{"id":8495,"date":"2011-10-05T06:50:36","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T10:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8495"},"modified":"2011-10-05T06:52:38","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T10:52:38","slug":"barr-brothers-beggar-in-the-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/barr-brothers-beggar-in-the-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: Barr Brothers, &#8220;Beggar in the Morning&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/barrbrothers.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"The Barr Brothers\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/barrbrothers_sm.jpg?resize=600%2C398&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Barr Brothers, Brad and Andrew, report the following <a title=\"The Barr Brothers: About\" href=\"http:\/\/thebarrbrothers.com\/info\" target=\"_blank\">at their Web site<\/a>, among other facts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They hail from Providence, RI.<\/li>\n<li>They\u00a0&#8220;discovered rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll&#8221; in 1983.<\/li>\n<li>Their &#8220;spirited, improv-based rock trio, The Slip&#8221; toured the country for around ten years.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;In his first apartment in [Montreal], Brad shared an adjoining wall with Sarah Page, a classically trained harpist from Montreal with a propensity for the experimental&#8230; a friendship developed and the brothers, with Sarah, began recording and performing around Montreal. Soon, their friend and multi-instrumentalist Andres Vial was brought in to lend his wide array of expertise to the outfit, playing keyboards, bass, vibes, percussion, and singing.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Brad Barr, they say, had listened to Sarah Page through the wall of his apartment long enough to learn the melody she was playing &#8212; whereupon he went next door and played it back for her. That melody, I&#8217;m guessing, is what we hear as they duo in &#8220;Sarah Through the Wall&#8221;:<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/11739083?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The foursome just released their first (self-titled) album a couple weeks ago. It&#8217;s eerily mature, feeling almost like some other band&#8217;s third or fourth outing. For one single, &#8220;Beggar in the Morning,&#8221; they had some help from Swiss-Canadian artist and lighting designer Stephan Bircher; its video\u00a0features a visual storyline which transforms all four band members into slightly creepy marionettes, crafted by Bircher from <em>[pause for sting of organ music]<\/em> the bones of small animals:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1JU4T9iqNTo?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"305\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>(See more of Bircher&#8217;s <em>Corpse Bride<\/em>-ish\u00a0work at <a title=\"Stephan Bircher\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanbircher.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">his own site<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Lyrics:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>Beggar in the Morning<\/strong><br \/>\n(The Barr Brothers)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Steady woman won&#8217;t you come on down<br \/>\nI need you right here on the ground<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve walked the outskirts of this town<br \/>\nBeen terrorized by what I&#8217;ve found<br \/>\nI saw a standing virgin bride<br \/>\nWhere holy Dionysus died<br \/>\nShe tore the heart out of his side<br \/>\nAnd laid it dead and there she cried<\/p>\n<p>Oh oh oh ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh<\/p>\n<p>She said hello I&#8217;m a monster too<br \/>\nWhat poisons me is what poisons you<br \/>\nTo these animals we grew<br \/>\nBut when we were young our eyes were blue<\/p>\n<p>I take my medicine on my knees<br \/>\nTwice a day, but lately three<br \/>\nIt keeps the devil from my door<br \/>\nIt makes me rich and it makes me poor<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a beggar in the morning<br \/>\nI&#8217;m a king at night<br \/>\nWhen my belt is loose<br \/>\nAnd my trigger is tight<\/p>\n<p>May come without warning<br \/>\nAt the speed of light<br \/>\nMake it shine so pretty<br \/>\nMake it shine so bright<\/p>\n<p>It seems I&#8217;ve come a long long way<br \/>\nTo sit before you here today<br \/>\nthey&#8217;re yours and yours the songs I play<br \/>\nTo take with you to throw away<\/p>\n<p>Oh oh oh oh ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh<\/p>\n<p>Oh I want an angel to wipe my tears<br \/>\nI want my dreams, my hopes, desires and fears<br \/>\nWe may capsize but we won&#8217;t drown<br \/>\nHold each other as the sun goes down<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a beggar in the morning<br \/>\nI&#8217;m a king at night<br \/>\nWhen my belt is loose and my trigger is tight<br \/>\nMay come without warning<br \/>\nAt the speed of light<br \/>\nMake it shine so pretty make it shine so bright<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a beggar in the morning\/I&#8217;m a king at night&#8221;: that couplet alone is gold. Has the sound of a fairy tale, doesn&#8217;t it? I&#8217;ve looked around the Web, though, and can&#8217;t match the line up with anything other than this song (and of course recast in other words, most obviously <em>The Prince and the Pauper<\/em>). &#8220;Beggar in the Morning&#8221; alone would make a great name for a children&#8217;s game &#8212; one handed down from the Middle Ages, and involving a certain amount of role-playing and -reversal: <em>Tag, you&#8217;re poor, and tag, I&#8217;m not<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Barr recently stopped in at <em>Guitar World<\/em>\u00a0to demonstrate a guitar made from a fishing-tackle box:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;Barr also employs a unique string bow technique, where individual threads are attached to guitar strings and pulled through his fingers to create a static, quivering sound.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a title=\"Guitar World: Brad Barr's tacklebox guitar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guitarworld.com\/video-barr-brothers-brad-barr-demonstrates-tackle-box-guitar-string-bow-technique\" target=\"_blank\">The\u00a0<em>Guitar World<\/em>\u00a0article<\/a> features a video of Barr demonstrating this technique, and a photo slide show of the instrument itself (crafted by a firm called Hobo Nation).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Barr Brothers, Brad and Andrew, report the following at their Web site, among other facts: They hail from Providence, RI. They\u00a0&#8220;discovered rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll&#8221; in 1983. Their &#8220;spirited, improv-based rock trio, The Slip&#8221; toured the country for around ten years. &#8220;In his first apartment in [Montreal], Brad shared an adjoining wall with Sarah Page, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2252,74],"tags":[2617,2618],"class_list":{"0":"post-8495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-midweek-music-break","7":"category-music","8":"tag-barr-brothers","9":"tag-stephan-bircher","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-2d1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8495"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8555,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8495\/revisions\/8555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}