One day in 1972, Valley’s rescue squad asked Casper Brown if he would sing a song at one of its fund-raisers. Some guys on the squad knew he dabbled in music. Besides there would be hamburgers and hot dogs.
So Casper said sure. But he said it wasn’t going to be a solo. He was going to bring James, Billy and Ford, his three brothers.
The four Brown brothers sang three songs that day. Their father, pastor of Welcome Home Baptist Church in their hometown of Roanoke, heard the near frictionless harmonies he’d helped them smooth as boys. “Y’all come to my church and sing those three songs for me,” he said.
They sang five.
A pianist and a guitarist were in the congregation that day. They came up to the brothers after the service was over.
“We hear y’all are starting a quartet,” they said.
Hmm … the brothers looked at one another. That might not be such a bad idea.
“And that was it,” said Casper, now 74. “We just knew then we had a ministry.”
The Brown Brothers Quartet was born.
But the Browns weren’t just four brothers in a quartet — at one time, not one or two but three of them were worship leaders at churches in East Liberty Baptist Association.
Casper spent 20 years telling people what page to turn to at West End Baptist Church, Valley, which he still attends.
Eldest brother James, 80, did the same at Plant City Baptist Church, Lanett (he’s now a member of First Baptist Church, Shawmut, in Valley), and the baby, Ford, 65, is still doing it at Calvary Baptist Church, Lanett.
“I got to thinking about it one night while driving down the road,” Casper said. “I doubt that there’s ever been three brothers leading worship in the same association at the same time.”
And Billy, 69, is an active member of First Baptist Church, LaFayette, in East Liberty Association.
In the ’70s, the quartet recorded albums on vinyl. In the ’80s, it moved on to cassettes. In the ’90s, it released a CD.
The brothers Brown were invited to perform in churches across the Southeast and are still praising the Lord through song, the way they were taught to. They do it seven or eight times a year.
“We actually played last night. It went fine,” Casper said.
That concert June 6 at Roper Heights Baptist Church, West Point, Ga., was the first one the group had performed entirely with an accompaniment track in its nearly 40-year history. It wasn’t much different from being backed by a band, James said. It did make it hard to gear up for an encore though.
“We couldn’t give them one right then,” he said. “But we did give an encore or two a cappella.”
Other than the modern equipment, not much has changed about singing in churches, James said.
“We’ve been sticking to the same songs the whole time,” he said. “We don’t ever get tired of singing. We just get in there and sing because we love it. None of us have really outstanding voices or anything.”
But when asked to name the best voice in the group, it doesn’t take him too long to name Ford.
“He’s the tenor singer,” James said. “Everybody likes the tenor singer the best.”
Casper, who calls his own mellow voice “overripe and almost rotten,” agreed.
“We change parts all the time,” he said. “Three of us sing a little baritone, a little bit of the lead, but Ford is the tenor singer. He can sing some good tenor.”
Then Casper laughed.
“Hey, you want to know why he can sing so high? First there was James; then we had a sister named Augusta; then there was me, Casper; then we had a sister, Vivian; then we had Billy. You see the pattern? Ford was supposed to have been a girl.”
To contact the Brown Brothers Quartet, call 334-756-7890.
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