Brother

Brothers Angus, Fergus, and Hamish Richardson spent their childhood in Bathurst, Australia, where music constantly filled the household through both live practice and spinning records. They gravitated toward rock instruments alongside traditional ones, with Hamish taking up the didgeridoo and guitar, Fergus handling guitar, Angus on bass, and all three mastering the bagpipes. After launching the band Brother in the early 1990s, the trio founded their own label, crisscrossed the globe on tour, and earned the nickname "Jimi Hendrix with bagpipes" from Buzz Weekly. Their unconventional live presentation, featuring leather kilts and occasional nail polish, drew further notice. Refining their technique, the Richardsons headed to Sydney to play pubs across the city.

In 1992 Brother launched the Rhubarb Records imprint and self-produced the cassette-only debut Black and White, which they sold while supporting guitarist Joe Walsh on a 1993 tour. That record highlighted the group’s emerging world-pop approach. By 1994 they returned to their traditional roots with the follow-up Pipe Dreams, capturing the folk material once performed in Australian pubs. The 1995 album Exit from Screechville blended those elements with pop sensibilities; its reworking of the folk song “An Daorach Bheag” caught the ear of Baraka’s filmmakers, who placed the track in the motion picture.

Subsequent releases continued the group’s sonic evolution, yielding Black Stone Tramp in 1996, The Digging Bone in 1997, and Your Backyard in 1998. Fergus then departed to focus on filmmaking. The remaining members shifted toward groove-driven material and shared stages with Bur and Dalbo. Capturing their high-energy performances, Brother recorded a April 7, 2000 show at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, California, featuring “thetimeisnow” from The Digging Bone, “The Crow” from Pipe Dreams, and “Blackest of Blue” from Black Stone Tramp; the resulting album This Way Up appeared that June.

March 2001 brought the long-planned tour behind This Way Up, beginning in the Midwest and extending to California. At the end of May the itinerary included a slot at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Linkin Park and Alicia Keys. During the same run Brother also appeared at Milwaukee’s Summerfest, drawing larger crowds than any headliner.