Osborne Brothers

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The Osborne Brothers are a bluegrass band known for their musical innovation and close harmony singing. Robert "Bobby" Osborne was born December 7, 1931, followed by Roland "Sonny" Osborne on October 29, 1937

Contents

0.1 History
0.2 Osborne Brothers Band Members

1 Trivia
2 External links

History

The Osborne Brothers were one of the most innovative and popular bluegrass groups of the post-war era, taking the music into new directions and gaining a large audience. Among their most notable achievements are their pioneering, inventive use of amplification, twin harmony banjos, double-tracked vocals, steel guitars, and drums. They were the first bluegrass group to expand the genre's sonic palette in such a fashion.

Bobby and Sonny Osborne were born in Hyden, Kentucky, but raised in Dayton, Ohio. As children, their father instilled a love for traditional music. Bobby picked up the electric guitar as a teenager, playing in various local bands. A few years after, younger brother Sonny taught himself the five string banjo. In 1949, Bobby formed a duo with banjoist Larry Richardson. The pair were hired by a West Virginian radio station and stayed in the state for a while, eventually hooking up with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. During their stay with the Fiddlers, they helped change the group's sound to bluegrass and made four singles for Cozy Records. Bobby Osborne left the band in the summer of 1951, forming a band with Jimmy Martin that fell apart shortly after its inception. After making a one-shot single, "New Freedom Bell," with his siblings Louise and Sonny, he joined the Stanley Brothers for a short while before being drafted into the United States Marine Corps.

At the urging of Jimmy Martin, Sonny was hired in the early 1950s by Bill Monroe while only 13, and as a member of Monroe's Blue Grass Boys appeared on several sides for Decca Records. He also recorded all-instrumental covers of popular Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs songs for the budget label Gateway. After Bobby returned from the Marines, he and Sonny formed a band. Initially, they supported Jimmy Martin on his RCA sessions, while they had their own spot on a Knoxville radio station. In 1956, they broke with Martin and joined the Wheeling Jamboree; they would stay with the radio program for four years. In March of that year, Harley "Red" Allen joined the brothers. Four months after his arrival, they recorded their first session for MGM Records. It was on these recordings that the Osbornes introduced the "high lead" vocal style (a vocal trio centered around Bobby's lead vocal on top, with two harmony voices -- baritone and low tenor -- below) that would revolutionize bluegrass trios, Sonny evolved from a Scruggs clone to an irrepressibly innovative banjo stylist, and Bobby, himself fully capable of replicating Monroe, distinguished himself with a "fiddle-note" approach that has influenced three generations of mandolinists. They also brought drums, the electric bass, and material by Nashville’s leading songwriters to bluegrass.

For the next year, they toured and recorded, steadily gaining a large audience. In the spring of 1958, "Once More" became a No. 13 hit on the country charts. Its success helped push the band into the mainstream.

Shortly after the success of "Once More," Allen left the band, and the Osbornes filled his vacancy with a string of musicians and vocalists, including Johnny Dacus, Jimmy Brown, Benny Birchfield, and Dale Sledd.. The duo stayed with the Wheeling Jamboree and MGM Records into the early 1960s. The Osbornes became the first bluegrass act to play a college campus in 1960, when they played Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. That appearance ushered in a new era for bluegrass, creating a new, younger audience for the music.

The Osbornes left MGM in 1963, signing with Decca Records. On their mid-'60s records for Decca, the duo experimented more with their music, adding piano, steel guitar, double-tracked harmony vocals, and electric instruments to their music. Their adventurousness made them more accessible to a mass audience, as their string of late-'60s and early-'70s hit singles proves. Although their experimentation angered many bluegrass traditionalists, the Osbornes were the only bluegrass group to consistently have country hits during this time, even if all their singles were only minor hits. They were incucted as members of the Grand Ole Opry on August 8, 1964.

In 1975, the Osbornes left Decca but continued to play the Opry and bluegrass festivals across America. Later in the 1970s, the duo returned to a more traditional sound. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s they stuck to this sound, playing concerts and festivals frequently and recording albums for CMH, RCA, Sugar Hill, and Pinecastle, and In 1994 they were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.

In 2005 Sonny Osborne retired, owing to a shoulder injury, and Bobby continues to tour as Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top X-press.

In addition to “Rocky Top,” the brothers’ hit records include “Making Plans,” “Up This Hill and Down,” “Midnight Flyer,” “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Muddy Bottom,” “Tennessee Houndog,” “Georgia Pineywoods,” "Roll Muddy River," "The Kind of Woman I Got," and “Ruby (Are You Mad At Your Man).”

Osborne Brothers Band Members

Red Allen (acoustic guitar), Ray Anderson (bass), Benny Birchfield (guitar, banjo), Ronnie Blackwell (bass), Robert Bowlin (fiddle), Paul Brewster (guitar), Jimmy Brock (bass), Shawn Camp (fiddle), Jimmy Campbell (fiddle), Gordon Cash (acoustic guitar), Shad Cobb (fiddle), Donnie Collins (acoustic guitar), Ray Crisp (fiddle), David Crow (fiddle), Dana Cupp, Jr. (guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, dobro), Johnny Dacus (fiddle), Dennis Digby (bass), Glen Duncan (fiddle), Bill Edwards (bass), Boyce Edwards (fiddle), Terry Eldredge (bass, guitar), Tim Evans (bass), Harley Gabbard (guitar), Tim Graves (dobro), Enos Johnson (guitar), Ray Kirkland (bass), Jimmy Martin (guitar), Jimmy Mattingly (fiddle), Daryl Mosely (bass), Bobby Osborne, Jr. (guitar), Robby Osborne (guitar, bass, drums), Wynn Osborne (banjo), Ronnie Reno (guitar, bass), Ricky Russell (dobro), John Slagle aka "Jimmy Brown" (guitar), Dale Sledd (guitar), Terry Smith (bass), Buddy Spicher (fiddle), Blaine Sprouse (fiddle), Joe Stuart (fiddle), Steve Thomas (fiddle), L. E. White (dobro), Gene Wooten (dobro).

Trivia

The Osborne Brothers' 1968 hit single, "Rocky Top", written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, was adopted as an official song of the State of Tennessee on February 15, 1982, by Chapter 545 of the Public Acts of 1982. And the Osbornes haven’t limited themselves to just one state song, their recording of “Kentucky” has been named an official song of their home state.

External links

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