Good evening mandogirls and boys. I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts and opinions on the playing style of Bobby Osborne. Thanks for the input.
Good evening mandogirls and boys. I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts and opinions on the playing style of Bobby Osborne. Thanks for the input.
Absolutely one of the best. One of the first--if not the first--to try to play fiddle tunes absolutely note for note (that background as a fiddler shows). Very much ahead of his time. One of my favorite mandolin LPs is Bobby's "Bobby and His Mandolin." Excellent album from the late 70's/early 80's. Sonny Osborne says on there that there are, in his opinion, 4 stylistic innovators on the mandolin: Monroe, Jethro Burns, Jesse McReynolds, and Bobby Osborne. Bobby really did foreshadow a lot of guys like Herschel Sizemore, Sam Bush, or some others.
Jim
Thanks Jim, I'm with you on this one. I think Bobby is greatly underrated and overshadowed for no good reason.
I'd make those four Monroe, Jesse, Bobby and Wakefield. Bobby Osborne really "invented" the jumpy, note-for-note picking style that is, IMHO, the foundation for the modern mandolin picking style. Try and find a copy of "Bluegrass Instrumentals" by the Osborne Brothers (good luck!) and all you'll hear is echos of all the others who based their playing on his style - Dawg, Bush, Buck White, Marshall, Sizemore, Lawson... on and on... every modern player owes a huge debt to Bobby's unique approach to lead playing on the mandolin. Too bad he didn't get down and make more instrumental efforts when he was in his prime.
Bobby, in my eyes, is right up there next to Big Mon.
If you don't have it, I say get Bobby and Jesse McReynolds album, "Masters of the Mandolin." IT IS AWESOME!!
I love Bobby's pickin and singing...one of the true legends. Pure class.
WBL
I agree, one of the best. Always very very clean in his picking, makes every note stand out.
But where is the emotion? I hear it with Monroe and many of the Osborne followers you mention (Bush, Sizemore...) but I am just not "grabbed' by Bobby's playing. Sonny, now there's an emotional musician...
Well, you just can't please everyone all the time. But I find Bobby's playing full of his personality which is warm and friendly, and always aimed at getting the tune right. In my opinion he is one of the best mandolin players in bluegrass and certainly one of the best singers. The newer generation has raised the bar considerably, but Bobby definitely has definitely influnced the genre.
"Emotional" is so subjective. Do you expect Bobby to break out in histrionics when he plays (which I think can apply to Sam Bush at times) ?
Bobby is one of the best and as Michael said, his playing reflects his personality. Frankly, Herschel Sizemore has the same laid back kind of feel.
Jim
Bobby has always been one of my favs...he was/is the innovator of the single note fiddle tune type of playing...and that old Fern of his is such a beast.
I can pick out Bob Osborne's playin'..., blindfolded & among 100(+-) mando players; I suggest other Bluegrass pickers could/can do the same. And by the way, Bobby DOES play with "emotion" - if'n ya' listen close enough! Just my .02.
Another groundbreaking, ahead of its' time mandolin tune was Wakefield's "New Camptown Races" and also "Catnip". Both played in that "jumpy" note-for-note style developed by Bobby, although more so in New Camptown. Emotion? Well, certainly Monroe can't be touched... but again, if you can somehow find the Osborne's "Bluegrass Instrumentals" I'll wager you'll feel something from Bobby's animated playing style.
Sure-Fire is a classic and is difficult to get the right feeling and emotion on. If it isn't jumpy, I don't know what is. Yes Bobby invented this stuff.Originally Posted by (Glassweb @ April 24 2005, 01:20)
Darryl G. Wolfe, The F5 Journal
www.f5journal.com
..then..after Bobby invented Larry Rice and Doyle jumped on board...
I agree completely. Bobby's playing was groundbreaking, and a lot of players owe him a debt.
And, like Monroe, he was not only a great player, but, boy, could he sing his a** off!
KB Waltham
..just listen to Bobby sing and play Rose of Old Kentucky....it dont get no better than that..that mando break is "IT"....Im gettin goose bumps just thinking about it....
I like to listen to him. Good playing. Not Monroe but hes good.
I'll agree about Bobby's singing--doesn't get much better than that. Same could also be said about Sonny's harmonizing.
Jim
one thing I've always enjoyed about Bobby's singing is how he sometimes almost scolds you and/or talks at you during particular verses...
songs that come to mind are 'Out behind the barn' and 'Big Spike Hammer'. #it's just something about the tone and inflection in his voice sometimes that makes its sound to me like he's looking you right in the face.
Bobby and Sonny are true musical treasures.
WBL
I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating ; someone who grew up with and knows Bobby quite well told me "...bobby's natural speaking voice...is in the key of "B". !!??
I know that I'll be hated and excoriated for this and maybe tossed out of the Cafe,"Out in the Street" (to quote Big Mon) so I'll preface my remarks by saying that I LOVE BM, I love his playing, singing and writing. He is the reason why I play mandolin and love Bluegrass. He's right up there for favorite musicians with Doc Watson and Stephane Grappelli, but... if I could choose between mastering a style of Monroe or Osborne, I'd choose Osborne. I prefer Bobby's three S's= sophistication, swing, and smoothness. I like Bill thirdly after Jesse and Bobby and that's all after Jethro. There I've said it- please don't think I'm "a Yankee liar" (to quote Elisha Cooke, Jr.)
Ahhhh!!, jeeze... - YOU are still a good person!! - We all have our "favorites". Enjoy yer' music & pickin'
..another great Lp is the one where Bob and Sonny teamed up with Mac Wiseman.....such good music there...and Bobby really puts the mando right where it should be.
Floyd, your top 3 are most here's top 3 mando pickers. Only with taste many will have them in a different order.
Bobby is definately all three S's.
Again, I say get "Master's of Mandolin" that he did with Jesse McReynolds. That is an AWESOME CD.
By the way, I couldn't for the life of me rank them in order of greatness. Jesse, Bill and Bobby all really have 3 distinct definitive styles and charactisitics of their own.
I love all three and try and emulate each of their styles, or at least I am studying all three to learn by.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks