“Once More” is a bluegrass standard written by the country singer Dusty Owens, who first recorded it in 1956. But the song’s lasting place in bluegrass belongs to the Osborne Brothers.
The Osborne Brothers heard Owens sing “Once More” while they were all working at the Wheeling Jamboree, and they worked the song out on the drive home to Ohio. When they recorded it in 1957, they used it to introduce one of their signature innovations: an inverted, “high lead” harmony, with Bobby Osborne’s lead voice placed on top of the stack rather than in the middle. The result was a bright, distinctive sound that helped carry the song onto the country chart.
That recording made “Once More” a bluegrass favorite, and it has been cut by well over a hundred artists.
