Bobby Osborne "Bluegrass & Beyond" (Rounder)

Bobby Osborne hasn’t found the brake pedal yet, and the bluegrass world is fortunate he just keeps rolling along — in pretty high gear.

Our fortunes are about to multiply with the release at month’s end of Bluegrass & Beyond, his new CD on the Rounder Records label. This is a magnificent piece of work by one of bluegrass music’s front-line pioneers, who performed for years with his banjo-picking brother Sonny as the Osborne Brothers. When Sonny retired from the business a few years ago, Bobby vowed to continue on with his lifetime career.

“I guess I’m lucky, because I still like to sing,” he told BluegrassJournal.com in an e-mail several months ago. And, during an early winter concert in central Illinois, Osborne received a standing ovation when he told the audience he was going to keep traveling and performing as long as he could. Retirement, he noted, is something best not tried if you truly love what you’re doing.

We, too, are lucky that Bobby Osborne is still doing what he likes to do — and has done for well beyond half a century.

The years and miles he’s accumulated do not show through on Bluegrass & Beyond, which also features his band, The Rocky Top X-Press. True, we hear that same knife-edged, high-lonesome voice cutting through anything you want to pile up in the mix. But these songs are performed with a fresh gusto you might expect from a young band’s first outing in the recording studio. And, Bluegrass & Beyond is a far cry from the three-chord traditional offerings you might come to expect in a modern release from a first-generation bluegrasser.

Osborne gives the Eagle’s “Girl From Yesterday” a spin and slams into high bluegrass gear with the Eddie Rabbitt hit, “Drivin’ My Life Away.”

Husband and wife, Marty Stuart and Connie Smith, pitch in for a stirring rendition of “What Would You Give In Exchange for Your Soul.” Brother-and-sister team, Rhonda and Darrin Vincent add their voices to an old country classic, “After the Fire Is Gone.” The latter, a wonderful display of the power of the voice, definitely is a highlight of Bluegrass & Beyond.

The review copy I received didn’t come with any liner notes or PR material identifying the supporting musicians, but I would have to assume that Glen Duncan, who co-produced the CD with Osborne, also put down some incredible fiddle tracks that add a lot of spice to this CD.

If you truly love bluegrass, especially a good mix of the old and new, you’ll find this CD to be a winner.

Editor’s Note: Glen Duncan indeed played the “incredible fiddle tracks” along with Bobby Osborne Jr. (acoustic guitar, acoustic bass), Dana Cupp (banjo), Matt Despain (Dobro), Daryl Mosley (acoustic bass) and Marty Stuart (acoustic guitar).

Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press on Tour