Down in the Willow Garden · Ho, Honey, Ho

For a few crucial years in the mid-1950s, the Osborne Brothers' records carried a third name: Red Allen, the Kentucky-born guitarist and singer whose firm rhythm and strong lead voice helped the young brothers find their footing.

Allen had already recorded with the Osbornes for the small Gateway label in Cincinnati before the trio signed with MGM. Their MGM sessions, cut in Nashville beginning in 1956, produced the records that announced the Osborne sound to the world — and it was on "Once More," recorded with Allen, that the band unveiled its signature high-trio harmony, with Bobby Osborne's lead pitched at the top and two voices stacked beneath. Numbers like "Ruby, Are You Mad," "Wild Mountain Honey," and "Lost Highway" came out of this short, fertile partnership.

Allen was a singer's singer — admired by other musicians for the sheer authority of his lead voice and the steadiness of his timing — and the MGM dates drew on first-rate Nashville talent, with the Osborne banjo and mandolin out front.

The partnership did not last. Allen and the brothers parted ways at the end of the 1950s; the Osbornes went on to country-chart success, and Allen pursued his own restless path, recording memorably with the mandolinist Frank Wakefield and later for Folkways and a string of small labels. But the handful of sides credited jointly to the Osborne Brothers and Red Allen are a high point for everyone involved — the moment a great harmony band first clicked into focus.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.