By Ken Paulson
—It’s too easy to compare a Canadian band to The Band, but in the case of the Deep Dark Woods, it’s also inescapable.
The sonic resemblance is most apparent on murder saga “The Ballad of Frank Dupree,” but the Deep Dark Woods also mine The Band’s terrain of days long past, regrets and remembrances.
Listening to The Place I Left Behind is like stumbling across the scrapbook of a family in which things haven’t worked out so well. Haunting and sad ballads prevail, and they’re stirring.
Yet for all the melancholia, there are striking sounds and musicianship throughout the deftly-produced album, most notably on the title song, “Westside Street” and “Dear John.”
American audiences are catching on to this talented Saskatchewan band, on this, their fourth album. The U.S. release of The Place I Left Behind on Sugar Hill Records is in the top 20 of the Americana Music Association’s airplay chart, with almost 1,200 spins to date.
The Deep Dark Woods have a bright future.