Canadian indie rock musicians Daniel Romano, Fred Squire and Julie Doiron take time out from larger projects to come together in a folky, ambient mix of melancholic lyricism and stripped down acoustic guitar playing.

The trio, familiar to Canadian hipsters from their work in Calm Down It’s Monday, Shotgun and Jaybird, produce a warm yet simple sound that gives great voice to the narrative and subjects of their songs. 'The Gambler and His Bride', sang mournfully by Doiron, tells the tale of long suffering Frankie, her gambling husband and the eventual murder she becomes embroiled in. 'No One Knew My Name' is an effort where all three voices play off delicately, treading lightly on the toes of Dylan’s 'Tombstone Blues' in both sound and subject matter.

The collaboration is the fruits of Romano, taking a summer train east and setting up a makeshift studio with Doiron in Squire’s Sackville garage. It took only a week to record through a microphone set up on the floor. Organic production, with no overdubs or edits, was a decision well made. It isn’t hard to imagine peering in through a window on their sessions in the sleepy Canadian backwoods. The second side of the album, which opens with 'Down By The Weeping Willow', incorporates some delightful acoustic picking and gives a good level of continuity to Doiron’s elegiac vocals. While tracks 'Your Love' and 'Johnny Sands' nod, ever so slightly, to the same kind of mood encapsulated in Bon Iver’s "For Emma, Forever Ago".

Perhaps what’s most interesting about "Daniel, Fred & Julie" however is just how skilfully the artist’s voices come together to give lift to the material. An album of public domain standards, except for two Romano originals, there is a capacity to sound too over-emotional or too invested in songs that are so lyrically familiar. Refreshingly however, they deal with it well, giving rise to a kind of light-hearted soul that makes this record a pleasant, if unoriginal, listen.