Today, the long celebrated The Deep Dark Woods announce their upcoming album, Broadside Ballads Vol. III. (Victory Pool Records on May 1, 2024). Those with a good memory may recall that the first Broadside Ballad album dropped nine years ago in 2015 – a kind of solo album released by Ryan Boldt, the lead singer/guitarist of the Saskatoon folk-rockers. The album was reviewed in KLOF Mag by David Morrison, a music industry veteran who also happened to work in a Vancouver record store that Ryan frequented. In his review, he concludes:
Rather than this act as a solo album per se, however, I’d like to suggest to Boldt that – à la The Unthanks’ Diversions releases, perhaps – it might be the first of an occasional series…in which he could indulge his passion for the music of the past that plays such an important role in shaping his own. I know what’s in Boldt’s record collection, you see, so can guarantee there would be plenty of mouthwatering covers in store.
He was right…
Fast-forward to 2020, they delivered Broadside Ballads Vol II EP as Deep Dark Woods (featuring a lovely cover of Geordie, among others). Anyone who knows their ballads will understand that the death count gets high. Boldt notes that while “there are not too many jolly songs in there”, the album is not a dour affair, instead benefiting from tasteful, unstated arrangements and an organic, no-frills recording sound.
Boldt’s interpretations and shadings have always made an attractive offering, as can be heard on their lead single below…as David Morrison said of their last album – they offer an escape from modern, plastic, urban life – taking you somewhere old, organic, and rural.
Today, they’re sharing “Spanish is the Loving Tongue”, a song based on the poem ‘A Border Affair’ written by Charles Badger Clark in 1907. “Clark was a cowboy poet who lived throughout the American West, and over the years, the song was recorded by many top recording artists, including Bob Dylan, Judy Collins (interviewed here), and Ian and Sylvia,” notes Boldt. “I’m influenced first and foremost by Bob Dylan. He is the greatest vocal phraser in all of folk and rock music, not to mention the finest songwriter of the 20th and 21st centuries. As a live band, we are definitely influenced by the Grateful Dead and the way they took their songs to interesting places each night. I’m personally influenced by the traditional music of Britain, Ireland, Scotland, and, to some degree, America.”
Stream it here: https://orcd.co/jw45kk8
Read our previous Deep Dark Wood review: Changing Faces (2021)
Website: http://www.thedeepdarkwoods.com/