"Brothers" is the debut single by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Dean Brody

Dean Brody

Dean Brody is a Canadian country music artist. Signed to Broken Bow Records in 2008, Brody made his debut later that year with the single "Brothers"...

. The song peaked in the Top 10 of the Radio & Records

Radio & Records

Radio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...

Country Singles chart in Canada and #76 on the Canadian Hot 100

Canadian Hot 100

The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...

. It also reached the Top 30 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

chart in the United States.

Content

"Brothers" is a mid-tempo ballad describing the relationship between the narrator and his brother, who is about to go to war. In the first verse, the narrator is reluctant to let his brother leave, offering to do anything that will keep him home. The narrator's brother reassures him by saying "This is what brothers are for". In the second verse, the narrator says that out of all his heroes, his brother is his main. The two of them interact through letters in the second verse, with the narrator telling his brother how much he misses him. Finally, in the third verse, the narrator's brother comes back home, but uses a wheelchair after being injured in the war. As they hug, the brother apologizes to the narrator for having to be pushed home, but the narrator simply replies, "This is what brothers are for."

Reception

Jim Malec of The 9513 gave the song a thumbs-up rating, saying "'Brothers' veers widely from the standard radio formula in one very significant way—for a song that so pointedly references the times in which we live, it isn’t particularly uplifting, nor does it resolve into a sound byte-worthy declaration of hopefulness." Roughstock critic Matt Bjorke described the song as "a well-written story song by any measure", adding that it was "heartening to see such a song score with radio." He added that his original review, written in October 2008, was negative in nature because at the time, he did not understand the song's context.

Chart positions

Chart (2008–2009)	Peak position
Canadian Hot 100	76
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	26