Leslie Woods & Dark Mountain Orchid
Gig Seeker Pro

Leslie Woods & Dark Mountain Orchid

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Alternative Americana

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Perfection"

“The sophomore release from Knoxville's Leslie Woods and Dark Mountain Orchid is a sweeping audio stretch ( Produced by Tom Backus) through the delicious deviance of Appalachia. From the album's first eerie scratch at your door, beckoning you away with “Train” up to the climax of “Say Anything” and “Heroin” (recorded with Dixie Dirt), this album is an escape. It is a lush, obsessive, hungry walk through the dark heart of the idle southern mind. Perfection.” (CMJ) - CMJ


"Belfast Review"

LESLIE WOODS AND DARK MOUNTAIN ORCHID - The Luxury Of Sin (Glitterhouse):


Leslie Woods, from Tennessee, is an altogether darker and more unsettling prospect. Her songs have a thick, treacly substance, and build a creepy, cumulative, brooding menace, that hints at dark deeds and thoughts.

It's hard to get a handle on initially, but like a fast moving sea mist you'll be surprised by just how quickly you find yourself trapped in its tentacles.

- The Belfast Telegraph


"Wonderschoon!"

"Velvet Sky"(2002) was het debuut van Leslie Woods uit Knoxville, Tennessee. Met acht tracks zat dit schijfje tussen een mini- en een gewone cd. Net of ze toen wou zeggen: voor het echte grote werk ben ik nog niet klaar. "Velvet Sky" is geen vrolijke plaat; duidelijk is dat de zangeres de demonen van zich af heeft willen schrijven. Een cd in productie van Tom Backus, op wie ze trouwens opnieuw kon rekenen voor haar tweede album "The Luxury Of Sin". Ook hier weer weet ze de lezer breekbare liedjes voor te schotelen, veelal akoestisch en alt country, ver weg van Nashville in ieder geval, met hier en daar wat old-time en bluegrass. Al van bij het eerste nummer "Train" vallen de dreigende sfeer en de prachtige stem van Leslie Woods op. Als een Americana-versie van een jonge Marianne Faithful zingt Leslie Woods zich met haar hese stem een plaat bij elkaar over valse, verloren en hopeloze liefde. De teksten op zich zijn niet zo bijzonder inventief, maar de passie waarmee ze worden gezongen is pakkend. De stijlvolle begeleiding van Dark Mountain Orchid is een mengeling van traditionele en elektrische instrumenten. De groep, bestaande uit Tom Backus (percussionist), Sean O’Connell (mandoline, banjo, harmonica), Bob Deck (gitaren, piano) en Jeff Woods (upright bass) weten een spannend klanktapijt neer te leggen tussen blues, folk en country, waardoor ze in de nummers een dreigende sfeer weten te scheppen die de zang van Woods naar een hoger niveau tilt. Vergelijkingen met Kelly Hogan en Neko Case zijn eerder al gemaakt wat niet zozeer duidt op overeenkomsten in stemgeluid, maar veel meer op de eigenzinnige wijze van liedjes pennen. Qua geluid - folky-desolaat - neigt Woods eerder richting Gillian Welch. De ware ster is natuurlijk Leslie Woods zelf, die elf pareltjes uit haar bevallige mouw schudt. Als bonus krijg je er van haar platenstal, Glitterhouse, zelfs de debuut-cd van Leslie Woods And Dark Mountain Orchid bij. Iedereen die liefhebber is van de muziek van Sixteen Horsepower of PJ Harvey moeten absoluut naar deze prachtplaat luisteren, maar ook liefhebbers van meer eigentijdse alt-country zullen deze geweldige cd snel in hun harten sluiten. "The Luxury Of Sin" van Leslie Woods And Dark Mountain Orchid is een bijzonder aangename verrassing. Wij zijn er diep van onder de indruk en moeten ons best doen om zo af en toe ook nog eens wat anders op te zetten. Wonderschoon! - Rootstime


"Afternoons Are Out!"


If there is such thing as country-soul, this is it. Songs that are broody and moody as somnolent cottonmouth and just as prone to strike. The voice of Leslie Woods is rich, dark chocolate, afternoon sex, betrayal, loss and faded blooms. The music evokes all of this and more, torrents of honey-toned acoustics and doomed, descending chord sequences. It’s all delicious, but it’s all fucking poison. This is addictive, infectious, “Everyday Fevers” abound and it’s the real soundtrack for something a Bronte wrote on downers, or the ideal soundtrack for ‘Great Expectations’, or both, or neither. This is heady and unwholesomely intoxicating stuff. Approach with caution, you’ll get hooked anyway.
- unpeeled magazine - Unpeeled Magazine


"GQ Germany"

Probably the easiest way to imagine it is this: Leslie Woods and Dark Mountain Orchid are David Lynch's new private band, at least that would be if the World was fair. They are sitting in one of these red rooms, occasionally a dwarf comes jumping across the scene saying some obscure things backwards; a dark rumble roars from one of the corners, in the other Dennis Hopper squeezes his face into an oxygen mask while moaning the bands Moritate.
Naturally the lyrics' content is not exactly the right thing for suicide candidates. They are about suffering, more suffering, and you guessed it, the suffering after the suffering.
Sparsely arranged, mysterious and dark, as if Nick Cave was a redneck and even more bad-tempered than he already is anyways. Folk in its darkest style of play, traditional but seductive, precipitous and alluring.
Felix Reek - GQ Germany - GQ


"Luxury of Sin"

Backed again by Dark Mountain Orchid ‘The Luxury Of Sin’ is a collection of twelve original songs (although only eleven are listed, ‘Heroin’, recorded with Dixie Dirt for some reason doesn’t make the track listing) which recall early Gillian Welch albums like ‘Hell Among The Yearlings’ and ‘Revival’ but with less of the alt.country leanings and more of that unsettling edginess which Welch just touches on and Woods makes full use of. So definitely not a Saturday night feel good album then but for those dark, searching 3am mornings or rainy Sunday afternoons when all is not well with our little world it’s a perfect companion.
‘Appalachian Gothic’ is a description that one always tumbles across when reading about the music Woods makes and for once it perfectly defines the sound Woods and her band produce. Woods is obviously a strong songwriter and pulls you into the songs with her lyrics, sometimes taking you to places you’d rather not visit, especially in a dark room in those early hours, but one can’t help but wonder if the songs would be so chilling or effecting if Woods hadn’t chosen the excellent Dark Mountain Orchid to back her up. With husband Jeff Woods on upright bass, Tom Backus on percussion, Sean O’Connell supplying mandolin and banjo and Bob Deck playing some superb, chilling guitar throughout the album the band sound like they’ve been playing together for years just waiting for a female singer to come along to make the whole scary package complete.

And there’s not many female singer/songwriters that come readily to mind who can combine the sultriness with the desperation Woods carries off so well in ‘I Am What’. The music complements the sound of the vocals perfectly, a match made in heaven in fact although the song itself sounds like it was sent from below, an out-take from a David Lynch soundtrack for being just a little too far out there.

There is some light in amongst all the darkness, Woods is no stranger to the concept of melody. All too often music cut from the same cloth as this lacks anything remotely like a melody; it seems that for the most part melody is sacrificed for atmosphere or authenticity. Not so with Woods; one listen to ‘Everyday Fever’ shows that songs that conjure up the worst of our fears, our nightmares set to music don’t have to be devoid of a melody. From the very first listen that song’s melody hits home, really unusual for this genre. Even the following song, the aforementioned country blues of ‘I Am What’ gets under your skin from that first listen and stays there.

‘The Luxury Of Sin’ is an acquired taste for sure, but being on the Glitterhouse label no one is expecting the next chart busting sensation. Having said that the album is more, so much more than initially expected. Mixing jazz and a little bit of rock to that Appalachian sound adds a much needed texture to the genre and makes Leslie Woods more than just another Gillian Welch wannabe.

Can something be beautiful yet frightening at the same time, I guess so as something about this album makes you keep hitting the replay button time and again and still leaves you wanting more.
Malcom Carter - Pennyblackmusic - UK - Pennyblackmusic UK


"HAUNTINGLY WONDERFUL MUSIC WITH ASPIRATIONS BEYOND THE MUNDANE."


Listening to Leslie Woods second album Luxury of Sin is akin to being an unseen witness as some horrendous crime unfolds. With each track you're left with the feeling that you've been handed another clue to solving the mystery without ever getting the key to revealing all. If there is an album with a more startling opening song than Train then it's being kept well hidden. Anyone who says music can't send a shiver down your spine hasn't listened to Luxury Of Sin yet. I suggest they do so as a matter of some urgency. I Am What is the kind of country/blues clash that makes you want to sleep with the light on. Much of the credit for that goes to guitarist Bob Deck who creates the same kind of atmosphere that Hitchcock did at Bates Motel with a shower curtain and Janet Leigh. Menace is never very far from the surface of Woods' music but tracks like Sky So Pale make it an hypnotic, addictive menace. It's impossible to avert your gaze from the desolation. However going almost unnoticed is the band, Dark Mountain Orchid. For an album with a cloud hanging over it their touch at times is light, always telling but never overpowering. Luxury of Sin is a sparse album, Camie is a hauntingly bleak love song, set in context perfectly by Sean O'connell's banjo which becomes a third person in the sure-to-be-doomed relationship. As if the emotional wringer hadn't been wrung dry, the album finishes with Save It For Me. Deck frantically searches and eventually finds the depth of feeling that he and Woods so readily find with their voices. It would be easy, too easy perhaps, to become submerged in the maelstrom of emotions that swirl around Luxury of Sin. If that were the case you'd miss the fact that this is a wonderful piece of music, recorded by an artist whose aspirations reach beyond the mundane and whose talent fulfils those aspirations.
Michael Mee - Americana UK - Americana UK


"If Lydia Lunch sang country songs"

...Belting out dark blues and melancholy country ballads, Woods really defies description. Her music, which has been called "Appalachian gothic" by other music scribes, melds disparate influences into a beguiling yet menacing sound. Woods' music recalls likeminded artists like Gillian Welch, Tom Waits and nick Cave -- perhaps more in terms of emotional impact and lyrical content than the actual music. Woods combines the classic country vocal style of Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn with lyrics that could rival those of The Louvin Brothers, The Velvet Underground or author Erskine Caldwell.
....Ms. Woods has surely been through enough true-life experience to add grit and reality to her siren songs of the wrong side of the tracks. As a teenager, the singer was a prominent figure in Knoxville's first wave punk scene. Later, she became locally famous (or is it infamous?) as a gothic scenemaker and fashion plate. Woods was a pioneer of the post-punk, neo rockabilly look that is the current vogue. In fact, one could say that Ms. Woods was a prototype Suicide Girl.
Now happily married with a child, Woods has calmed down quite a lot. But this newfound maturity certainly hasn't diluted her vitriol. If Lydia Lunch sang country songs with the voice of Billie Holiday, well, that might just be an apt description of what Woods delivers. Saturday's show will be an excellent opportunity to see a fast rising talent in a small setting -- perhaps one of those instances where you can say, "I was there when..." in the future. I can't recommend this show enough.
John Sewell - TriCities.com - TriCities.com


Discography

Velvet Sky - 2002 - Radio airplay "Velvet Sky"
The Luxury of Sin - 2004 - Radio airplay "Train", "Everyday Fevers"

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Raised in East Tennessee, Leslie grew up with music. Her father and grandfather both played guitar and sang in the old mountain style, and her mother played auto harp and sang bawdy honky tonk songs during the long trips they made to Louisiana, where they spent a good deal of their summers.
The result can be experienced best during thier live
shows, which have been called shimmering, chilling and haunting.
She is backed by Dark Mountain Orchid, a phenomenal band that includes husband Jeff Woods on acoustic bass.
Tom Backus on drums, percussion and vocals.
Bob Deck on electric guitar.
Sean O'Connell on mandolin, banjo, concertina,acoustic guitar and harmonica.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bob Deck grew up in Detroit, influenced by music as diverse as that city's own eclectic sonic signature. After many years as an acoustic musician, he turned primarily to electric guitar in the 90's. Stylistically, his sound is clearly influenced by contemporary players like Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot. With Dark Mountain Orchid though, he functions as more than a lead player, most often joining the rhythm section to provide support for Leslie's narratives.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Drummer/Producer Tom Backus, originally from NY state, grew up with the drums. A Berklee and Eastman grad, he has been performing professionally since he was eleven years old. He has performed with punk bands, drum corps, big bands and jazz ensembles. He has shared the stage with The Go-Go's, Johnny Thunders, The Cramps, The Ramones and Joan Jett. As a recording engineer, his credits include Natalie Cole - "Unforgettable", Micheal Omartian, Marie Osmond, Quiet Riot and Peter Cetera.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Signed to the Glitterhouse Records label at the beginning of 2005, Leslie Woods and Dark Mountain Orchid are now enjoying new fans, with both cd's being distributed across Europe by Glitterhouse.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Leslie Woods & Dark Mountain Orchid have shared the stage with acts such as, R.B. Morris, Jolie Holland, Lucero, Vic Chestnut and Sparklehorse.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Venues they have played include The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, The Orange Peel in Asheville, The Tennessee Theatre, Blue Cats Lounge, The Laurel Theatre and The Down Home in Johnson City.