The Sprague Brothers

The Sprague Brothers should have made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, circa 1964. They would have broken huge, built up to an obscure but legendary 1967 appearance on the Smothers Brothers’ show, then disappeared.

Never mind that taking out this CD unveils a photo of Chris and Frank Sprague, real life Penn and Teller-lookalike brothers, looking for all the world like producers of those shows. Somehow, Forever and a Day works like a time machine, part bittersweet Everly Brothers harmonies (maybe a half-octave lower), part Buddy Holly break-up songs (they grew up in west Texas, after all), part early Beatles sweetness. The Spragues nail the guitar sound, the vocal quavers and growls, the tympanis, every aspect of that era. The funny but not tongue-in-cheek “Yum Yum (What Fun)” name-drops Nancy Sinatra, Shelly Fabares and Donna Reed, and the Spragues mean it in a nice way. The venomous “Deceiver,” on the other hand, sizzles with menace like a long-lost early Doors song, full of horrible wishes for a lover gone wrong. Now all they need is a variety show to keep them going. Someone page the Wayans brothers!