Customer Reviews

Bluegrass Melodies

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The Osborne Brothers plowed new fields back in the 1950s and '60s, helping create "progressive" bluegrass when they pepped up their sound and made it more accessible to pop audiences, even going so far as to include drums and amplification when it suited their needs. Nowadays, Bobby Osborne, the mandolin pickin' sibling, is one of the truegrass elders, sticking to a pretty straightforward, traditional sound... Fiddler Glen Duncan accompanies him on the entire album, as does Bobby Osborne, Jr., on guitar. This isn't really the kind of bluegrass album where you comment on blistering licks or sizzling, hot-shot solos -- everybody's just keeping pace with Bobby, and he's concentrating on the songs, not on blowing anyone off the stage... For an old-timer who's 75 years young, though, he's still an incredibly solid performer... It's not surprising that this album doesn't have much of the fireworks or dynamics of his classic recordings, but once you settle into the more restrained vibe, it's a very fine disc. Osborne's voice has a pretty full tonal range, and he holds his own the harmony numbers, particularly on Vince Gill's "Go Rest High On That Mountain," a marvelous gospel duet with Rhonda Vincent, which closes the album. Another gospel tune, an Osborne original called "Are You Afraid To Speak Our Savior's Name?" is also an album highlight -- like Ralph Stanley and many others before them, the religious tunes bring out a depth of feeling that's a delight to hear. All in all, fans shouldn't be disappointed, nor anyone else who's into hearing good, old songs sung with feeling and heart. (DJ Joe Sixpack)

Playing Time - 39:18 -- About a year after his "Try a Little Kindness" debut on the Rounder Records, Bobby Osborne's second release on that label further indicates that the 75-year-old pioneer's bluegrass is higher and lonesomer than ever. At age 18, Bobby first learned about being forlorn and alone when he started his career in 1949 with banjo player Larry Richardson, Charlie and Ray Cline in The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. Today, his soaring vocals still exude pathos in songs like an original "Color Me Lonely," Glen Duncan and Jerry Salley's "Under A Lonesome Moon," and Carter Stanley's "Lonesome River" that is given a slight interpretive twist to impart his own personalized stamp. When Bobby tenderly sings of suffering, we're immediately sympathetic. The "Music Makin' Man" also still incorporates plenty of country charm into his "Bluegrass Melodies."

While some of his mandolin breaks may not come off as cleanly nimble-fingered as in younger days, a special treat is his own instrumental "Lucky Lane Shuffle," a rag that recalls the influence of early southern music on the genre. Joining Osborne, his band The Rocky Top X-Press includes Dana Cupp (banjo), Daryl Mosley (bass), Bobby Osborne Jr. (rhythm guitar), and Matt Despain (Dobro). Rhonda Vincent's defining vocals appear in the poignant closer written by Vince Gill, "Go Rest High On That Mountain." Glen Duncan's superb fiddling (often twinned) appears on all twelve tracks, and he supercharges the interesting, varied and poised material in the well-balanced set.

Bobby Osborne's stability and perseverance are the epitome of bluegrass strength and equilibrium. While there are many varieties of bluegrass music, Bobby Osborne's cultivates all the elements of polished radio-friendly fare that is still full of sorrow, risk, joy and reverence. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

I've been a Bobby Osborne fan ever since I saw him perform in Harrodsburg, KY in 2005 and heard his piercing tenor cut through the air on that chilly summer evening. His voice on this record is stronger than ever and his vocal range really shines through on "Music Man". He is my favorite male bluegrass vocalist, but I don't think this record is nearly as strong as the old Osborne Brothers records. The musicality just isn't there. I think the vocals are superb but the song choices and the music isn't as strong. I've waited a while to get the title track, "Bluegrass Melodies" on CD but the cut is not nearly as good as seeing it performed in person and it doesn't have the magic as the live 1982 recording on the old album, "Bluegrass Spectacular". I really wish they would release that album on CD. It's got some really wonderful cuts. --- Bobby Osborne Jr. does not seem to be much of a guitarist and the fiddle playing by Glen Duncan is almost too refined for bluegrass. It sounds as if a classically trained violinist has decided to play bluegrass. I just don't like this CD as much as I thought I would. But, the more I listen the more it grows on me. "Under A Lonesome Moon" and "Lonesome River" have very interesting melodies and harmonies and the first track, "What Kind of Fool" is a good opener.