last two post have been Stripmall Ballads and The Sumner Brothers and to finish off this Canadian trilogy I present to you The Deep Dark Woods. Since they sent me their new album Winter Hours
last week I can honestly say I must have heard it at least fifty times
in that period and I can’t see myself stopping any time soon as it is
an album that, for me at least, takes a few listens to really
appreciate the craftsmanship at work. Stunning, spine tingling
harmonies, beautiful arrangements and the musicianship is out of this
world. By far the best album I’ve heard so far this year and not sure
If I will hear better to be honest. Blending country, folk, rock and
bluegrass you can hear influences from Gram Parsons through to that
other Canadian stalwart, Neil Young but also with harmonies this good a
modern comparison could be The Fleet Foxes.
Lead singer Ryan Boldt has a immense sadness in his voice that I think
he could sing the phone directory and keep you interested, full of deep
emotion. When last years top albums lists came out many people had The
Fleet Foxes as either top of their list or somewhere very close and
yet The Deep Dark Woods’ Hang me oh hang me
was never even mentioned let alone in any best of lists and for me it
was one of 2007’s best albums ! Scandalous.( I know its 2007 but some
end of lists went from oct 2007 to 0ct 2008); Well here’s hoping that
this new album receives more praise because as far as I’m concerned
this is quite simply astonishing. I could piss myself with glee while
listening to it as it so excites me that music this good is still
around.
This album starts off with a rather chilling track called Farewell
which may give you the impression that this is a reflection of what is
to come and you’d be part right I suppose but with more upbeat tracks
like Polly and Two Time Loser sitting comfortably in the middle it gives you a slight break before hitting you with the The Gallows which is a beautifully written song and then a storming final eight and a half minute track The Sun Never Shines, probably my favourite on the album. The best final track I’ve heard on an album since The Day Texas Sank to The Bottom Of The Sea from Micah P Hinson and the gospel of progress.
A blistering guitar solo (what ever happened to the guitar solo?), It’s
the perfect way to end what is an incredible album, their best yet and
that’s saying something considering all three are superb. I think what
tops this one is the production of Steve Dawson who also contributes on
the album playing ukelele and banjo as well as other stringed
instruments. it’s as if this is a long lost album from the mid
seventies or something. I wish I could write a review that would give
this album justice but as I’ve said in the past I’m not a reviewer, my
mission is to put the word out about good music and for me it doesn’t
get any better that The Deep dark Woods.
Winter Hours is not slated for release until 17th February but very
kindly Chris has taken time to answer some questions for us, He’s
informed me it’s normally Ryan who does interviews but he was having
internet troubles, tell me about it.
Underneath the interview you will find Where have the summers gone form their first album, Rumble in the sky from Hang me Oh Hang Me and All The Money I had Was Gone from the upcoming Winter Hours.
But please, buy the album(s), I know it might sound like they are
being produced in some multi millon pound studio with loads of money
behind them but they’re not, Their just fucking good ! - YouCrazyDreamers.com

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. It makes me want to cuss.

Oz and I have had access to it for a couple weeks now and we’ve both
been listening to it nonstop and sending each other embarrassingly
giddy emails talking about how much we like it. I honestly can’t get
enough of Winter Hours. It’s gotten to the point where I’m starting to feel like Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and poor Winter Hours is Jake Gyllenhaal. I wish I knew how to quit you, Deep Dark Woods.
Woody first introduced us to The Deep Dark Woods with a glowing review back in January of 2008 (occasionally Woody hits one just right), but I’d contend Winter Hours
is even better. Twangy slow rollers like “All The Money I Had Is Gone”
and “The Gallows” draw you in on the first listen. And the more you
listen to the album as a whole, the more it starts to sound like a
timeless, magical masterpiece. The arrangements are absolutely gorgeous

– The DDW deftly blend acoustic guitars, pedal steel, some keys, and
even toss in some banjo and strings for good measure. But what stands
out most are the vocal harmonies. These guys will absolutely melt your
face off.
- HearYa.com

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. He gives the band it’s gravitas, while lead guitarist Burke
Barlow gives it its soul.

The sad and slow “Farewell” is almost a lullaby, and it would be the
perfect send-off for the album. If it weren’t the lead track! But if
forlorn isn’t your bag, make sure you stick around for the second song,
the bouncy “Nancy,” a ditty, punctuated by a fiddle solo, that is
almost (gasp!) danceable! Other noteworthy tracks here include “As I
Roved Out,” another sad number, and “All the Money I Had is Gone,”
which sounds like an old country standard, complete with stellar
harmonies and fabulous lyrics. By my favorite cut is the 6-minute “How
Can I Try.” I can’t use words to describe it. It takes my breath away.
From track to track, the album paints a sepia-toned season of log
cabins with snow-topped trees and a warm fire at night.
The Deep Dark Woods aren’t for everyone, I recognize that. They’ve
toured with some pretty on-the-fringe dudes, The Sadies, Utah Phillips,
Magnolia Electric Co. and The Stills. But if you give them a listen
with open ears and open heart, I bet you’ll find what I did: A band
totally in love with music, with the talent to spread their joy. This
band is the best of its kind, masters of their genre, and well worth
your time and money. On the Black Hen label.

www.blackhenmusic.com
http://www.berkeleyplaceblog.com/2009/02/07/the-deep-dark-woods-%E2%80%9Cwinter-hours%E2%80%9D/
- Berkely Place Blog