Take four siblings raised in Colorado, a bunch of traditional acoustic instruments, some serious musicianship and songwriting, and a whole lot of heart and soul, and with a little bit of gentle shaking you might just come out with The Dark Days. Classic, perfect, gorgeous gentle Americana written ‘for our Ma when we were going through the struggle’, ‘Georgia’ rolls and swells along on waves of acoustic guitar, cahon, strings, and singer Xela Dark’s stunning voice; smoky, soothing, sultry, caressing, uplifting, and just plain beautiful, Xela’s vocal is the icing on an already extremely well-baked cake. Think of Counting Crows or the Jayhawks, with Sheryl Crow or maybe Lene Marlin taking over on vocals for Adam Duritz for a while, and you can imagine the sort of territory we’re in here.
It’s a perfect, sweet summer song; something to lie back in a corn field and just listen along to, and let everything else go for a few minutes. That’s pretty rare.
You can check out ‘Georgia’ on Spotify, and follow The Dark Days on Facebook.
Review by Alex Holmes