Hibernation time is over and Canadian threesome The Crooked Brothers are back on the road and heading to the UK to promote their latest release. 

The Crooked Brothers - Jesse Matas, Darwin Baker and Matt Foster – are all songwriters and multi- instrumentalists. Banjos, mandolins, dobro, guitar and harmonicas all take turns being juggled from brother to brother. Each having their own style and touch and the arrangements seem limitless. Their blend of timeless country classic sounds, back porch blues and stomping scrap yard funk has gained the attention of many folk festival and roots music fans both live, and on their carefully crafted albums. They ring scraps of railway iron like bells. They whistle through their teeth. They sing and shout. Whatever they're up to, they mean it and it shows.

The Postcard EP is a series of limited edition postcards featuring original artwork by the band themselves, as well as artists and musicians across Canada. They are limited edition postcards with only 100 of each design printed, and the postcards - the kind you deliver through good old snail-mail - will include a download link that can be passed along once a listener has downloaded it.

“It’s partially trying to combine what we do, I’m not a visual artist by any means, neither is Matt so much, but Jesse is; combine our music with art and the postcard aspect is fun because we love using the postal system, even though some of the folks in Ottawa don’t seem to think we need it anymore,” Baker explains, adding the idea was conceived prior to door-to-door mail delivery being dropped, but the timing seemed better than ever to start encouraging people to go back to the way things used to be. “There’s nothing as personal as getting a handwritten letter or even just a quick note from a friend. There’s something special about that that you can’t achieve with an email or something”

The forthcoming EP also contains the trio’s first “happy” tune, “There Ain’t No One.” Baker says during the band’s seven-year existence, they have attempted to write happy songs, but all too often they can veer into “cheesy” territory. This one stuck, though, and the tune is an upbeat harmonica-driven track speaking to all the reasons this person means so much. Whether performing as a trio, or with a backing rhythm section, the Crooked Brothers' visibly thrive on this versatility, playing any show they can dream up.