1960s folk
legends the Brothers Four, still with one original member, had done a nice set
in an area church a few years back; this time they occupied the much larger
Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club for an enjoyable performance, with a two-hour show
divided into two sets. Most of the tables were filled, although the
theater-style seats in the rear were empty (as they don’t go on sale until the
table seats have sold out).
The group’s
trademark vocal harmonies worked well on such slow tunes as “Try To Remember”
and two of their best-known hits, “Green Leaves Of Summer” and “Greenfields”
(their next-to-last pre-encore number). The most enthusiastic crowd reactions,
however, seemed to come on the uptempo numbers where Mark Pearson pulled out
his banjo, such as their four-song “bluegrass medley”. Their two encores were a
stunning version of “Shenandoah” and finally “Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore” (a
personal favorite of mine from my childhood).
The previous
time I saw them, they did a great, sad song about the end of an old family farm
– I hadn’t heard it before, and they didn’t do any kind of introduction. Based
on the lyrics, I was finally able to chase it down (I thought) on the Internet:
“Time To Be Planting Again” by Leslie Eliel. They started into the song
Thursday night, but once they got into the chorus, I wondered about whether I
had found the correct song, despite the many similarities. Apparently Mark and
Leslie wrote the song together but decided to go in different directions with
the chorus, as the Brothers Four title their version “Heart Of The Heartland”.
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