Take This Hammer · Don’t Even Look at Me

Bobby and Sonny Osborne grew up in Ohio, sons of the great mid-century migration that carried Appalachian families north to factory work — and carried their music with them. They began recording young: Sonny was barely a teenager when he cut banjo sides for the small Gateway label in Cincinnati and, in 1952, played on Bill Monroe's Decca sessions.

The brothers' real singles era ran on MGM Records from 1956 to 1960, recorded mostly in Nashville. Bobby's mandolin and his soaring, unmistakable lead tenor were the front of the sound; Sonny's banjo and harmony filled it out. Their early MGM sides, often featuring guitarist and tenor singer Red Allen, included "Ruby, Are You Mad" and "Once More" — and on the latter the brothers worked out the innovation that defined them: a high lead vocal with two harmony parts stacked beneath it instead of above, producing a bright, almost orchestral trio sound.

That willingness to rethink the rules carried the Osbornes further from tradition than most of their peers. When they signed with Decca in the early 1960s they began adding twin fiddles, steel guitar, even drums and electric bass, chasing — and reaching — the mainstream country charts. To purists it was heresy; to the Osbornes it was simply showmanship and survival.

Their bluegrass instincts never left, though. Underneath the smooth productions was a band that could still play it hard and lonesome, and Bobby Osborne's voice — pitched somewhere near the edge of human range — remained one of the glories of the music.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.