Crying in the Rain: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives of the Everly Brothers

Ribowsky (Hank) rehashes the musical career and personal feuds of country-rock duo the Everly Brothers in this bloated biography. When their father, Ike, discovered that Don and Phil Everly could sing together with a “harmony that grew as they learned,” he put together a family band. Despite the brothers’ reluctance to team up (Don was the more insular and musically advanced of the two, while Phil resented being the “little shaver” to his older brother), they secured a record deal and released their debut album in 1960, distinguishing themselves with “delicate” harmonies that produced an almost ethereal sound (“I swear that there are times that what comes out is not either of us but the voice of a third person,” Don once said). Yet even as their careers took off, resentments festered—the brothers were polar opposites, “unable to stand each other” behind closed doors, and as the 1970s began both sank into drug addictions, exacerbating tensions until they called it quits in 1973. Ribowsky garnishes the meat-and-potatoes biographical details with florid prose that seems drawn from a rambling album review: “They hit some splendid low-string shuffles and made hard dramatic stops at the end of lyrical passages, driving home that something more interesting was happening that made the night as memorable as paradise by the dashboard light.” This falls short. (Apr.)