dpkg-deb failing

[Greg Smith]

I'm having trouble using dpkg-deb -b to build a package.  I keep getting the following error:
Can't use format gnu: No such format 'gnu': Invalid argument
Usage:
  List:    gnutar -tf <archive-filename>
  Extract: gnutar -xf <archive-filename>
  Create:  gnutar -cf <archive-filename> [filenames...]
  Help:    gnutar --help
dpkg-deb: subprocess gnutar -cf returned error exit status 1

This is identical to the issue mentioned and fixed in this ticket: https://trac.macports.org/ticket/27702.  The difference being that I'm getting the error from gnutar, not from tar, which doesn't make any sense at all.  I tried the same process on a clean OS X install and get the exact same issue.  gnutar --format gnu -cf works fine on my system with no error.  Any idea how to fix dpkg-deb?
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