Osborne Brothers – Dayton To Knoxville (1949-1954)
Despite its title, the latest Bob and Sonny release features mostly new recordings made with their 1990s lineup. The second in a series of looks back at their career, it is stronger than the first, even before taking into account the miraculous appearance of two early 1950s demos made with Jimmy Martin.
With the exception of Terry & Billy Smith’s new “Love Is A Danger”, all the material comes from other country artists’ repertoires during this period in the Brothers’ career (highlighted on a timeline included with Eddie Stubbs’ informative song notes), and it’s a delicious ramble down memory lane. Bobby is in great voice, Sonny is unstoppable on the banjo — check out his solo on “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”, where he takes a hard left turn three-fourths of the way through — and the rest of their crackerjack band and guest fiddler Glen Duncan keep right up. Band members may be younger than the Brothers, but they sound like it’s only an accident that they were born so much later. This is the last album made by this edition of the group (guitarist/singer Terry Eldredge has moved along to Larry Cordle’s Lonesome Standard Time), and it shows in especially tight singing and playing.
The demos — one made when Bob Osborne and Jimmy Martin were trying to get a King Records deal, the other by Jimmy and both Brothers a few years later when they were shopping around — are by themselves worth the price of the CD, but the same can be said for the rest of the album.