Who was Brother Dave Gardner?

David Gardner (June 11, 1926 – September 22, 1983), known as Brother Dave Gardner, was an American comedian, professional drummer and singer. A Tennessee native, Gardner studied drumming, beginning at age 13. After a one-semester term as a Southern Baptist ministerial student at Union University in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee, he began a musical career as a drummer and occasional vocalist.

It was his comedic routines between songs, however, that brought him to the attention of RCA Records artist and producer Chet Atkins. The eventual result was a comedy album interspersed with a couple of songs – "Rejoice, Dear Hearts!" (1959), which propelled Brother Dave into the national eye, along with the first of several appearances on national television talk/variety shows.

During his brief time as a star among America's socially-aware stand-up comedians of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Brother Dave successfully fused a stream-of-consciousness style of addressing subjects with a classic Southern storyteller manner, setting himself apart from Northern Jewish contemporaries.

After his popularity declined in the late 1960s, newspapers noted that he turned to drugs and alcohol, and began having health problems. In 1983, he had a heart attack. He died that night at about 9 p.m.