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The Osborne Brothers are a bluegrass band known for their innovation and close harmony singing.
Born in the coal mining region of southeastern Kentucky they were naturals singing "Nine Pound Hammer," and "The Knoxville Girl" and other mining songs and folk ballads of the Appalachian Mountains.
Because of a six-year age difference they didn't start out singing together - Bobby with the distinctive and unequalled natural high lead voice playing guitar and younger brother Sonny's rich baritone.
Sonny at age 13, one of the alumni of the Bill Monroe "school of bluegrass" recorded with the Bluegrass Boys on Decca and had several recordings of his own on the Gateway label before becoming a duo with his brother in 1953 following Bobby's discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps.
Their recording debut was with MGA in 1956 and these recordings are considered to still rank among the all-time classic examples of Osborne Brother style. It was on these recording that they changed the customary arrangement of trio harmony parts to create a new and completely unique sound. The MGM releases of the late fifties clearly marked them as an important group in country music.
In 1963 they signed with Decca (now MCA) and became members of the Grand Ole Opry on August 8 1964.
These Decca recordings established the successful practice of featuring the Osborne "big voice" sound while giving greatly increased prominence to the instrumental wizardry of the duo. Sonny and his five-string banjo and Bobby with his mandolin. These records feature Sonny's intricate work on the banjo, often in a radically different "single string" fashion while still bringing out the pulsating drive for which the instrument is justly famous.
Bobby's individualistic mandolin style has been described as "bluegrass jazz" and he often delights his audience by laying down his mandolin and demonstrating that he is an expert "hoedown" fiddler.
In addition to "Rocky Top," the Orange and White battle song for UT athletic teams, their hit records include "Making Plans," "Up This Hill and Down," "Midnight Flyer," "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Muddy Bottom," "Tennessee Houndog," "Georgia Pineywoods," "Kentucky," and "Ruby."
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