Heres a pop quiz question.  Can you finish this advertising slogan?  “Double your pleasure, double your fun, with . . .“  

If you came of age in the 1950s or ‘60s, you know exactly how that slogan goes—(we’ll get to that in a minute).  And I’ll bet you remember Chuck Berry.  How about Buddy Holly?  Roy Orbison?  Johnny Cash?  For sure, you know Elvis Presley.  No matter how old you are, if you like popular music, there’s been a time or two you’ve tapped your feet to old-time Rock ’n’ Roll.  It’s a genre that seems to be universally loved— especially for those of us old enough to remember duck-tail haircuts, cars with fins, and backyard bomb shelters.

So — let me introduce you to four Lampasas men who take pleasure and have fun performing the music of the Bobby Sox and Brylcreem era.  They call themselves The Elderly Brothers (more accurately, the Texas Elderly Brothers, because another group in New England goes by the same name.)   There are two reasons for the name: (1) all the men are old enough to have been AARP members for at least 10 years, and (2) they like to sing the close harmony music of Phil and Don, the original Everly Brothers.  The reason I know anything at all about these guys is that I’m in the group — in fact, at 72, I’m the eldest of the Elderlys.

Group members include Clark Corbin on bass, Trent Lancaster on guitar, Zane Lancaster, rhythm, and me, keyboard, harmonica, and guitar.  We all share the vocals.  For years now, Clark, Trent, and Zane have sung in an a cappella gospel group called The Hims of Praise and their ability to harmonize is key to The Elderly Brothers’ renditions of Everly classics like Bye Bye Love, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Devoted To You, and When Will I Be Loved.  I love that kind of music, but my personal vocal style is more in line with Elvis, Sam Cooke, and Jimmy Reed so you’ll hear that, too.

Trent and I are retired — he owned and operated the Western Auto store in Lampasas for 17 years, and then taught and coached 21 years in the Lampasas school system.  I operated Storm’s Restaurants for 42 years, until I sold them three years ago.  Clark works as a decorative welder in his business, Corbin’s Metal Crafts, in Lampasas.  Zane also has his own business, Lancaster Plumbing, also in Lampasas.  The Lancaster brothers and I are first cousins — in fact Trent and I started playing guitar together almost 60 years ago.  And of course he and Zane have been singing together all their lives.  The Lancasters and Clark invited me to join them a couple of years ago, and next thing we knew we were on stage in public.

So far we’ve performed mostly at local events like the Lometa Diamondback Jubilee — the largest area Rattlesnake Roundup.  We’ve played at meetings of various organizations, private parties, class reunions, local festivals, and this summer we were featured at two Little Night Music Concerts at the Lampasas Courtyard Square.    More recently we were the entertainment at the Ninth Annual Classics at the Classic Antique Car Show held at Storm’s Drive-In in Lampasas.   To contact us you can send an email to trent@texaselderlybrothers.com, or visit our website at texaselderlybrothers.com

Earlier I mentioned Brylcreem — for those of you too young to know, it was a popular hair dressing for guys — especially those cool cats who wore their hair in the style called "flattop with fenders”.  Brylcreem's motto was “A little dab will do ya.”  Well — maybe a little dab is enough so for that heavy duty hair dressing.  But for the old time Rock ’n’ Roll music I cut my teeth on back in the 1950s, I don’t want a “little dab.”   I still want more and more.   

One woman — who looked to be about my age — came up to me and said, “You know want I love about hearing y’all play?  That music makes me feel like a kid again.”   And remember that advertising jingle I asked you about?  (The answer was Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint Gum.)  Well — that slogan is inspiring.   The Elderly Brothers like to listen to that great music and we like to play it too — in other words, we double our pleasure and double our fun.  And here’s the kicker — we get to feel like kids again!