The Barr Brothers tapped My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James and Arc Iris‘ Jocie Adams for their atmospheric new single, “English Harbour”, the third preview of their highly anticipated fourth studio album, Let It Hiss, due out October 17th.
With gentle acoustic guitar and soothing vocal harmonies, the song evokes the timeless charm of old-world folk with a modern twist. Brad Barr‘s ethereal guitar work and Andrew Barr‘s understated percussion intertwine with the delicate vocals of James and Adams, all carried on a swelling string arrangement that lifts the track into cinematic territory.
“We’d been imagining Jim’s soaring voice on the song’s opening melody for a while,” Andrew Barr said of the new single. “One afternoon around 4 p.m., we sent it to him before heading out to pick up our kids. By the time we got home that night, he’d sent back not only the opening melody but a fully harmonized performance from start to finish. It was one of those hair- standing-on-the-back-of-your-neck moments in the life of this record. I loved the song from the moment Brad first played it for me, but Jim’s voice brings a whole new energy to it.”
Reflecting on the deep mutual connections between the brothers and their collaborators, Brad Barr added, “Something cool and interesting that happened while recording English Harbour—we imagined both Jim James and Jocie Adams (Arc Iris) singing on this one. We had befriended Jim when our band The Slip opened for My Morning Jacket in 2007, and opened for them again with The Barr Brothers around 2015. And we’ve loved Jocie’s singing and arranging instincts since we toured with her old band The Low Anthem. The night we had the idea to invite them, we wrote to them both separately to ask if they’d be interested and available to sing on this song and they randomly happened to be eating dinner together at Jocie’s house in LA. Crazy serendipity! The two of them make this song so magical.”
Listen to “English Harbour” below or click here to stream the track on your preferred platform.
This latest single follows the new album’s title track and “Run Right Into It” as the third preview of The Barr Brothers’ first studio album since 2017’s Queens of the Breakers. Produced by the duo and recorded in their Montreal studio, the ten-track collection represents both a homecoming and an evolution in their creative partnership. It was mixed by Jon Low (The National, Taylor Swift, Bon Iver) and features contributions from Elizabeth Powell (Land Of Talk), Patrick Watson, and Klo Pelgag, in addition to James and Adams. Pre-order/pre-save the album here.
Following the album’s release, The Barr Brothers will embark on their first major headlining tour since 2019, starting on November 4th at Higher Ground in Burlington, VT and concluding in their hometown of Montreal on November 29th at the 2,300-capacity MTelus. Click below for a full list of tour dates and head here for tickets.
The Barr Brothers – “English Harbour”