Band's new singer is no odd Duhk.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

Duhks lead singer Jessee Havey, the one whose mournful vocals on "Heaven's My Home" helped the young Canadian band win a Grammy nomination in 2006, has left the formation.

So the Duhks have migrated south for a two-month tour with Sarah Dugas in Havey's place. Fiddle player Tania Elizabeth described the new energy Dugas has brought as the "honeymoon period."

"It's like an arranged marriage with five people," she said. "It's really been fantastic. We've already begun to work on some new stuff, and everyone is just really enthusiastic.

`It's beautiful. It's really nice to have this positive vibe happening."

Although she is new to the band, Dugas is no stranger to the Duhks. Banjo player Leonard Podolak, whose parents started the Winnipeg Folk Festival, has known her since she was a child, and she sang on the first Duhks album.

"She's already family," Elizabeth said. `That's the thing.'

For Saturday's show at the McDonald, the Duhks (pronounced Ducks) will open for roots artists Railroad Earth. Railroad Earth also is a relative newcomer to the touring jam band scene, having formed in 2001.

RRE is still touring behind its early 2006 live double-disc recording, "Elko," released on the String Cheese Incident's label: SCI Fidelity Records.

Last year, the Duhks released "Migrations," their second major North American album. Sugar Hill also rereleased the Duhks' debut effort, "Your Daughters and Your Sons."

The original Duhks have won the biggest music honor in Canada, the Juno Award, as well as two Folk Alliance awards and an Americana Music Association nomination as best emerging artist.

Elizabeth said with Dugas singing lead, the group's sound has changed. But even before the lineup shift, changes in tone were normal.

"We're four shows in, so we're still playing the same material, but the thing about the Duhks is we always evolve," Elizabeth said while en route to a show in Kansas. "If you listen to our three records, you can hear in each one there is a substantial change that happens. But it's still distinctly us."

Distinct sound attracts attention

That distinct style attracted the attention of legendary banjo player Bela Fleck, who produced their self-titled 2005 release. A news release from the band says David Crosby, Dolly Parton and Doc Watson also are Duhks fans.

With Havey, the Duhks blended soul, gospel, North American folk, Brazilian samba, old-time country string band, zydeco and Irish dance music, a release says.

New lead singer Dugas has a diversified background that fits well with the Duhks' flavor. Elizabeth said Dugas has a worldly, multicultural sound.

"Her voice has a lot of depth to it, and she's just really talented."

Speaking of talent, the other four Duhks, who range in age from 23 to 30, are no slouches either.

On "Migrations," the band reinterprets the Tracy Chapman composition "Mountains o' Things." It also dips into the public domain for "Three Fishers," and somehow manages to make the disparate songs sound as if they were born to be on the same album.

Most of the lyrical content comes from outside the band. But the Duhks' original arrangements and interesting way of bringing elements together make their flight pattern one to track on the contemporary folk and roots radar.

Bluegrass and folk veteran Tim O'Brien co-produced "Migrations" in Nashville with Grammy-winning engineer and producer Gary Paczosa.

"It's not hard to come up with that traditional stuff, because it's all around us all the time," Elizabeth said of song selection. "Right now we, as a musical society, are sort of in this interesting shift where there's a lot of different bands who are sort of going back to their roots."

With the help of other bandmates in the car, the Duhks cited Crooked Still, Nickel Creek, Eugene's David Jacobs-Strain, Uncle Earl, the Infamous Stringdusters, the Foghorn Stringband, Dervish, the Avett Brothers, the Mammals, Donna the Buffalo and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

"They are all taking this traditional music and just going forward with it, and we're just one band that is doing this," Elizabeth said. "I think young people are just seeing what a wealth there is. ...

`People are just responding because there is something primordial - there's something that resonates with people that they might not even be conscious of."

CONCERT PREVIEW

The Duhks

Opening for: Railroad Earth

What: Canadian roots and folk

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: McDonald Theatre, 1010 Willamette St.

Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door

On the Web: Hear music samples from the Duhks and Railroad Earth at www.registerguard.com /ticketfiles

You can call Serena Markstrom at 338-2371 or e-mail her at [e-mail].