Arts
By Michael McCall
The Duhks
The Duhks (Sugar Hill)
The Duhks certainly fit the definition of a string band, yet at the same time they do everything they can to make that description meaningless—or at least not too restrictive. Sure, the quintet are built around a fiddler, banjoist and acoustic guitarist who cite the folk music of Ireland, Appalachia and Canada as their primary influences. Yet there's a percussionist involved, one who plays Celtic and Cuban rhythms on hand drums instead of the bass-kick, cymbal-crash sound of rock and country.
The Duhks (pronounced "Ducks") love to confound expectations. They open their self-titled U.S. debut with a rousing spiritual that rings out like the Staple Singers backed by a band of gypsies. There's nothing remotely mountain or Celtic about it, but it works, and strikingly so.
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Jessica Havey's voice is as huge and soulful as Maura O'Connell's, and as rough and husky as Melissa Ethridge's; on the opening "Death Came A-Knockin'," she wails and moans while the other members of the band harmonize like a Southern gospel quartet. Meanwhile, Scott Senior plays Afro-Cuban rhythms on a self-fashioned, hand-held Cajon drum, Jordan McConnell forcefully strums his acoustic guitar, and Leonard Podolak plunks offbeat, clawhammer-style banjo that sounds more like jazz than anything else. Tania Elizabeth pitches in with fiddle lines that juxtapose long, moody pulls and fiery, string-shedding solos that have nothing to do with the traditions of Kentucky or Texas.
Global: No matter how diverse their styles, there's still a connective string throughout The Duhks' music.
Formed in Manitoba, the band have been called everything from "new-wave old-timey" to "kick-ass folk-fusion" to "progressive soul-grass." As those divergent descriptions suggest, the quintet like sharp contrasts between tunes rather than fashioning a cohesive, genre-based sound. Still, there's a connective string throughout their work. Part of it comes from the distinctive style of each member, whether it's Havey's gospel-blues voice, Elizabeth's Celtic-influenced fiddling, Podolak's unusual single-note picking, or Senior's mix of Third World, palm-drummed rhythms. The other part comes from the band's arrangements, which, as inventive as they are, turn on group interplay rather than soloing, always sticking close to a central tune without veering into the freeform indulgence of so many string-based jam bands.
With each member in his or her 20s, the group no doubt benefited from the studio smarts of producer Bela Fleck and engineer Gary Paczosa, who also has worked with Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and Mindy Smith, among others. Yet listening to The Duhks' previous self-released album, Your Daughters and Your Sons, proves that the core of the group's eclectic sound already was in place.
Nevertheless, the new album is definitely their coming-out party, with each member having room to shine at some point. Elizabeth's fiddle jumps out in every song, but especially on the instrumentals "Mists of Down Below" and "Gene's Machine." Havey sings stunningly on the two old-time gospel songs, but she also impresses on Paul Brady's diversity anthem, "You and I." Podolak proves to be a fine singer, too, on the album's fierce, speeded-up take on Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows."
The Duhks invariably will be compared to some of their peers, including Nashville's Nickel Creek and Boston's The Mammals. Along with those bands and others, including Old Crow Medicine Show and Adrienne Young & Little Sadie, The Duhks are part of an emerging string-band revival like the one that blossomed in the '70s around The David Grisman Quartet, New Grass Revival and others who were willing to experiment with ideas. Given both their talent and intuitive interplay, The Duhks can be as good as any of them.