The Dead South at Bally's Lake Tahoe (formerly MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa)

Saturday, December 18, 2021, The Dead South at Bally’s Lake Tahoe (formerly MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa). Ticketmaster.com

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. Their sound, built on a taut configuration of cello, mandolin, banjo and guitar, speeds like a train past polite definitions of acoustic music into the grittier, rowdier spaces of the bluegrass world.

In June 2020, The Dead South celebrated their second JUNO Award win for Traditional Roots Album of the Year (Sugar & Joy – Six Shooter Records), announced in a virtual awards show that also featured the bluegrass quartet performing at an empty venue in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the intended host city. As displayed on the marquee at the start of the clip (JUNOS 2020 CANCELLED), this year’s event took a much different form.

The Dead South’s original and current lineup includes the gnarled baritone of Nate Hilts, Scott Pringle on mandolin, whistling cellist Danny Kenyon and virtuosic banjo player Colton Crawford. The four-piece, string-driven approach puts the interplay of unique and versatile voices front and centre, with Hilts, Pringle and Kenyon all sharing lead vocal duties.