Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Add Date: February 19 

Artist: Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 

Album: What the Brothers Sang 

Label: Drag City 

Genre: Folk rock, pop 

Comments: Drag City artists Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Dawn McCarthy team up to tackle the songs of one of the best and most important singing duos in pop history on What the Brothers Sang, a collection of Everly Brothers tunes. The A.V. Club introduced its review with the subheading "Two alt-folk crooners cover songs that The Everly Brothers covered first"; while this is mostly true--only four of these 13 tracks were written by Don Everly, and most of their tunes were indeed penned by other songwriters--that was standard fare for pop music in the '50s and '60s. (Heck, look at the credits for Please Please Me, as the most famed duo in pop songwriting history barely wrote half the songs on that record.)

What The Everly Brothers did so successfully was, as AllMusic puts it, to "set unmatched standards for close, two-part harmonies and [to infuse] early rock and roll with some of the best elements of country and pop music." While What the Brothers Sang surely won't have that kind of impact, McCarthy and Oldham quite successfully replicate the harmony singing of Don and Phil. And by going into the studio with a host of talented musicians, they've created a gorgeous collection of tunes that pays homage to the Everlys.

Start with tracks 1, 8, 4, 11 and 12.