The Bluegrass Album Band
Chalk Up Another One
“Chalk Up Another One” was recorded on November 16, 1954 at RCA Victor’s Nashville studio by Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Brothers and released as a single — backed with “I Pulled a Boo Boo” — in February 1955. The composition is generally credited to H. Winston and Wilmer Neal; both are obscure figures in the published songwriter literature, and the credit appears largely tied to this RCA paperwork.
The recording captures one of the most discussed lineups in early bluegrass: Jimmy Martin on guitar and lead vocal, Bobby Osborne on mandolin and tenor, Sonny Osborne on banjo, Red Taylor on fiddle, and Cedric Rainwater on bass. The Martin/Osbornes pairing was short-lived but produced a handful of singles that defined the high-trio sound — Martin’s high-baritone lead under Bobby Osborne’s piercing tenor — that the Osborne Brothers would later carry into their own Decca-era hits.
The song itself is a honky-tonk-style heartache lyric, the singer tallying yet another disappointment in love — a thematic and harmonic shape closer to the country chart than to the older Monroe songbook. It survives in the bluegrass canon mostly because of its lineup and the early-Sonny banjo work; the song is a frequent reference point for anyone studying that brief Martin/Osbornes period.
