Ryan Boldt (The Deep Dark Woods) + Kacy & Clayton ** AT GULLIVERS LOUNGE **

A lot of modern music is like bad plumbing; the more they overthink it, make it more complex than it needs to be, the easier it is to plug up the drain. Good music should thrust a fist into the core of who you are and pull out handfuls of simple, messy truth. This idea of getting to the heart of simplicity in a song, in melody and in meaning, in order to move the heart of a person, has been Ryan Boldt's legacy thus far.

Boldt is the lead singer and songwriter in The Deep Dark Woods, crafting beautiful, intimate songs that are steeped in traditions found in places like English folk music, country blues and 60s R&B. He was born on the vast prairie, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but moved to Chemainus, BC when he was 19, where he started writing songs. It's worth noting that the name Chemainus comes from the native shaman and prophet Tsa-meeun-is, which means 'broken chest'. The legend says that the prophet survived a massive wound in his chest to become a powerful chief. And while people often equate the music of The Deep Dark Woods with a prairie sound, it was in Chemainus that Boldt truly cracked open his chest to bleed out his first songs.

Boldt's living in Victoria these days, having just completed a new solo project called Broadside Ballads, which finds him continuing to dig through the past to create spellbinding music for the present. He's driven by influences like Shirley Collins, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Bob Dylan and The Stanley Brothers, but even as he mines the past, he's not trying to contemporise these sounds. He just happens to be making newly recorded music in the same vein – the way they used to make it, before the world got so fast and cluttered.

Tour support comes from Kacy & Clayton. The Saskatchewan duo's newest album was produced by Ryan Boldt, and features original works and obscure arrangements of traditional ballads and blues classics.

Price: £8 adv
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