Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When The Barr Brothers were last in Birmingham at the 2013 Moseley Folk Festival, the merchandise tent had to send for extra copies of their self-titled debut album, such was the demand.  Since then, the band have written and recorded their second album Sleeping Operator and quite rightly they were welcomed back to south Birmingham area for a sell-out gig, on the last date of their current U.K. tour.

Once again the Canadian four-piece, formed by brothers Brad and Andrew Barr and which had been bolstered to five for the tour, were in fine form. The intimate setting of the Hare and Hounds was the perfect platform for their progressive bluesy-folk which was often augmented by a range of instruments such as banjo, harp and a West African stringed ngoni. In fact there was very little space left on stage for the band themselves as a result.

Opening with Old Mythologies a track from their 2011 debut, with its finger-picked acoustic, hand clapped beats and harmonica style, the band then drifted into the barely whispered Ooh Belle. By the time the audience were treated to the opening bars of Devil’s Harp the band show their darker and more raucous side.

Unsurprisingly the set was also laden with many tracks from the band’s sophomore release, such as Love Ain’t Enough, first single Even the Darkness and Half Crazy which was the perfect showcase for Brad’s overdriven slide acoustic style and was recently described by the singer himself as “The tenacious offspring of the North African desert music of Mali/Morocco, and the sweat and electricity of the Chicago and Mississippi Delta Blues”.

Whilst introducing one track the singer (who kept between-song banter to a minimum) revealed that the band were about to do “Heroin”, before thankfully launching into the opening bars of one of the standout numbers of the night How the Heroine Dies.

Possibly the only down side to the small and sweaty back room at the Hare and Hounds is the location of the exit door. Brad Barr did reveal that at one stagehehad become concerned at the amount of people leaving mid-set, before clocking that it was in fact the only route to the bathroom.

The audience can hear many different influences and clever arrangements when this band are on stage, a point underlined by the wonderful set-closer Beggar in the Morning and refreshingly, they are also hard to pigeon-hole.

Dean Vernals

Sleeping Operator by The Barr Brothers is out now on Secret City records.