Jeff Gutteridge

Welcome to Dark Country.  Don’t go alone …

“Dark Country” is the debut album from Lindsay ON singer / songwriter Jeff Gutteridge 

Recorded entirely by Jeff in his studio, “Dark Country” is an 8 song showcase of his diverse songwriting.  Rock, Folk , Alt country and Americana  it’s all here full of inspired lyrics , soaring melodic hooks and moody sonic landscapes … 

Jeff simply follows song where it wants to go. 

But what or where is “Dark Country”?  Jeff says to think of it like “Hotel California” :

“It’s a symbolic place more than a concrete brick and mortar place.  It’s the dark part of your soul.  It’s that place you go to take a spiritual journey.  An awakening.  A place to discover yourself, it’ll be a different experience for each person and it’s the place you’ll be taken when you listen to this record front to back”. 

Dark Country may sound a bit different to you than other modern records and that's because Jeff made this record to be "intentionally scruffy", leaving in slight imperfections to give the album a more real, human feel.

Intended as a "fly on the wall" album, Dark Country gives the listener the feeling they're hearing the record being made live in a studio, like they're in the room with the band. To achieve this, Jeff left in the typical studio noises -string squeaks, talking, sticks being picked up, cable noise...amp hum, things you'd hear if you were there listening to the songs being tracked live, a stark contrast to the way records are made today. Vocals perfectly in tune, drums perfectly in time, an almost robotic assembly line approach.  

Jeff wanted this one made "70's style" real, raw, imperfect focusing more on capturing the heart and soul...the human-ness of the songs.

So who is the "band?"...simple...Jeff!

That's right, all the parts aside from bass guitar were played by Jeff. Randy Solski played bass.  To get that "everyone in a room" feel Jeff opted to track the parts as complete takes vs doing the parts a piece at a time. The drums are captured as a whole take, then a left guitar, and then right guitar, then bass...and so on.  The idea here is it's like a band playing together to get that magic take, they way they used to do it!  Vocals were approached the same way!  instead of singing a line at a time and editing the "human" out of them, Jeff did the entire songs as if he was playing live only punching in a few words here and there.  The result is a shaggy , real, rock n' roll record full of heartfelt, emotional songs stacked with memorable hooks!

The album features the singles “Sometimes You Know The Truth” a song about a relationship on the verge of meltdown, "Take Me Home" about a dream in which Jeff had a long conversation with his late mother and the jailbreak revenge story “I Got Lost”.  

You may get lost too, but it’s okay to lose yourself in Dark Country… in fact it’s encouraged.  

Jeff will be bringing “Dark Country” to a town near you in 2024, solo or with his band “The Black Aces”

… but don’t go alone.  

For fans of :

Ryan Adams , Jason Isbell, City & Colour, Brian Fallon , Noel Gallagher