Harry Manx and Kevin Breit

Canadian guitarists Harry Manx and Kevin Breit first hooked up six years ago at a Canadian folk festival for an impromptu set that resulted two years later in the award-winning album Jubilee. Manx, who does the singing, was born on the Isle of Man, hence a real Manxman, then moved to Canada as a kid and seems not to have stopped traveling. He spent 10 years overseas, five of them studying in India, where he learned to play the mohan veena, a 20-string modified slide guitar, and this sitar-like influence (he calls this style “Mysticssippi”) is present on several tracks. Breit, who’s accompanied singers Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson, is a bit more earthy—whether he’s playing guitar (both slide and “regular”) or mandolin. This pairing works extremely well, and the selections here run the gamut from the peppy blues of Breit’s “Bottom of the Hill,” the eerie funk of the title track, an instrumental that finds Manx punching out the “I’m a Man” riff on cigar-box guitar and kick drum while Breit contributes an airy theme on a variety of mandolins; to a relaxed version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.”