The Barr Brothers

2011 album from this Montreal-based quartet founded by brothers Brad and Andrew Barr, best known for their previous work as members of New England trio The Slip. A move to Montreal in 2004 eventually led to the formation of the new group, rounded out by harpist Sarah Page, and multi-instrumentalist Andres Vial, both Montreal natives. Recorded in their makeshift studio in an old boiler room at the foot of Mount Royal, the self-titled debut was written over the course of the brothers' time in a city full of strangers, lovers, old ghosts and new friends. It reads like a dusty journal of a traveler at the crossroads of good and evil. It's an opus of beautiful Folk, gut- busting Blues and far-out African rhythm.