Re: Sonny Osborne passes
Saw the Osborne Brothers live and up-close at Club 47 off Harvard Square, probably 1963 or '64. They were working as a trio with Benny Birchfield on guitar; obviously cashing in on the "folk revival" by touring college venues. In those pre-Rocky Top days, their signature song was Ruby, Are You Mad? in which Bobby hit a stratospheric high note and held it approximately forever. I was super-impressed by their picking and vocal harmony -- and by the number of strings they broke, two for Bobby, one for Sonny. They wore rumpled white dress shirts and black pants, no hats back then.
My first exposure to a "real" -- not "city-billy" -- bluegrass band. They played the Newport Folk Festival around that time, and, unlike Bill Monroe, worked a lot of the "folk music" venues of the early '60's. I picked up a copy of their album with Red Allen, Country Picking and Hillside Singing, out of a closeout bin in a Cambridge record store the next month. It had Ruby, Are You Mad? on it, with Sonny and Bobby playing double banjos!
Another one gone, and so few left. Afraid I'll see the last of the "1st generation" die in the next few years. Just glad for the chance to have seen the ones I did.
Allen Hopkins
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