The Dead South

A rock band without a drummer, a bluegrass band without a fiddler . To the gentlemen of The Dead South, a self-styled 4-piece string band from Regina, Saskatchewan, it’s about how, not what, you play. The Dead South’s combination of cello, mandolin, guitar and banjo has all the hallmarks of a group tuned to bygone times, but with their signature sleight of hand, The Dead South find distinctly ­modern bathos in this old time rigging.

The band has announced their third album, Sugar & Joy, coming October 11, 2019 via Six Shooter Records. In “Diamond Ring,” poor William, whoever he is, done got robbed by a would-be groom trying to impress his betrothed . Money doesn’t buy love, but it does buy the ring. In The Dead South’s world, characters do what they must, even when twisted logic leads them astray . From the opening galloping strum to the lower register cello and deep backing vocals, the song’s moody mania captures The Dead South’s stock-in-trade, stories of desperation and bad decisions told in fast-paced, brightly-laced bursts.