However, these songs were more than fodder for the pop charts. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young and Paul Simon are among the musical luminaries that cite the Everly Brothers’ distinctive blood harmonies and vocal interplay as major influences.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The first stage of the Everly Brothers’ career lasted until 1973, when Don and Phil split acrimoniously. They realized the folly of their ways and returned to performing together again in 1983. The combative brothers managed to keep it together for more than 20 years before finally ending the creative partnership in 2005.
Dylan Zmed was home in Tennessee when he recently discussed his own sibling project, the Everly Brothers Experience, which started in 2016. He and older brother, Zachary, are the sons of actor Adrian Zmed, who starred opposite William Shatner on the television series, “TJ Hooker,” and Michelle Pfeiffer in the film, “Grease 2.”
Q: How did you and Zachary discover the Everly Brothers?
A: Our father did a lot of film and television and stuff. When we were little kids, he did the musical ‘Grease’ on Broadway. He also did national tours of it as well. That’s set in the late 1950s and they would play all music of that rock ‘n’ roll era over the loudspeaker. We’d be with him backstage so that was the first music we really heard. We were in this weird time capsule where we were raised on ‘50s music like Little Richard, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers. We were hearing so many amazing acts as little kids. We were raised on it.
Q: How did you go from listeners to performing the songs of Don and Phil Everly?
A: Later on, when my brother and I got into singing together and writing music together, we wanted to learn some music that helped us feature our harmonies. We enjoyed singing harmonies together and it was an obvious thing to learn Everly Brothers songs because we grew up hearing them and the blood harmonies are so sweet. People kept saying, ‘That song is so beautiful. Who did that? Was that the Righteous Brothers?’ We realized people really don’t know about the Everly Brothers like they do Elvis, Buddy Holly or other people from that era. There’s some strange void. They know the big hits but not their story. We were the same, but we were playing their music, so we wanted to learn more. We got into their story and it evolved from there. Studying the Everly Brothers music has been the biggest education in our lives as musicians and brothers.
Q: What was it like when you first started singing these amazing harmonies together?
A: My brother is the older brother by four years and naturally has a bit lower of a voice. My voice is a bit higher, so we just naturally had a similar set of vocal cords. When you grow up together, speaking kind of the same way and hearing the same inflections from each other, there’s a certain tacet, unspoken understanding of how to sing something or how we finish a line. We had somewhat of a natural proclivity because we are brothers, we do sing together, and we have similar vocal timbres as the Everlys but this education has been quite the journey. Their singing in almost like classical music because of how articulate these little dips and slides are they do with their voices, the type of vibrato they do and when they do it. There are so many little nuances that are so exciting when you really pay attention to them.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Q: How has the audience response been?
A: It’s been amazing because their music is so deep and meaningful for so many people. It reminds them of their first dance, their first kiss. From that time period, Elvis obviously set a big precedent, but I think parents were a little more willing to let their kids listen to Don and Phil because they were like the good boys next door but still paying rock ‘n’ roll. It got into people’s lives in a little bit of a different way than Elvis’ music did but it’s so meaningful to be able to celebrate their music with people who grew up with it.
Q: What has surprised you most about this journey?
A: We’re surprised it has lasted as long as it has and that there is still such a demand for the music. People want to hear these songs, so we’ll be there as long as people want to hear it. We’ve also made these wonderful connections with certain communities where the Everlys spent their formative years. What has been surprisingly wonderful is how much we’ve learned about roots music over the years, like early country, bluegrass, rhythm & blues, gospel and stuff. That musical education has changed our lives and our approach to music and writing. We write our own music. We perform as the Zmed Brothers and that’s what we’ve been pursuing for so long. We put that on the backburner a little bit to give ourselves fully to this show. It’s been a lot of fun.
Q: How would you describe the Everly Brothers Experience to the uninitiated?
A: We don’t impersonate them at all. That’s not our approach. It’s not what we’d be comfortable doing. It’s us as ourselves. We talk about their whole career on a timeline and why we love the music so much. It’s a fun show and it has been really wonderful performing this music. It’s definitely more than we ever thought it would be.
The Miami Valley Community Concert Association’s 2023-2024 season continues with Springboro Wind Symphony on March 12 and the Chi-Town Transit Authority on May 20.
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or donthrasher100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
Who: Miami Valley Community Concert Association presents the Everly Brothers Experience featuring the Zmed Brothers
Where: Centerville Performing Arts Center, 500 E. Franklin St., Centerville
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26; doors open at 7 p.m.
Cost: $40
More info: www.mvcconcert.org
Artist info: theeverlybrothersexperience.com
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