Bashful Brother Oswald
Source: Jim McGuire
It was New Year's day, 1939, that Beecher Ray Kirby joined the Grand Ole Opry [Wikipedia] with Roy Acuff's band. Other members would soon be calling him Bashful Brother Oswald. Recording for the first time on July 5, 1939, with Acuff, though Brother Oswald was a banjo, guitar and slide guitar wizard he played Dobro, a resonating guitar, as well. ("Dobro" is a contraction of the "Dopyera brothers" who invented the instrument in 1928, "dobro" meaning "goodness" in their native Slovak. The Dopyeras would own Dobro throughout most the history of country music, not acquired by Gibson until 1997.)
Born in Sevier County, Tennessee, on 26 December 1911, Oswald sang gospel as a child, and learned to play banjo and fiddle from his father who was a musician. As a teenager he performed at square dances. He moved away from the Appalachian region as a young man to work on a Buick assembly line in Flint, Michigan, but that disappeared during the Great Depression. Continuing to play guitar at square dances, he met an Hawaiian guitarist named Rudy Waikiki, whence he was inspired to purchase his first resonator guitar, more commonly known as a Dobro. it was 1934 when Oswald returned to Tennessee, there to join Acuff's band, the Crazy Tennesseans, later to become the Smokey Mountain Boys. Using the assumed name of Pete Kirby, he began to be called Brother Oswald in order to feign familial relationship with singer, Rachel Veach, making her place in the band more embraceable by audiences. Acuff joined the Ole Opry in 1938, Oswald the next year. Oswald was with the Smokey Mountain Boys per above on July 5, 1939, to record such as 'Haven of Dreams' (Vocalion 05244), 'Answer to the Sparkling Blue Eyes' (Vocalion 05041), et al. The next day saw such as 'A Vagabond's Dream' (Vocalion 05041), 'Old Age Pension Check' (Vocalion 05344), et al.
'Answer to Sparkling Blue Eyes' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
Oswald's (Kirby's) 2nd recording of first session
5 July 1939 at the Gayoso Hotel in Memphis Matrix MEM 39-1 Vocalion 05041
Guitar: Lonnie Wilson Banjo / Dobro: Oswald
Bass: Jess Easterday Vocal: Roy Acuff
Composition: Bill Cox
'Old Age Pension Check' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
6 July 1939 at the Gayoso Hotel in Memphis Matrix MEM 47-1 Vocalion 05344
Guitar: Lonnie Wilson Banjo / Dobro: Oswald
Bass: Jess Easterday Vocal: Roy Acuff
Composition: Ralph Fulton / Sam “Dynamite” Hatcher 1937
'Wreck On the Highway' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
28 May 1942 at the CBS studio (Radio KNX) in Hollywood
Matrix HCO807 OKeh 6685 / Columbia 37028 / 37596
Guitar: Lonnie Wilson Dobro: Oswald
Bass: Welma E. Williams Vocal / violin: Roy Acuff
Composition: Acuff
'Fire Ball Mail' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
28 May 1942 at the CBS studio (Radio KNX) in Hollywood
Matrix HCO 808-1 OKeh 6685 / Columbia 37028 / 37596
Guitar: Lonnie Wilson Dobro: Oswald
Bass: Welma E. Williams Vocal / violin: Roy Acuff
Composition: Fred Rose as Floyd Jenkins
'Good Old Mountain Dew' aka 'Real Old Mountain Dew' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
April 1952 on the television show 'Kate Smith Evening Hour'
Fiddle: Howdy Forrester Harmonica: Jimmie Riddle
Composition: Bascom Lamar Lunsford / Scotty Wiseman ('Mountain Dew' = moonshine)
'Columbus Stockade Blues' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
3 March 1956 on the television show 'Grand Ole Opry'
Composition: Thomas Darby 1927
'Uncle Eph's Got the Coon' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
1959 on the television show 'Roy Acuff's Open House'
Composition: Traditional
'Black Smoke' Brother Oswald
31 Dec 1961 in Memphis See the single Starday Records 602 A
Composition: Pete Kirby
Oswald remained with the Smoky Mountain Boys until Acuff's death in 1992. In the meantime, after 25 years with Acuff he ventured a solo career in 1962 upon releasing the album, 'Bashful Brother Oswald'. His second album didn't arrive until 1972: 'Brother Oswald'. He also appeared on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' in 1972.
'Southern Moon' Brother Oswald
From the album 'Bashful Brother Oswald' issued on Starday SLP 192 in 1962
Guitar: Cowboy Copas Fiddle: Howdy Forrester
Banjo / Dobro: Oswald
Bass: Junior Husky Harmonica: Jimmy Riddle
Composition: Rabon & Alton Delmore
'The Great Speckled Bird' Brother Oswald w the Smoky Mountain Boys
From the film 'The Nashville Sound' directed by David Hoffman / Robert Elfstrom
Recorded Oct 1969 at the Ryman Auditorium Grand Ole Opry in Nashville Released 1972
Composition: Reverend Guy Smith
'End of the World' Brother Oswald
From the album 'Brother Oswald' issued on Rounder Records 0013 in 1972 Reissued 1995
Guitar: Charlie Collins Mandolin: Tut Taylor
Goiter / mandolin: Norman Blake Dobro: Oswald
Composition: Skeeter Davis 1962
'Old John Henry' Brother Oswald w Charlie Collins (guitar)
From the album 'That's Country' issued on Rounder Records 0041 in 1975
Composition: Traditional
(The legendary John Henry was a steel driver who died with his hammer in hand)
Family Folk Machine LOC Lyrics Lyrics
'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' Brother Oswald
From the album 'Don't Say Aloha' issued on Rounder Records 0080 in 1978
Guitar: Charlie Collins Piano: Buck White Dobro: Oswald
Bass: Lightnin' Chance Harmonica: Onie Wheeler
Composition: Hank Williams
'Lay Over and Give Me Half the Bed or I'm Going to Rip Up the Sheets' Brother Oswald
1990 at the Uncle Dave Macon Days Festival in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Composition: Traditional
Perhaps eleven albums later Oswald released his last, 'Carry Me Back', in 1995.
'Eunita' Brother Oswald
From the album 'Carry Me Back' issued in 1995
Composition: Pete Kirby
'Silent Night' Brother Oswald w Charlie Collins
26 Dec 1998 on the television show 'Grand Ole Opry'
Oswald's (Kirby's) final Christmas show at the Grand Ole Opry
Music: Franz Xaver Gruber Lyrics: Joseph Mohr Austria 1818
'Silent Night' first recorded by the Edison Male Quartette in August 1905
Cylinder: Edison Gold Moulded 9168
Recorded by the Haydn Quartet on 5 Oct 1905
Disc: Matrix B-2784 Victor 4511
Brother Oswald's boisterous laugh wasn't to be heard again upon dying on October 17, 2002, in Madison, Tennessee [obit].
Sources & References for Bashful Brother Oswald (Pete Kirby):
Brad's Page of Steel Sandra Brennan
VF History (notes) WikipediaAudio of Oswald: YouTube
Interviews: 1999 (Country's Family Reunion: Grassroots to Bluegrass / television)
Recordings by Oswald: Catalogs: Discogs Music Brainz Rocky 52 (11 albums) RYM SHS
Recordings by Oswald: Select: The Great Dobro Sessions
(Sugar Hill Records SUG-CD-2206 / 1994)Recordings by Oswald: Sessions:
Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys: DAHR (1940-1956)
Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys: Praguefrank's (1939-1991)
Bibliography: Peggy & Mike McCloud (Bashful Brother Oswald: That's The Truth If I've Ever Told It / Euneta Kirby / 1994)
Other Profiles: From the Vaults
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