New from The Duhks, Migrations.

Release: September 12, 2006
Sugar Hill Records

An exquisitely fresh acoustic sound, Canadian-born "The Duhks" introduce their 3rd CD, "Migrations." Borrowing the talents of banjo-prodigy/producer Bela Fleck on their previous album, this time they employ the ready production skills of long-time folk stalwart Tim O'Brien and Gary Paczosa. (O'Brien also lends his mandolin chops on two of the cuts.)

Having achieved acceptance as a rising-star "Cerebral Folk" band through the festival circuit and with their 2005 self-titled release, "The Duhks," the young twenty-something quintet continued to find critical acclaim with a 2006 Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year in the Group category. Also nominated as a 2005 Emerging Artist of the Year Award by the Americana Music Association, they were privileged with a debut on the AMA's television award show.

Since then, their music has incessantly tweaked, molted, and evolved, unmistakably evident in this latest CD, "Migrations." Gathering interplanetary dust and musical material like a speeding comet, their global travels continue to accumulate a sensational variety of divergent genres offered in this latest CD, from African-American Old Testament Spirituals (Turtle Dove, Moses Don't Get Lost), Zydeco (Down to the River), and Celtic-flared instrumentals (Three Fishers, The Fox And The Bee). The remaining selections on this release also showcase the group's deep introspection with ballads of personal poignancy (Heaven's My Home, Who Will Take My Place, Out Of The Rain), and a tremendous Tracy Chapman penned social statement cover (Mountains O'Things).

As the band's recent physical journeys have taken them to diverse geographies, so goes their music. Winnipeg & Victoria, to Louisiana, Denmark, Australia, Holland, the U.K., and back to the U.S. & Canada, it seems no members could resist an inescapable draw, collecting provincial harmonic and melodic souvenirs.

Talent is not in short supply amongst the young roster. Fiddler and vocalist Tania Elizabeth appropriately weaves and ties elegant melodic ribbons around discernable powerful tunes. Jesse Havey's wide vocal range and potent lead dives in and out of lilting sweet and sultry salt. Jordan McConnell's guitar lays the bands chordal and harmonic foundation, the musical glue with his frequent and clever sustaining ostinato lines.

Leonard Podalak whose claw-hammer banjo riffs punctuate and propel the broader strokes of exceptionally tasteful acoustic texture, deepens the distinctive "rootsy" timbre of the Duhks. Add Scott Senior whose understated hand percussion establishes a subliminal drive and primal groove; a cacophony of sounds, tastefully timed slaps, smacks, and deep booms injected in a current of percussion instruments resembling words from a menu in a Mexican restaurant, "Panderio, Surdo, Cajon," and (quite literally) kitchen utensils--anything that can make a complementing sound is fair game for his signature "battery."

This music of the Duhks spurns pigeon-holing categorization. "Progressive Soul," "Folk-Fusion," even the broad "New Acoustic" can not do justice classifying the music these musicians perform. (We've settled on simply, "Cerebral Folk") With songs and arrangements are this good, talent this deep, we still anticipate a bright future for the energetic quintet.

Selections:

1. Ol' Cook Pot
2. Mountains O' Things
3. Heaven's My Home
4. The Fox And The Bee
5. Down To The River
6. Who Will Take My Place
7. Moses Don't Get Lost
8. Three Fishers
9. Domino Party!
10. Out Of The Rain
11. Turtle Dove

About The Duhks

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