If it worked for the late Stevie Ray Vaughan and his brother Jimmie, why not for Peter and Andrew Cash?

But unlike the one-off intentions the Vaughan Brothers had for 1990's Family Style (Stevie Ray's untimely death notwithstanding), the Cash Brothers have their eye on longevity.

"We're definitely learning how to work with each other," says Peter. "Andrew once said the music business isn't like a 100-metre run, it's more like a long-distance run. We hope to be doing this in 20 years time."

The Cash Brothers make their Ottawa debut Sunday night at the National Gallery of Canada as part of AlternaFest '99 and again next Friday at Barrymore's on an alt-country bill with the likes of Heartbreak Hill and Prairie Oyster's Russell deCarle and Keith Glass.

It's hard to believe with nearly two decades of work in Toronto's music scene between them -- Peter with Andy Maize, Josh Finlayson and assorted others in the Skydiggers, Andrew as a solo act and as a member of now-defunct bands L'etranger and Ursula -- the sibs haven't had the luxury of performing or cutting a record together.

"When I made the decision to leave the Skydiggers (three years ago), right around that time, a couple of the guys from Ursula were leaving. So the timing seemed to be right. Andrew wasn't doing anything and I was about to not do anything."

Even with Peter's departure from the 'Diggers and Andrew's career at a crossroads, the pair didn't necessarily dive into the pool without testing the waters first.

"For me, there's a big difference starting to work with other people after working in the same band for eight years," says Peter, whose old band will also be in the capital this weekend, playing at Lassitude '99 out at Capital City Speedway. "It took some getting used to even though Andrew was my brother.

"But he and I have had some amazing chats about how things are, how we are together and how we should be," says Peter, 35, two years younger than Andrew. "Just because we're in a band together doesn't mean that the relationship can't get better.

"So we just started writing, without any pressure from anybody to do anything. We went very slowly with it and ended up recording about 25 songs."

The final result is Raceway, which takes Andrew's rock-perfect tenor and alt-rock edginess from his Ursula days and mixes it with Peter's distinct three-chord max stately melodies and deep baritone he crafted in the 'Diggers.

Peter says the brothers' premiere at June's North by Northeast Festival in Toronto marked the first time he's re-established himself in front of an audience.

"I hadn't been out in the past few years and here I was running into people I hadn't seen in awhile," Peter says. "It was kinda nice. I'm always flattered that people are wondering what I've been up to."