Kevin Bronson on September 20th, 2011

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So the Barr Brothers’ story goes that guitarist Brad Barr heard a neighbor, Sarah Page, practicing her harp, learned the melody, knocked on her door and played it for her. Which makes for a nice warm-and-fuzzy – not unlike the Montreal quartet’s self-titled debut album (out next week on Secret City Records). It’s bluesy, tool-shed Americana that fools with arrangements and polyrhythms, recalling in parts the Avett Brothers and the Head and the Heart, though both with some darker edges.

||| Download: “Beggar in the Morning”

||| Live: The Barr Brothers are one of four acts – Patrick Watson, the Besnard Lakes and Malajube are the others – playing the “Quebec in Hollywood” show on Wednesday night at the El Rey Theatre.

Photo by Andre Guerette