A Season of the Heart, Spring 1997

The spring of 1997 was a life altering, life-defining moment for me. The season began on my 50th birthday that I celebrated with two concerts the following two Saturdays. The first one in Seattle included every group I’d ever sung with beginning in high school. The second was a sold out “homecoming” concert in Spokane where I was the opening act and, as a member of The Brothers Four, one of the headliners.

McCoy was a big part of the first concert and joined me for a couple of songs for the opening act in Spokane. Our wives were there. It was the first time Coy’s wife, Connie, had seen The Brothers Four perform. We also celebrated Easter with my parents that weekend. What no one knew during that time of celebration was that in less than seven weeks my father would suffer a heart attack and two weeks after that he would be dead. McCoy would be there in the family section at the memorial.

That season also included a gathering of my two brothers and me a few days before our dad’s heart attack. It was the first time in years that just the three of has had been together. The day after my dad’s memorial Pat’s daughters joined her and me on a Brothers Four Alaska cruise. The original plan was my folks to be there with us. The season continued with a return to Spokane to begin going through my father’s things and ended with The Brothers Four on a plane headed for Japan.

A year later I would chronicle that time by introducing over 40 new songs in what I called a musical memoir that I titled “A Season of the Heart.”

"One Love and Two Lives" is a song I wrote for my parents and introduced at the concert in Spokane. I sang it nine weeks later at my dad's memorial. "Nineteen Sixty-Eight" was introduced at the Seattle concert. McCoy and I introduced "By Love and By You" at the Spokane concert. 

McCoy and I will be celebrating 50 years of friendship and music. If you would like to join us please go to Brown Paper Tickets. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2055269