Customer Reviews

The Osborne Brothers - 1968-74

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was a little girl my grandparents listened to this tape all the time as I grew older I have tried to find a tape or cd with Shelly's Winter Love on it. I have found it here. I do a lot of reminicing. Thank You

The sticker price on this set may make you choke up a voice-box, but the truth is that this comprehensive set includes 8 albums worth of music, and it's all goooooood. I don't mean a little bit good, I mean REAL goooooood.

If you have to ask "who are the Osborne Brothers" this set is maybe not for you, but here's a bit of history. Sonny and Bobby Osborne grew up in Bluegrass country. When tenor singing, mandolin playing Bobby went off to the Korean war Sonny was hired as a teenager to play banjo with none other than the master tenor-singing mandolin player: Bill Monroe. When Bobby returned he and Sonny formed a partnership that has made them Bluegrass Royalty over the last 40 + years. The format of the band has changed little. There are a few devastatingly effective essential components of the OB sound: Bobby sings a wonderfully clear tenor with a Pavorotti-like range (who knows how many "high B's" he's sung since the late 60s with only their Zillion performances of their mega-hit "Rocky Top". Bobby also plays competent mandolin. Sonny sings the harmony part beneath Bobby and over these decades has played some of the most innovative (and always appropriate....) banjo ever heard. The vocals are always rounded out by a guitarist with a fine voice, and over the years that person has included legends like Mac Wiseman, Red Allen, Jimmy Martin then in later years sidemen of remarkable ability like Dale Sledd and Paul Brewster (currently singing that wonderful high harmony to Ricky Skaggs.)

Besides the required bass playing the Osborne's have experimented over the years with things like "plugged in" instruments and percussion. (Anathema to bluegrass purists.) Their recordings have been augmented with piano, steel guitar and fiddle.

All that being said: These recordings are Bluegrass History 101. Classics like Molly and Tenbrooks are mixed in with innovative tunes like "Fastest Grass Alive". Crowd favorites like "Ruby" are here too. You can read the cuts yourself, but it's worth noting that the albums represented are presented in chronologic order - it would be like putting 8 or 9 CDs on in a row.

Essential for the OB collector, but if there were no other place to acquire it - I'd have bought it just to get their wonderful recording of "Midnight Flyer".

My grandmother named me from this very song "Shelly's Winter Love". I have had it sang to me as I have grew up but had never really got to listen to it done by the Osborne Brothers. I am turning 16 next week (July 11th, 2000) and my grandmother passed away one month ago yesterday (June 5th, 2000) and I listen to this song to bring back the wonderful memories of her. Thank You !

I cannot think of any song by the Osborne Brothers that I do not have, either on LP or CD. That should qualify me as one of the group's greatest fans.

I am glad that I have finally purchased the two neatly packed and packaged box sets: 1956-1968 and 1968-1974. Each time I listen to the tracks on these CDs I thank God that in my lifetime I have been exposed to such harmony and meaningful handling of banjo, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, steel and piano.

I will always rate "Medals for Mother", recorded in 1968, as one of the best Bluegrass songs. It is one of the many tracks in which the Brothers display the skillful inclusion of piano in the Bluegrass genre. And, of course, on this one they feature the master, Hargus M "Pig" Robbins.

Strangely, with the group's 1969 rendition of "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" I do get teardrops flowing down my cheeks. On this one, it's the groups trademark and unique featuring of the steel guitar, played by Herald "Hal" Rugg, that allows the song to travel inside of us, appealing to certain emotions that release tears.

If you thought old recordings, especially those belonging to the seventees and earlier eras, are to be archived only as research material, listen to anything recoded by the Osborne Brothers.

Both Osborne Brothers 1956-1968 and Osborne Brothers 1968-1974 are a must for any traditional Country Music collecter.

A previous reviewer mentioned the relationship between Martin and the Brothers Osborne. Jimmy made them household names around Detroit, Dayton and Toledo in the early fifties. Their harmony was tighter than the bark on a beech tree. Martin wanted to stay in the tradition of his peers (Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanleys, etc) however. Bobby and Sonny soon felt stifiled creatively and wanted to experiment. Hence they split from Martin in the mid-fifties but not before picking up fellow Dayton-ite legend Red Allen. They took their act (and new direction) to Nashville where they quickly secured a contract with MGM. Those cuts can be heard on the 56-68 box set.

Chronologicaly speaking, if one were to listen to the Decca cuts the Osborne's did with Martin, then the MGM recordings with Allen one could hear the ideas that were forming. By the time the Brothers signed on with Decca/MCA in their own right, a new standard was being set. Had it not been for the guts of Bobby and Sonny to push the envelope of the traditional bluegrass sound we would likely have never had The Country Gentlemen, New Grass Revival or even the Seldom Scene. The Osbornes were decades ahead of their time. This box set is but a sample of their overall influence.

This second and final collection of the Brother's relationship with Decca/MCA opens with the boys, after securing a hit with ROCKY TOP, being able to record a couple of projects dear to their hearts. The first six titles were recorded to honor their mentors, Lester, Earl, and Monroe. The next group comprises the Favorite Hymns album. After these two, albeit great, diversions, they again resumed with their signature sound.

During this period, late 1968 through 1970, all the elements came together for what is, in this reviewer's opinion, the absolute peak of their achievements and the genre itself. The combination of the Brother's pickin' and singin' abilities, the music of the Nashville session players, and the production elements (studio, engineering, A&R), and RISK, was at levels never to seen again. (YES, there are great singers and players today, and YES, sound quality is far better today, and YES, there are far better songs today, but to have all the elements come together as it did here? NO--that won't happen again)

After this peak, the quality remained high throughout the collection, although toward the end, one senses a "tiring" of the big experiment with some titles. Changing times brought an end to the marriage between the Brothers and MCA, however it did not occur without some excitement. "Don't Let Smokey Mountain Smoke Get In Your Eyes" was climbing the charts when the relationship ended, but the single vanished from the airwaves (amazingly) when the contract ended.

In late 1974, the Osborne Brothers removed the pickups from their instruments, left the amps and drums at home, and went back to traveling as a 4-piece band. They would continue to record for another thirty years, but the marriage with "Nashville" and that racket was essentially over.

There is one black hole with this collection: Seven songs exist that have never been released (from 1972-1974). Unfortunately the world will likely never hear them as they are sitting on a SINGLE 32 year-old, 2-inch reel of tape at an undisclosed location (Hint: It's not a salt mine). Sadly, by the time someone desires to make these public, the music will probably be unretrievable.

If you look at the picture of the boys on the boxed set with their coal miner jackets on out on the farm, you can immediately get the proper feel for this collection: stone- cold, no b.s. country and bluegrass. This is the real thing. There has never been, or ever will be a better country singer than Bobby Osborne. Even at 70 years old, he could lay waste to these new fellows. And that banjo of Sonny's, absolutely masterful.


This boxed has plenty of bluegrass, but, also, this was their period of more commercial endeavours and this set is filled with some amazing pop- country that is similar to some other great artists produced in Nashville at the time (think Jim Reeves, Ray Price, even Loretta and Conway). The Osborne Brothers twang mixed with a "pop" feel is some of the finest country music ever made. I suggest "Georgia Pineywoods","Beneath Still Waters", "Cut The Cornbread", and "Beneath Still Waters", all full of lush orchestration to go along with that high lonesome tenor and thousand mile an hour banjo.


The Osborne Brothers are the genuine article. I hope that with the advent of satellite and internet radio that there becomes a new venue to hear the awesome, eternal sound of these fellows. I would urge any potential customers to buy this set now, don't worry about particulars. I know- I bought it about six years ago and it's the crown jewel of my cd collection. God Bless you Sonny and Bobby.

Not many people want to talk about the fact that earlr in their career the Osbornes were joined by no other then Mr.Bluegrass himself, Jimmy Martin. Back then they were known as Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Bros. I don't know if it's Jimmy's drinking and hell raising that a lot of artists don't want to give him his dues but I always knew he did a tremendous amoumt for Bluegrass! When you listen to Jimmy talk he is very fond of those early days with the Osbornes. Back to this box set: First I purchased the 56-68 set, liked it so much that I also got the 68-74 set from my wife for a Christmas present. As a former reviewer wrote" ther are no bad songs" and he is right. All this stuff is great from Ruby to Tennessee Hounddog you can't go work. Of course this is real Country Bluegrass and not for everyone. If you think that Country Music is watching some CMT video with a B-Girl Blonde showing her belly button and belting out some off the wall ,half baked Hillbilly modern lyrics then this set is NOT for you!
Enjoy! JFK