The Everly Brothersaka Don and Phil to fans with an intimate appreciation for themseemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomer during the blandly regimented 50s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. The two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly but comfortably settled as sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural turf.

Magnificent as the duo was, they have until now never received a definitive biography. In Long Time Gone: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives Of the Everly Brothers, the details, small and great, roll along on the mighty Mississipp, in near novel-like fashion, revealing facts drawn from exhaustive research and first-hand interviews that trace the character and influences of these hardy but flawed men who grew from teenagers to old men before our eyes. Mark Ribowskys authoritative book serves as a fitting companion to an unforgettable collection of songsheard on countless albums, and covered literally thousands of timeswhose recording was a long time gone but that will never to be forgotten.