PETE KIRBY (BASHFUL BROTHER OSWALD)
Pete Kirby or Bashful Brother Oswald (born Beecher Ray Kirby; December 26, 1911–October 17, 2002) was an American country musician who popularized the use of the resonator guitar and Dobro. He played with Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Though he released only a few recordings as a solo artist, he played as a session musician on numerous records, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 1972 album Will the Circle be Unbroken. (More from Wikipedia)
This would be a good time to relate my recent purchase of a one-of-a-kind, three-disc album called Will the Circle be Unbroken (1972). Unlike nearly all of the other rock and country collaborations that I know about, in this case the rockers hand the keys off to country music legends and let them drive. Ostensibly (or even technically) a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, Wikipedia calls the album a “collaboration from many famous bluegrass and country-western players, including Roy Acuff, ‘Mother’ Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Pete ‘Oswald’ Kirby, Norman Blake, Jimmy Martin, and others. It also introduced fiddler Vassar Clements to a wider audience.”
(February 2015)
