The Barr Brothers

Bio

Over the last several years, The Barr Brothers have increasingly become one of the western world’s most distinguished purveyors of eclectic modern-Americana. The group is fronted by the poly-rhythmic, jocular drumming of Andrew Barr, the songs and guitar playing of brother Brad Barr, and the innovative harp wizardry of Sarah Pagé—who has single-handedly redefined the instrument and its context. The group has been expanding and contracting its sound and size from their home base in Montreal, QC. Bass, pedal steel, keyboards, and horns come in and out of the mix freely. Equally at home in solemn Arcadian ballads, swampy North African improvs, or classic rock and roll revelry, The Barr Brothers continue to embrace and enchant audiences with their methodical-yet-whimsical approach to music making.

Their self-titled debut album The Barr Brothers (2011) dances a fine line between the crossroads of Robert Johnson, arthurian ballads, and the poetic sensibilities of Leonard Cohen. Their sophomore album, Sleeping Operator (2014) delves deeper into the connections between the Delta blues and its ancestry in West and North Africa, while still rooting itself in the softness of Appalachian folk and the soaring resilience of a song’s connective tissues. The group’s favourite misfits of the album were released on the five-track collection Alta Falls (2015), that drifts further northward, having been partially recorded in Iceland by Valgeir Sigurösson (Björk, Sigur Rós, Nico Muhly). It reveals ethereal folk and layered vocal harmonies whose warmth is suggested by the red vinyl it is pressed onto.

The success of this natural yet unfamiliar convergence of influences has enabled The Barr Brothers to perform in, among other places, the Levon Helm studios of Woodstock NY, the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater, twice on the “Late Show with David Letterman”, Japan, Europe, the UK, as well as earning them two Juno nominations in 2013 and 2015 for Adult Alternative Album of the Year. In this next year, these vast and varied influences will find themselves experimenting yet again with the recording of a third full-length album, and will further be celebrated as Mali’s Bassekou Kouyaté and partner Amy Sacko come to join forces with the group. Two unprecedented collaborative performances are set to take place in Quebec City and Montreal in the summer of 2017 (as part of the Festival d’Été de Québec and Festival International de Jazz de Montréal respectively), where both figurative and literal blending of these musical traditions will be on full brilliant display.

History

Brad and Andrew Barr moved to Montreal from Providence RI in 2005 after a decade of touring and recording as ⅔’s of the avant-rock trio, The Slip, a band noted for their fearless approach to long-form, live improvisations. Through the bedroom wall of his new apartment, Brad curiously identified the sounds of a harp drifting through the meek enclosure. What started as a welcomed intrusion became a friendship, became a collaboration, became a commitment. Sarah Pagé, an accomplished-turned-rogue harpist, had been patiently nurturing her expanding concepts of the instrument, simultaneously performing Mahler and Mozart by day, while developing new music with the the revered singer Lhasa de Sela (RIP) by night. The two brothers and Sarah began performing Brad's songs around North America, bringing in other friends on other instruments when needed, spinning these otherwise bedroom-folk songs into an intricate, open terrain for the most primitive or sophisticated of inclinations. The link they maintain to the past fuses wonderfully with poetic insight into the conditions of the present, while incorporating everything from Malian rhythms to the Elmore James-esque slide guitar. Homemade percussion instruments reminisce the likes of Tom Waits’ five-years-buried muffler and a Jockey Full of Bourbon, while reviving Celtic folk traditions, polyrhythmic harp interplay and the fire of West African Blues.

2011-2013 The Barr Brothers

One year after the fire at Le Swimming, Andrew and Brad Barr relocated to Montreal and became neighbours with harpist Sarah Pagé. Along with Andres Vial, they formed The Barr Brothers. Their debut, self-titled LP was released on September 27, 2011 via Secret City Records.[2] In anticipation of the album release, lead single "Beggar In The Morning" debuted on Paste Magazine.[3] The band was invited to play Osheaga Festival in 2011, and toured North America throughout the fall promoting the record.[4][5]

On January 5, 2012, they performed "Beggar in the Morning" on the Late Show with David Letterman. On April 5, 2012, their song "Ooh, Belle" was played during the final montage of the fifth episode of Touch. On June 30, 2012, the Barr Brothers were the headlining artist on the main stage Scène TD de la place des Festivals at the Montreal Jazz Festival, performing for a crowd estimated at more than 30,000. The immediate success of the album saw them on a heavy touring cycle for the next two years throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

-Juno Nomination (2013) Adult Alternative Album of the Year for The Barr Brothers

2014-2016 Sleeping Operator, Alta Falls

In August 2014, they played at Pickathon, a music festival in Happy Valley, Oregon. Three years following their show on the main stage Scène TD de la place des Festivals at the Montreal Jazz Festival, on June 30, 2015, they headlined one of the Grand Évènement of the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Following the 2015 release of their sophomore album Sleeping Operator was a heavy year for promoting the album worldwide. With both headlining and supporting acts, the band made their way down the east coast of the U.S. in early spring, and then finished off the year with a slough of European dates through the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Ireland and the UK.

They toured alongside Americana legends Calexico both in the United States and Europe in the spring, and headed to Kentucky and California in the summertime, sharing the stage with Modest Mouse and My Morning Jacket. They returned to the Montreal International Jazz Fest for the fourth time in June of 2015, but this time, to headline the main stage, playing to an estimated crowd of 50,000. For the legendary performance, several local talents shared the stage: Patrick Watson, Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson), Joe Grass, Michelle Tompkins (Sin & Swoon), Laurel Sprengelmeyer (Little Scream) and closed with an unforgettable cover of Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”. Malian Mamadou Kouyaté also took part in the timeless performance.

In 2016, the group released several of their favourite misfit tracks in the Alta Falls EP, pressed onto bright red vinyl. The year brought them to some familiar places and some new ones. In a cross-American tour with My Morning Jacket, The Barr Brothers played the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. There were invited to perform at the Midnight Ramble Sessions at the Levon Helm studios in Woodstock, NY, performed on the main stage at Osheaga, made it all the way to Yellowknife, Canada to the Folk on The Rocks festival, while still making time for meaningful collaborations at home in Montreal.

Members Brad and Andrew took part in a tribute to The Grateful Dead on the Lachine Canal in the summer of 2016. Following the death of the Montreal-local legend Leonard Cohen in October of 2016, many Montreal musicians and poets came together on December 15th for a tribute put together by POP Montreal. Brad Barr partook in the tribute, amongst fellow label artists Basia Bulat, Thus Owls, Daniel Isaiah Schachter and Emilie & Ogden. Barr recalled the momentous fire at le Swimming of 2003 when he had been singing “Hallelujah” on the evening that resulted in him and his brother Andrew staying in Montreal. Also sharing the stage that evening were musicians Li'l Andy, Les Hay Babies', Laura Sauvage as well as some readings from Cohen's poetry and novels.

The Quebec music award council of ADISQ nominated the group for the most illustrious anglophone band outside of Quebec in 2016.

-Juno Nomination (2015) Adult Alternative Album of the Year Sleeping Operator

-ADISQ Nomination (2016) Most Illustrious Band Outside of Quebec

2017-Present: Recording and Collaboration

Taking a step back from several years of heavy-touring, the band are currently focusing on writing new music.

This year also promises two highly anticipated collaborations with the Malian duo Bassekou Kouyate and Amy Sacko. Two unprecedented collaborative performances of The Barr Brothers and the West-African powerhouses are scheduled to take place during the 2017 editions of the Festival d’Été de Québec and the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

The band first collaborated with Bassekkou in 2013, when their mutual friend Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed) went to Mali to record Jama Ko. Bilerman brought along with him two of The Barr Brothers’ freshly recorded demos and showed them to Bassekou,who  "graced the tracks with his ngoni styling”. This one-step-removed musical relationship later resulted in Brad and Andrew's guitar and percussion contributions to the album, when Bilerman mixed the album in Montreal.

Discography