Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-press – Bluegrass Melodies
A lot of folks, me included, figured Sonny Osborne’s retirement a couple of years ago would be followed quickly by that of his older brother. Instead, Bobby Osborne appears determined to pursue his own path — one not dramatically but rather incrementally different from that of the Osborne Brothers. On Bluegrass Melodies, his second solo album for Rounder, he plows plenty of familiar ground, but also offers some nifty new directions, and does it all with a voice that’s remarkably powerful for a man of 75 years.
More than 30 years after the title track’s original version, Bobby revisits it in the same key, and with the same combination of strength and lightness in that undiminished voice. Material is one of the new album’s strengths, as he both continues the Brothers’ sharp-eyed mining of popular country songs — he covers the John Denver hit “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” with heartfelt joy — and hearkens back to his own pre-Osbornes history by continuing to revisit the Stanley Brothers, with whom he briefly served in the early 1950s.
On Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High On That Mountain” he’s joined by Rhonda Vincent, a self-proclaimed disciple of the Osbornes’ sound who had him as a guest on her recent remake of their “Midnight Angel”. Other standouts include the slightly offbeat “Color Me Lonely”, Jerry Salley’s evocative “Under A Lonesome Moon” and a spirited reading of Buck Owens’ “I’ll Take A Chance On You”.
Co-producer Glen Duncan, a former member of the Osborne Brothers’ band, plays a lot of fiddle on the album — perhaps a little too much — and the rest of the Rocky Top X-press, including hot young dobro picker Matt DeSpain, opts for a cheerful looseness rather than precision. But in the end, Duncan and Osborne put the spotlight where it belongs: on Bobby’s voice. As a result, Bluegrass Melodies is, if not earth-shaking, a pleasant and rewarding reminder that one of the greatest country singers of the last 50 years is still doing his job.