For My Sunday Song #170, we are choosing the song “Brother” by Needtobreathe as the final song in the 10 song Needtobreathe series.  This song is the one with Gavin DeGraw as guest vocalist and not the version on the album “Rivers in the Wasteland”.  Although I liked that version, I think having the duet added a lot to the song since it felt more like it matched the meaning of the song.  The song only reached #98 on the Billboard charts, but the Christian charts had it reaching #1.

The song came about due to the issues between two brothers.  Those brothers were Bear and Bo Rinehart.  Their friendly competition turned in to more of a blame game as times got difficult for the band as they struggled during the work on the album ‘Rivers in the Wasteland’.  They finally worked things out once they actually talked to each other confessed their own personal faults.  Once that was done, they realized how important it was to have a brother working with you and beside you rather than compete with you.  They turned that in to a beautiful song.

The song has a church feel and some choir-like backing vocals to help add to that effect.  Having Bear and Gavin do it as a duet it gave the song that back & forth that it needed to give it the effect of two brothers going at it and making amends to each other.  It gave the song more dimension and heart.  Their voices worked so well together and their tones blended nicely and gave the song the emotion it needed.

Having 4 brothers myself, I really got in to the song and every time I hear the song, I think about them. Give the song a listen and let me know what you think.  I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have a Happy Sunday!

“Brother”