The Barr Brothers (The Slip) - Love Ain't Enough stream

The Barr Brothers - Massey Hall during NXNE (06.20.14)

During The Barr Brothers devastating performance at Massey Hall during NXNE I turned to a dear friend who has seen this and many bands more times than I have or can fathom and during Love Ain't Enough said: "This is a Slip tune".  He sort of looked at me with his molly'd out googly eyes I've come to know and love as if to say I was the one off his rocker not him.  But I was right and he was wrong.

Love Ain't Enough it turns out did begin as a Slip tune and demo versions were produced around 2010-2011 when the Barr's third side project Surprise Me Mr. Davis was touring southern Ontario.  The demo at the time contained another nameless tune which had appeared in Slip setlists in 2010 as Powerful Joint.  It was during this period that a very select few fans also heard a recording of just half of a fully worked up version of Summer of My Fall (being held back for a full vinyl release) - the staple of the SMMD repertoire as it closely resembles it's live renditions from that period with a strong 50's backbeat style that brought this phenomenal Nathan Moore song to life.   Likewise England which appears on the forthcoming Sleeping Operator (on Secret City records) which aired at Massey Hall began as a Slip song.

Of the some 40 songs that The Barr Brothers worked up for Sleeping Operator then whittled down to 11 it will be interesting to see when these other projects (Surprise Me Mr. Davis and The Slip) inevitably tour and record together again which material will fall to which ensemble.  In all it gives a lot of hope to dedicated fans of The Slip's post-bop driving jazz foundations that a high tide will carry many boats.