Even the Rolling Stone gets it

[Dave Greenspoon]

Great piece in RS about the loss of Bobby and Jesse.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...it-1234780880/

[FLATROCK HILL]

Not sure I understand the thread title but that R.S. piece is surprisingly good and it is unusually respectful... IMO.

[Bob Buckingham]

I always thought RS had a respect for music, the title is odd. They have profiled many musicians other than rock and pop.

[Dave Greenspoon]

OK, so let me ask how many of us generally turn to Rolling Stone for bluegrass coverage? Or forward on pieces covering bluegrass/newgrass/any grass from it? For me, that's a never. Would I expect to see it outside the straight bluegrass (or even country) publications in Fretboard Journal? Sure. So, given that, I hope the thread title is just a little clearer. And yes, the piece is an excellent piece, and IMO not surprising in its quality or its respect for the topic. I posted it to show how in its passing, that first gen of bluegrass, especially mandolin, is being given some serious respect in a larger, general music publication.

[Caberguy]

OK, so let me ask how many of us generally turn to Rolling Stone for bluegrass coverage? Or forward on pieces covering bluegrass/newgrass/any grass from it? For me, that's a never. Would I expect to see it outside the straight bluegrass (or even country) publications in Fretboard Journal? Sure. So, given that, I hope the thread title is just a little clearer. And yes, the piece is an excellent piece, and IMO not surprising in its quality or its respect for the topic. I posted it to show how in its passing, that first gen of bluegrass, especially mandolin, is being given some serious respect in a larger, general music publication.

FWIW, I thought that was pretty clear.

[jaycat]

OK, so let me ask how many of us generally turn to Rolling Stone for bluegrass coverage?

I rely on the Dent County Snake and Tick Market Report.

[Fretbear]

Sure would like to read that article, but am not subscribing to RS.
Can anybody share the text?

[Mark Gunter]

Bluegrass Lost Two Pioneers in Mere Days: Why Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds Matter

Garret K. WoodwardJune 29, 2023

The mandolin players were members of the first class of bluegrass. Says contemporary picker Ronnie McCoury: "This is the end of that generation"

In the span of less than a week, the bluegrass community was rocked to its core: Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne, two pioneering voices and musicians of the “high, lonesome sound,” died within mere days of each other.

McReynolds died June 23 at 93, while four days later, Osborne died at 91 on June 27. Both were renowned mandolin players and singers, whose melodic innovation and artistic integrity within bluegrass has echoed throughout the genre since its inception in the mid-20th century.

“I just can’t remember a time in my life without hearing them,” says Ronnie McCoury, Grammy-winning mandolinist-singer for the Del McCoury Band and Travelin’ McCourys. “I’ve always thought that bluegrass mandolin came from three guys: Bill Monroe, Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne — those are the three styles to me.”

Osborne fronted the Osborne Brothers with his sibling, Sonny (who died in 2021), while McReynolds teamed up with his brother, Jim (who died in 2002), to form the duo Jim & Jesse. In 1964, both the Osborne Brothers and Jim & Jesse were invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. Up until his death, McReynolds was the oldest living member of the Opry, followed by Buck White of the Whites at 92, and then Osborne.

“Bobby was the guy that took [bluegrass] to where it never had been before,” C.J. Lewandowski, singer-mandolinist for the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, says. “His voice and his mandolin playing was so unique. He was a tremendous mandolin player, but his voice was so good that his mandolin playing was overshadowed.”

At the time of Osborne’s death, Lewandowski was in the midst of recording an album with the bluegrass elder statesman. To be released on Turnberry Records, the yet-to-be-titled collaboration was “about three-quarters finished” according to Lewandowski. He says the project will eventually see the light of day.

“Bobby was not only a bluegrass legend, he was a country music icon,” Lewandowski says. “He was known all over the world — he was the definition of a Grand Ole Opry star.”

“[Jesse and Bobby] were incredibly gifted singers and musicians,” McCoury adds. “And that’s really hard to find in today’s music world, to [be] so talented all the way around like that. There’s a lot of great pickers and there’s a lot of great singers, but there’s not a lot of both.”

For McCoury, it was the intricate, hard-to-replicate cross-picking that he most admired about McReynolds’ mandolin playing.
“I would attempt to do some Jesse cross-picking, but it was so far out to me,” McCoury says. “I just could not play it, especially up to the speed like he did. He created his own style.”

When Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys (which featured guitarist Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs) took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry in December 1945, the whirlwind, frenzied reception by the audience and listenership ushered in the “Big Bang of Bluegrass” — a new sound had erupted across radio waves from coast to coast.

A seamless blend of old-time, folk, Delta blues, Dixieland jazz, and mountain music, bluegrass emerged from the influential sponge-like nature and endless musical curiosity of its creator, Monroe, known as “The Father of Bluegrass.”

In 1948, Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe to form their own self-titled duo. Other marquee pillars of the first generation of bluegrass included the Stanley Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Reno & Smiley, and Jim & Jesse and the Osborne Brothers. Which is what makes the loss of McReynolds and Osborne so monumental.

[Mark Gunter]

FWIW The Rolling Stone has certainly covered bluegrass and roots music and Appalachian music and legends in the past. As stated, it’s quite a general​ music publication though of course it focuses mostly on rock and mainstream. I found the title odd as well, but that’s just me, no offence to OP

[Fretbear]

It's important that their singing was mentioned;
In Bluegrass, if you don't sing, you are only half as good as you could be. (Doyle Lawson said that)
To be entitled to "The Greatest" title, you have to be the whole package, and they both were. In addition to Bobby being one of the greatest vocalists (and vocal arrangers) that has ever lived, in any musical style, Jesse's mandolin playing was unprecedented.

[FLATROCK HILL]

So, given that, I hope the thread title is just a little clearer.

The thread title, as it appeared originally was: Even the Rolling gets itStone.
Someone (presumably a helpful moderator) rearranged the spacing and words to the way they appear now. That made it clearer.