The Deep Dark Woods
Album: Winter Hours
Label: Black Hen Music
Rating: *** 1/2
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. It’s a kind of neo-hippy back-to-the-roots spirit that harkens back to the Grateful Dead’s early ‘70s dalliance with the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. With the help of master producer Steve Dawson (Zubot and Dawson), this Saskatchewan foursome does it very well. There are guitar runs on this album that are deceptively sublime. Some will find the songs too often stuck in dirge gear, but that’s OK. There are, after all, no teddy bears’ picnics in the Deep Dark Woods.
On the web
www.myspace.com/deepdarkwoods
