that, while the album provides "the traditional folk/country experience, chock full of banjo plucking, twang and impressive harmonies, the band's ability to make the music entertaining and engaging is impressive. Boots, the album's first track, begins soft and quiet before picking up speed before its end. Miss Mary in particular, serves as an atypical and surprising example of folk music as interpreted by The Dead South and Hard Day showcases Hilts' grit and power as vocalist." Apart from Illusion and Doubt peaking at number five on the US Billboard Bluegrass chart, it also entered the top 30 on the US Country iTunes Chart. The band received a Juno Award for Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2018 for "Illusion and Doubt". By March 2019, Good Company and Illusion and Doubt had sold 90,000 physical copies, and The Dead South's songs had a total of 55 million streams on Spotify. Sugar & Joy (2019) Sugar & Joy is The Dead South's most recent album to date, which expanded upon the imagery and unconventional composition in Illusion and Doubt. The album was very well received critically, reaching #1 on the American bluegrass charts. Peter Churchill of Americana UK gave the album a 9/10, writing "There is a feeling, when first listening to the album, of anticipation, of wondering in what direction these bunch of outrageously talented musicians might head with the next track. The only consistent here is the quality and the sheer infectiousness of the music." Chris Conaton of PopMatters gave it an 8/10, praising the diversity of the themes and the manner in which it incorporated different styles of music: "Sugar and Joy shows there's a lot of life in the corner of roots music where playing loud and fast while also leaving room for slower, more nuanced songs is considered a great combination. It's nice to hear an album that embraces the core tenets of 21st-century Americana (or Canadiana, in the Dead South's case) while still doing their own thing. Sugar and Joy is one of the most entertaining albums I've heard in 2019." The Dead South won Group of the Year at the 2019 Canadian Independent Music Awards, or "Indies", on 11 May 2019. The Dead South again received a Juno Award for best Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2020 for "Sugar & Joy", and performed via livestream during the virtual award