The Deep Dark Woods

The Deep Dark Woods can do no wrong. After hearing their new tracks in our live session, I eagerly anticipate any new material they put out. The band sent us an email today with an mp3 attachment for a cover recorded in-studio during the sessions for Winter Hours.

For those unfamiliar with The Mississippi Sheiks, the were pioneers of the Country-Blues sound that we all know and love today. The Deep Dark Woods would’ve done them proud with this version of “Sweet Maggie.”

If you don’t own them already, I’d recommend buying all of their albums.

The Deep Dark Woods – Sweet Maggie

New tracks recorded in our live session:

The Deep Dark Woods – The Banks Of The Leopold Canal

The Deep Dark Woods – Ballad Of Frank Dupree

We’ve been all over The Deep Dark Woods since we missed their album Hang Me Oh Hang Me as one of the best of 2007. Since then, we’ve became enamored with their Grateful Dead influenced alt-country style and when Winter Hours was released this year, it quickly became a favorite. They joined the lineup at our first ever SxSW party and then The Deep Dark Woods stopped by Shirk’s studio for a live session during their first ever trip to Chicago.

This is probably the most anxious I’ve been to hear a live session and the end result was well worth the wait. I previewed the tracks to a few folks and here were a few comments that came back:

“Heartbreaking.”

“Devastating.”

“Beautiful.”

Few bands can capture all those sentiments with 6 live tracks in a studio, but The Deep Dark Woods bottled up magic on this day. The session starts with an amazing new song called “The Banks Of The Leopold Canal.” It’s a Canadian soldier’s tale of woe as he’s forced to leave his love for battle in WWII. Ryan was inspired to write the song after seeing a special on The Battle of the Scheldt in which an interviewed soldier was quoted saying “thousands were dead in the Leopold Canal.” That line became lyrics in the song.

“Two Time Loser” is an upbeat honkey tonk reprieve before we’re introduced to another new track called “Ballad Of Frank Dupree.” It’s a fictional song about a man who murders his girl and repents as he faces death by hanging at the gallows. It’s hard not to sympathize with this criminal as he blames the liquor and tries to explain his evil sins to his mother and father.

In addition to “Two Time Loser,” you’ll also hear two other tracks from Winter Hours including the title track and “All The Money I Had Is Gone” before they indulged us with a special request in a traditional cover of “River In The Pines,” my favorite track from Hang Me Oh Hang Me. They’ve also added a keyboardist that gives a new dimension to each song. Anyone that follows us on Twitter knows how excited I was to share these tracks. I can’t wait for you to listen.

Exclusive: The Deep Dark Woods – The Banks Of The Leopold Canal

Exclusive: The Deep Dark Woods – Two Time Loser

Exclusive: The Deep Dark Woods – Ballad Of Frank Dupree (video)

Exclusive: The Deep Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone (video)

Exclusive: The Deep Dark Woods – Winter Hours

Exclusive: The Deep Dark Woods – River In The Pines (video)

Download the session as a zip file.

Video: The Deep Dark Woods – Ballad Of Frank Dupree

More videos:

The Deep Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone

The Deep Dark Woods – River In The Pines

Thanks to HearYa reader, Vanessa, for providing the pic!

I am too old for this shit. I’m writing this the morning after seeing my third show in three nights.

First up was The Deep Dark Woods from Saskatoon at The Hideout. They drew a solid crowd for a Tuesday night and for a band that is just starting to buildup a fan base here in the States. Those that made it out were treated to a special night of music. The band has added a full time keyboardist which is like adding butterscotch to your hot fudge sundae. You didn’t know it could get any better, but it just did.

The Canucks played for about three hours, combining alt-country with a Grateful Dead vibe, including rousing renditions of Jack A Roe and O Babe It Ain’t No Lie. They also fired up two new tunes that my man-date Jefe said were hands down his favorite tunes of the night. Lucky for you, they are also part of our live session with Deep Dark Woods.

My next show was Deer Tick at a packed Empty Bottle. After sitting through a couple opening acts, McCauley and crew hit the stage at 11:30. Muzzle of Bees, a fantastic blogging counterpart, wrote a great review so I will not reinvent the wheel here. He’s bang-on in his assessment that this isn’t alt-country – its just homegrown rock and roll. They are tremendous live act and do a great job of breathing life into their songs. Also, banged out a nice cover of Petty’s Breakdown.

Last up was Elton and Billy at Wrigley. I will admit that this was met with trepidation on my part as I couldn’t get “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and “I’m Still Standing” out of my head. And, Sweet Jesus, those songs suck. But you kind of forget that there was a time when the two of them were making some unique music. After the cheesy beginning where they were trading verses of their tunes, Elton hit a nice run where he played “Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” “Levon” and “Madman Across The Water.” After that it was back to the schmaltzy “Crocodile Rock” and the aforementioned mind-numbing “I’m Still Standing.” Madman was a real nice surprise but I would have liked to hear “Take Me To The Pilot.”

Joel followed and played a couple of his decent tunes including “Angry Young Man,” “Zanzibar” and “Allentown.” The trade off was sitting through “Uptown Girl,” “River of Dreams” and “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” which besides being a blatant rip off of “Its The End of The World” by REM, is just about as bad a song as one man could write.

Then it was back to the dueling piano lounge act with “Piano Man” and “The Bitch Is Back.” While there were some truly awful parts during the show, there were enough very good moments that made it worthwhile, with “Madman Across The Water” leading the way. Its amazing to think that the two of them once wrote truly unique music in the days before MTV came along. After that, they started chasing the four minute hit single.

Okay Chicago readers. I know this show is on a Tuesday (7/14), but I’m going guarantee satisfaction. It’s only a $5 donation to get in the door, The Hideout serves booze and The Deep Dark Woods go great with booze. Their album, Winter Hours, is still my favorite of 2009 and after having a few beers with them at SxSW, they became favorite people of mine as well.

If you have the time, tell your friends and make your way out to support some Canadian alt-country gentlemen. Just watching Burke Barlow play the guitar is worth the donated price of admission.

If you do happen to miss it, we’ll have a session for you in the weeks following.

The Deep Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone

The Deep Dark Woods – The Gallows (sample)

The Deep Dark Woods – Nancy (sample)

Video: The Deep Dark Woods – Hang Me, Oh Hang Me

The Deep Dark Woods have been featured plenty on HearYa, but I just visited their website and noticed that they released my favorite track from their new album Winter Hours for free download. If you haven’t picked up the album, here’s yet another reason. I’ve also included a few reasons to find their older albums.

The Deep Dark Woods – The Gallows

Also released:

The Deep Dark Woods – Nancy

Previously posted:

The Deep Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone

Tracks from previous albums:

The Deep Dark Woods – River In The Pines

The Deep Dark Woods – Hang Me, Oh Hang Me

The Deep Dark Woods – Five Hundred Meters

The Deep Dark Woods – The Straight and Narrow

The Deep Dark Woods – Bakersfield

The Deep Dark Woods – Ramblin Mind

We’ve been showing lots of love for The Deep Dark Woods this year, due mostly to their stellar release Winter Hours. We had the chance to see them live twice at SXSW 2009, once at our party and once at an all acoustic show at Threadgill’s. This video of the show just surfaced recently.

Video: The Deep Dark Woods – Glory Hallelujah (Live at SXSW 2009)

Just when you thought our party couldn’t get better, we went ahead and added free tacos to Stimulus Package, courtesy of Taco Town. For those keeping score, that’s free booze and free tacos. And free music. More free shit is in the works.

We also added one Canadian band to the lineup. Well actually, we replaced one Canadian band (Elliott Brood had a conflict) with The Deep Dark Woods (who we had committed to and then realized we double-booked). Luckily it all worked out before the US-Canadian tension accelerated into a full-on conflict. You’re welcome, Barack. One less issue for you to worry about.

I’ll be featuring a few bands from our lineup before heading to SxSW next week, so let’s start with The Deep Dark Woods from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Their recent release, Winter Hours, is tied with Justin Townes Earle’s Midnight At The Movies as my favorite album of 2009 so far. Rolling rhythm, sublime songwriting, great guitar work and lush harmonies. DDW will beon at 2pm, serving as a perfect primer before Joe Pug and Justin Townes Earle take the stage a bit later in the afternoon.

The Deek Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone

The Deep Dark Woods – Glory Hallelujah

Hear more on MySpace.

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.

Okay, let’s end with a little giveaway. The band was nice enough to offer a free CD to a lucky reader. We’ll have it mailed out to the person who sends the most creative run-on sentence about how Barack Obama is miraculously saving the music scene in Canada. Please send responses to freeshit@hearya.com asap.

The Deep Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone

Stream Polly, The Gallows and The Birds on The Bridge on their MySpace page and let ‘em sink in.

I keep reading all these great reviews, but I don’t get it. I gave it a shot and it must be above my intellect. Some are claiming that it’s the best album so far this year and may end up being the best of the year. I’ll stick to my advance copies of  the upcoming releases from The Deep Dark Woods and Justin Townes Earle for now. Those are gems.

You know those posters that you stare at and eventually 3D shapes start forming? I can’t do those either. Even if I go cross-eyed.