Concert goers were treated to a musical rock and roll history lesson during The Everly Brothers Experience, featuring The Zmed Brothers and The Bird Dogs Band.
The September 27 concert was the kick off event for the 2018-2019 Swift Current Arts Council’s Stars for Saskatchewan series.
The evening mixed nearly 30 Everly Brothers hits, along with a verbal history of the achievements of the influential musical duo during a memorable career which peaked between 1957 to 1962.
The show was headlined by Dylan and Zachary Zmed, who were making first tour of Saskatchewan. The Zmed brothers wanted to highlight the often overlooked influence of The Everly Brothers.
“This show is our love letter to Don and Phil (Everly),” Zachary Zmed said early in last Thursday’s two hour show.
Dylan and Zachary Zmed teamed up with drummer Burleigh Drummond back in early 2016 and began to develop The Everly Brothers Experience in homage to an often overlooked piece of rock and roll’s early history.
During the six year period between 1957 to 1962, the Everly Brothers produced 35 Billboard top 100 singles, and sold more than 35 million records. The show was not only a musical walk down memory lane, the evening shared glimpses into the ups and downs the Everly’s experienced during their career.
The show highlighted the importance of the husband and wife songwriting duo of Felice and Boudreaux Bryant who wrote a string of successful songs recorded by The Everly Brothers, including Bird Dog, Devoted To You, Rocky Top (which became the state song for Tennessee), Take A Message To Marry, plus Love Hurts, All I Have to Do Is Dream, and Bye Bye Love. The Everly’s recorded a total of 30 songs written by the Bryant’s, but the couple had over 1,500 of their songs recorded during an extensive song writing career.
The Everly Brothers Experience shared those Bryant hits, along with songs written by Gene Vincent (Be Bop A-Lula), Little Richard (Keep A Knockin’ and Lucille), Buddy Holly (Not Fade Away) and Paul McCartney (On The Wings of a Nightingale).
The Zmed Brothers were backed by the talented The Bird Dogs Band featuring guitarist Adam Cotton, bass player Bertrand Velly, and drummer and Everly Brothers Experience co-founder Burleigh Drummond Jr.
And while the performance was not an impersonation of The Everly Brothers, the show successfully portrayed a tribute to the rock and roll pioneers.
