As a youth, Bobby Osborne prepared for his illustrious career in bluegrass and country music by carefully studying the nuances of the masters who came before him. Like many other musicians of his generation, Bobby had his musical passions ignited by the classic version of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys with Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts. (Seeing that classic band in person made such a vivid impression on Bobby, that he still can recall what each band member was wearing that night.) As anyone who has ever worked in his band can attest, Bobby can play on his mandolin any fiddle solo from any Flatt & Scruggs record or any Chubby Wise solo from Monroe’s Columbia recordings. He can also demonstrate the precise phrasings of Lester Flatt and Bill Monroe’s singing of that era. Early on, Bobby realized that this knowledge could serve as a basic toolbox for his aspirations; he would still need to develop a singing style, a mandolin style, and a band sound of his own. He succeeded admirably. Bobby Osborne was the first mandolin player/tenor singer to create his own identity, separate from the Bill Monroe model of bluegrass and country music. Whereas Monroe’s mandolin playing was based on the fiddle stylings of 1920s and 1930s era figures such as his maternal uncle, Pen Vandiver, and Clayton McMichen, and on the blues musicians around his native Rosine, Kentucky, Bobby proceeded to invent a style influenced more by the fiddlers of the 1950s and 1960s. Read More
