Cross-Country Concert – The Brothers Four

The group's second live album in less than a year is different from In Person, being less formal in nature (including a topical reference or two to Rocky & Bullwinkle). Recorded at concerts on several difference campuses throughout the United States, Cross-Country Concert captures the group in a generally lighter mood than In Person, doing less substantial but equally attractive fare. "Wish I Was in Bowling Green," "Brady, Brady, Brady," and "The New 'Frankie and Johnny' Song" could hardly be mistaken for serious songs, but they are done in rousing fashion. They work in one Shel Silverstein song, "Boa Constrictor," which is as far out as this group ever got -- most of the rest of the record, however, is more along the lines of "Winken, Blinken and Nod," which is sung in an achingly delicate manner. Their introduction to Lord Burgess' "Island in the Sun" seems a little incongruous, but it's difficult to argue that their harmonizing on the song isn't gorgeous. Moreover, the group has a certain degree of fun at the expense of the folk revival on "A Symphonic Variation," and also works in a nasty topical joke aimed at the John Birch Society and a topical comment about racial strife in the South (which amazingly made it onto the finished record), explaining that their concert is being recorded as well as broadcast "to our armed forces -- in Mississippi." In all, this is the perfect, more immediate companion to In Person, and in 1999 they were finally combined onto the same CD. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide