Saskatchewan is how it sounds: A province in the prairies of Canada. Double the size of Germany, but with less than one million residents. Lots of nature, and lots of silence. Perhaps lots of time to fill the silence with natural sounds, too.
This is where the quartet The Dead South comes from, and fits perfectly within this description. The debut album “Good Company” revealed the four hatted, hairy and bearded fellas, with singer Nate Hilts as a focal point.
The album was a perfect fit to the genres Folk, Neo-Folk and Bluegrass-Folk or even alternative Country with refreshing tunes to it. With impact, humor and a kind of bold manner of putting words into sound. The instrumentation stays knowingly pure: guitars, cello, banjo, kick drum, mandolin – building the acoustic fundamentals for full lead vocals and harmonies.
The first album really was a promise that was fulfilled with the follow-up “Illusion & Doubt”.
No doubt the four piece from the prairies has matured, not only because the banjo is now being played by a lady.
Harmony changes as well as excellent and virtuosic instrumental parts have been added to their incredible energetic, passionate and sometimes surprisingly catchy melodies.
"We are definitely closer to the Pogues than to Alison Krauss. Unfortunately, we do not possess much of the delicate elegance so we try and bring more energy and entertainment to our side. You could say we are a mix of Nu-folk with a few different styles mixed in between. We tend to add elements of classical, punk, rock, alternative, bluegrass, folk and everything in between.”
The band are currently on the road with The Bastard Son tour, and there is plenty more on the horizon - The Dead South have just announced a date at Northampton Roadmender on Wednesday, June 26.
Tickets, priced at £20 (subject to bf) go on sale this Wednesday (March 20) at 10am here
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