What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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8 WHAT'S UP! NOVEMBER 10-16, 2019 FYI More Music Coming The 50-year celebra- tion is sponsored by Cosmic Cowboy Records and George's Majestic Lounge. Ben Meade, owner and founder of Cosmic Cowboy Studio in Fayetteville, started out as a fan and now is commemorating Ernie and Earl's career with the concert, a documen- tary film on their lives coming in January and by re-releasing The Cate Brothers' back catalog through his studio. Several records, includ- ing the brothers' first, "Wanted," are already available at cosmic cowboystudio.com. The rest will drop after the documentary premieres, and all will eventually land on Amazon and streaming services. FAQ The Cate Brothers: 'Over 50 Years of Rock and Soul' WHEN — 7 p.m. Nov. 16 WHERE — George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville COST — Sold out INFO — georgesmajestic lounge.com BONUS — The Nace Brothers will also perform. FYI — The Cate Brothers will play George's Happy Hour on Dec. 27. FEATURE The Cate Brothers Celebrating more than 50 years of music JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette E rnie and Earl Cate are notoriously difficult to get any lengthy answers from in an interview, much less a full-on chatty dialogue. That's why our heads are still reeling that the famous twin brothers sat down with What's Up! for an honest-to-God interview looking back on more than five decades of making music together. Earl, in his signature black top and flat cap, and Ernie, ever so slightly more reserved than his barely-older brother, sit back pensively at the prospect of speaking to a lifetime of memories. But once we're in to the music and Dickson Street, specifically George's, the pair both brighten, and the stories seem to flow easier. Neither one thinks too much of the notion of fame. Literally — they don't think about it, and they modestly reveal they wouldn't call their history in Arkansas music a legacy. "We never think about it that way. It's just been a lot of years of playing, and we enjoyed it. We still enjoy it," Ernie says pragmatically. Nevertheless, The Cate Brothers still sell out when they do take the stage together, and Northwest Arkansas still enjoys bragging rights — not only were the twins born here, but they've always called the area home. "We got tired of the big city," Earl says of what kept them coming back to the Ozarks after the worldwide travel started. "I wouldn't want to live in L.A., that's for sure. We did do our albums out there and things, but it's always best to be home. And you have your family, too, that you gotta be with and want to be with." "It's home," Ernie agrees. Earl still performs regularly with his group Earl and Them — which also continues to draw consistent and loyal crowds — but The Cate Brothers only perform a few select dates a year anymore. Those gigs are often at their musical home venue, George's Majestic Lounge, and that's where the pair will celebrate "Over 50 Years of Rock and Soul," the show's on-the-nose title, Nov. 16. Of course, the performance is sold out. Farm To Stage Ernie and Earl grew up on a farm in Sonora, east of Springdale, with horses, cattle, guitars and banjos. Their father, having dreamed of being a musician, acquired instruments here and there, and the brothers used whatever they had around the house to teach themselves to play. "We'd go to the neighbors' that were players," Earl reflects. "Back then, [we] didn't have a TV, so that was your entertainment on a Saturday night or something, go to the neighbors' and they would play and we watched them and just picked it up gradually." Being teenagers in the later 1950s wasn't a bad time to come to music, either — although the brothers, like most Northwest Arkansas musicians at the File photo/AMELIA PHILLIPS Ernie (left) and Earl Cate celebrate more than 50 years of performing together with a sold-out concert Nov. 16 at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville — admittedly the brothers' favorite place to play. The Cate Brothers Band