There's a meetin' here tonight

All of us kids have heard the beloved family legend that Dad was one of the Brothers Four (with his three brothers), a popular folk quartet from the 1950s and 60s.


Photos of Dad from those years were not much different from the album covers. For example:
(I think he was about to sing "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" right here on Lake Michigan.)

It was easy to imagine him holding a bass or a banjo and singing "Greenfields," and it was especially fun to pretend that I was the daughter of a faded celebrity who have up his fame to be a dad. Even though Dad knew we knew he was joking, he always did a good job of bringing up the glory days of the Brothers Four from time to time.

This explains what led me to create this embroidered t-shirt for him this year for Father's Day.

I felt that if the Brothers Four ever did have a reunion tour, they would have embroidered mementos like this. And I figure, if Dad ever wears this, people might ask him who the Brothers Four are, and he can continue the legend.
While stitching, I had a heck of a good time listening to these old folk songs, some by The Brothers Four, others by the Kingston Trio, the Limeliters and the New Christy Minstrels. If you've seen A Mighty Wind, you'll realize they got this genre spot-on after listening to these groups. They sang about Tijuana jails, quaint little taverns, sailing on the Sloop John B, what you'd find at the end of a rainbow, and how to say goodbye in Jamaica - sometimes in simple three-part harmony and instrumentation, or, like in the case of the New Christy Minstrels, in robust, hootenanny-like groups. They often prefaced the singing with spoken tales, and repeated the choruses enough times to induce sing-alongs.

After an hour or so of listening to this stuff, I was convinced that if a Brothers Four reunion tour existed, I very well may go.

See if you can pick out my dad in this clip: