The Family Album

Siblings Matthew Barber and Jill Barber have spent the past 12 years focusing on their solo careers, and while they have made guest appearances on each other's albums and have toured together, until now the two had never made a collaborative album. This past spring, the inevitable finally happened - Matthew and Jill began work on The Family Album. Out April 1st on the Outside Music label, The Family Album consists of five new compositions that were written specifically for this album and exist largely in the folk/country/old-time-songbook world. Matthew's "The Sweeter The Dawn" floats dreamily and burns slowly while the ballad "Grandpa Joe" is a tribute to the siblings' Scottish maternal grandfather they never knew. Jill's "Today" is a classic affirmation of love in the face of fear, and "Big Picture Window" is her country take on settling down and making a home. The rest of the album is comprised of six covers; chosen from a long list of songs that were pitched, discussed, attempted and roughly recorded during a few sessions in Vancouver (Jill's home), Toronto (Matthew's home) and California (during a family vacation). The songs selected are of personal significance, relevant to the album's themes of loyalty, time, memories and, of course, family, or simply for how much fun they were to sing. "We are indebted to the songwriters and previous interpreters of these great songs. We hope we did them justice. We ultimately went with the cover songs that just felt most right for the overall feel of the album. They ended up all being from the 60's and 70's. I think it's fair to say we were trying to tap into a little bit of the magic of the North American folk and country records of that time." - Matthew Barber