Seraphina Lotkhamnga on December 2nd, 2011

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Touting giants such as Dolly Parton, Townes Van Zandt and Sam Bush, Sugar Hill Records is a legendary label in itself by way of their artist selection. So, they get another pat on the back when it comes to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based alternative country band the Deep Dark Woods, who have released their fourth record this year. “The Place I Left Behind” is sure to please fans of Neil Young and Dawes as it brims with haunting murder ballads, slow-dance waltzes, bluegrass pickings and Appalachia. The Canadian quintet of Chris Mason, Ryan Boldt, Brurke Barlow, Lucas Goetz and Geoff Hilhorst has followed up 2009’s “Winter Hours” with an album that gracefully unveils both emotional and geographical loneliness in roots music. Mason’s rich but slow-treading vocals consistently blanket warm concoctions of moody guitar, pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, piano, organ and a tight rhythm section. Violin soars on “The Banks of the Leopold Canal,” “Sugar Mama” swings one into a toe-tapping frenzy and “West Side Street” showcases their rock edge. Light and breezy folk music, the Deep Dark Woods are not, and the heaviness is appreciated.

||| Download: “West Side Street” by liking them on Facebook.

||| Live: The Deep Dark Woods plays the ealy set Sunday at the Satellite with Daniel Ahearn and Taylor Locke & the Roughs as part of the monthly the Sunday Night Jones. They also play Monday at the Hotel Café with Brian Wright and the Ladies Gun Club.