BOBBY OSBORNE

2008 Uncle Dave Macon Days Heritage Award Winner

The 2008 Uncle Dave Macon Days Heritage Award winner is a legendary giant in bluegrass music; Bobby Osborne continues to be on the cutting edge of the now enormously popular music form. His instantly recognizable, quality high lead and tenor voice and inventive mandolin stylings remain unsurpassed.

Beginning professionally while in his teens, Bobby joined The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, based in Beckley, West Virginia in 1950. In so doing, he became a member of a small and elite group – now called the ‘first generation’ – that created and shaped a highly respected genre of music that gradually acquired the name ‘bluegrass music’ in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Country DJ’s began to apply the name to any band using a five-string banjo played in ‘Scruggs style.’

In 1951 he recorded four songs with Jimmy Martin, released on two singles by King Records of Cincinnati, they were the first bluegrass recordings for the now-defunct label, whose vaults nevertheless contain some of the idioms most prolific and finest work.

Discharged from the Marine Corps in November 1953, he and his younger brother, banjo master Sonny Osborne, formed a partnership that was to endure for 51 years. Beginning on radio station WROL in Knoxville, Tennessee, on November 6, 1953, they moved to 50,000 watt WJR in Detroit the following August. Working in a partnership as Jimmy Martin and The Osborne Brothers, the group recorded six ‘sides’ for RCA Victor Records, on November 16,1954 a session that produced a top ten single in the country charts of the era.

Dissolving the partnership with Martin, The Osborne Brothers joined the influential show/broadcast, the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree. During their September1955 - November 1962, membership in the Jamboree cast, they recorded with Red Allen for MGM Records, beginning in 1956. In 1959, MGM released one of country music’s early LP’s in the 12” format, Country Pickin’ And Hillside Singin’ by The Osborne Brothers and Ed Allen. This monumentally important collection introduced the innovative high lead harmony concept in trio vocals The soaring quality of Bobby Osborne’s voice, along with the innumerable innovations the Osborne Brothers have been responsible for, make the group one of the most imitated and influential acts in the history of bluegrass.

They pioneered the “high-lead” vocal arrangement, which placed the melody in the highest voice and the tenor and baritone parts below it (as opposed to the tenor on top and the baritone below) that was immediately emulated by other groups and is predominant in bluegrass today.

On July 31, 1964, Bobby and Sonny, The Osborne Brothers, became members of The Grand Ole Opry. Recording for Decca Records (now MCA) for 13 years, the brothers recorded a string of country chart recordings that include Georgia Pineywoods, Midnight Flyer, Tennessee Hound Dog, Up This Hill And Down and their signature songs, Rocky Top and Ruby. Released on Christmas Day 1967, Rocky Top became a Tennessee state song on February 15, 1982. Their recording of Kentucky resulted in its becoming a official song of that state on March 17, 1992. The Osborne Brothers were the first bluegrass band to perform on a college campus (1960), and the first to play a concert at the White House (1973).

During one of bluegrass music’s preeminent careers that includes the CMA’s Vocal Group Of THE Year Award in 1971 and ten consecutive years as recipient of Music City News’ Bluegrass Band Of The Year Award, The Osborne Brothers in the years 1976 – 2004 recorded for three prominent independent record companies, CMH, Sugar Hill and Pinecastle. The duo was inducted in the MONROE BLUEGRASS HALL OF FAME and was accorded bluegrass music’s most prestigious recognition as the 1994 inductee to the IBMA HALL OF FAME.

In October 2004, Sonny entered retirement. The mandolin master continues with the same backup musicians as BOBBY OSBORNE & THE ROCKY TOP X-PRESS.

The Board of the Uncle Dave Macon Days is proud to recognize this formidable musician as the 2008 Heritage Award Winner. Each year the Board honors that individual who has spent a lifetime in the perpetuation and preservation of traditional, “roots” music.

Bobby Osborne has had a profound and widely felt impact on bluegrass as a vocalist, mandolinist, and bandleader for over five decades. His is truly one of the greatest, most distinctive voices in the history of the music. He is a proud member of bluegrass’s first generation – a group that includes Ralph Stanley and Jesse McReynolds – and today he is making music as strong as any in his storied legacy.