Brother Duos In Early Country Music: A Poll

aside the Louvin Bros, my favorite close harmony duo of slightly more recent vintage is probably the Lily Brothers.
Maybe I should have put the Allen Bros on the poll as well.

I WOULD HAVE SEX WITH ALL THIS WHITE BOYS.

i'm really hoping this becomes the least successful poll in ilm history.

Sorry. Blue Sky Boys for me.

Where are The Callahan Brothers? For shame! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z04aEM0cwE4

I also voted for the blue sky boys.
I don't think I know the callahan brothers! off to google.

i only know the first four (tho it's possible i have tracks by the others on assorted compilations). gotta go with the stanleys, even though the delmores and blue sky boys are both great. (monroe brothers are good but seem more like a prologue, inevitably.) i grew up in a non-christian family, but we used to put on the stanley brothers sometimes on sunday mornings, which is the closest i ever came to feeling like i understood something about the religion. i think "rank strangers" is one of the deepest, darkest songs i know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vtOd_d40o

(i also have a standing request for "angel band" at my funeral...)

(i guess jim and jesse are also slightly past this era? not by much though.)

The Stanleys just for The Girl Behind the Bar

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Louvins 4EVA!!!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Would've jumped at voting for Allen Bros if they'd been a choice (1926-39 post-minstrel white country blues being one of the musical high-water marks of the century -- Callahan Bros and Anglin Bros also pretty awesome in that department, judging from songs I've heard), but I decided to sit things out.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2v3lqau.jpg

I'm just starting to listen to this album from 1965, and I'm pretty blown away by the quality of it. after a ten year hiatus, they released four LP's of new material in the '60s and '70s, and this one is unique in that none of the songs are ones that they'd previously recorded. their performances are as good as or better than those from 20 to 30 years previously — their harmonies sound even sweeter in high fidelity sound, and Bill's humbly virtuosic mandolin playing comes closer than ever to approximating the sound of a third voice. I don't mind that they show zero artistic development here, because the one time they updated their sound (by adding a fiddle to the mix on their post-WWII records), it seemed like an unwelcome intrusion and a compromise of their vision. the sound here is simple and pure and true to their roots, just as it should be.

If this was a new poll, I'd definitely go with the Delmores now.

another one of the Blue Sky Boys' releases is a collection of early radio performances, complete with some unfunny vaudevillian comedy skits, in which Bill plays the wisecracking old hillbilly Uncle Josh. the cornball aspect of their live shows and radio spots doesn't come across on their records, but the same can be said of the Louvin Brothers, who also dabbled in the Hee Haw brand of comedy. Earl even performed in blackface sometimes, which is an unpleasant thought. there's a fascinating, longish interview with the Boys here.

If this was a new poll, I'd definitely go with the Delmores now.

I love the Delmores, and I'm impressed with how good they were at keeping up with the times. their transition from an acoustic string band to an electrified country boogie act seems completely natural and convincing when you listen to some of their records in sequence, and I'm sure they did as much as anyone to bridge the gap between old-time music and honky-tonk (& rockabilly, even).

maybe they weren't the most original act, but the Armstrong Twins had a hard-driving, bluegrassy boogie style similar to the Delmore Brothers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcX7qKsVjRk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhXEmTpwPUg

I wonder if they're the last surviving pre-'50s country brother duo?