By Eliot Wilder / From the Everlys to the Wilsons to the Davies, popular music has long had its share of brother bands: blood-sharing and, quite often, blood-spilling outfits built upon a special chemistry. Add to that lofty pantheon the Cash Brothers, whose Rounder debut "How Was Tomorrow," an album of shimmering West Coast pop mixed with Dust Bowl grit, is as rich with heredity as it is with harmony.

Many of these not-always-so-brotherly broods grew up singing around the house, music being the common adhesive that bonded them together. It's a little surprising then that Toronto-based Andrew and Peter Cash only recently combined their voices and songwriting talents. "When we were growing up, I was into playing music and Peter wasn't, says Andrew, 39. "He didn't get into it until he was in his late teens. At that point - we're about 20 months apart in age - we weren't hanging out together. I was already in a band, and then got into one of his own."

Peter, who clearly respects and even reveres his elder sibling ("I went to see Andrew's early bands and was blown away by the songs he was writing"), says he found his passion for music in large part because of Andrew. "I had just moved out of my parents' house in Toronto where Andrew was living. He moved out shortly after that, but he left a guitar there. He didn't say, 'Here's a guitar - learn how to play it and we'll meet up 15 years later.' But if he hadn't left it there, who knows what would've happened."

Thankfully, what did happen is that the two found exactly what they had been looking for musically. "About three years ago Peter left the Skydiggers, the band he was the main songwriter for," Andrew says. "At the time the band I was in had just split up - so for the first time we both found ourselves free. We thought we owed it to ourselves to play together and see where it went." Was it difficult at first to achieve a harmonic convergence with each other? "I'd been out of music for awhile," Peter says. "It took a little work to get back into shape. But Andrew's good at directing traffic when it comes to arranging who sings what. In previous bands, it was kind of a free-for-all. But with Andrew, we've taken a bit more time, and he instructs me as to the parts we should be singing."

Andrew's instructions must be doing the trick, because the Cash Brothers are nothing if not the sound of two voices blended uniquely as one. Don and Phil, Brian and Carl, and, especially, honorary brothers John and Paul - take one away and you have something that to a great extent is somehow lesser. Andrew and Peter are not unaware of this. "It's one of those things that takes on a life of its own," says Andrew of the duo's inimitable vocal blend. "There are songs on the record like 'I Am Waiting' when I can't tell who singing what. We slip into unison, and we go into harmony, and then we go back into unison. It really doesn't follow the rules of harmony correctness. But we're looking to find an atmosphere and a vibe - as well as hopefully hitting the right notes."

Peter concurs that it's often tough for him to distinguish between their two voices. "That's a good thing, I think. It's like with Simon and Garfunkel - the way they blend, that's something we'd like to emulate." Adds Andrew: "A song like 'You've got a Lot of Nerve,' Peter is singing the lead vocal, but your attention can be taken to the harmony, and that's OK. The guy who mixed the song was wondering about that. He wanted to put the vocals in a more traditional place, and sometimes we do that on the album. But I like to hear it with the harmonies and leads more even. In the end, we just wanted it to sound right, and if we're singing the same bloody note, who cares?"

They both agree that as much as it is the singer, it is also the song - and when the song is about a lonely guy sitting around listening to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska," a sole vocal is what the tune dictates. Andrew says, "We decided that it [the track] is about someone being alone, and in order to get that vibe it didn't work to have us both singing."

Speaking of the Boss, Peter admits that "the biggest influence for me has been Springsteen. For both Andrew and me, 'Nebraska' was an inspirational record, because it's a story-telling record. Generally, we like to write about what we know. I'm not good at writing about things that I'm not sure of. I'm good at writing songs about being isolated, feeling lonely and being on the road - stuff that comes from experience."

But again, whatever the subject matter, or whatever way they go about bringing to life, the emphasis with the Cash Brothers is on harmony, both figuratively and literally. "We worked hard to make 'How Was Tomorrow' sound cohesive," Andrew says, "like it's one record instead of two."

"We respect each other and there's definitely no rivalry," Peter says. "It's taken a little while to get used to working together like this, and we're human so we disagree with each other at times. But usually the disagreements turn into something positive. We realize that we're going to be doing this for a while, so we work toward being happy together."

Not just for the sake of familial harmony, Andrew adds, "I've sung with lots of other musicians - really good ones - but it has never sounded like this."

From Miles of Music magazine