Brad Barr of the Barr Brothers stopped by our offices to perform “Half Crazy” from their 2014 album Sleeping Operator. He brought along the 1951 Gibson J-45 he bought at Chelsea Guitars in New York City. The ‛51 replaced a guitar that his uncle had left him but was stolen from a car in NYC. The new instrument “changed the way I thought about the acoustic guitar,” according to Barr.

And for the sewing thread through the strings trick you see during the song’s intro? He was inspired to experiment with it after watching the movie Latcho Drom around a decade ago and seeing fiddler Taraf de Haidouks tie a string from his bow onto his strings. It’s an interesting effect that we hadn’t seen on the acoustic guitar before.

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