Host Bob Webster will feature an interview with bluegrass legend Bobby Osborne on this week’s (3/29) edition of Stained Glass Bluegrass on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

Osborne’s new CD, Bluegrass & Beyond, will be released on Rounder this Tuesday (3/31), and Bob and Bobby will discuss the two Gospel tracks from this album during the interview, scheduled for 9:00 a.m. (EDT) on Sunday morning.

You can find Stained Glass Bluegrass and all of the Bluegrass Country offerings online at www.bluegrasscountry.org.

Among the forthcoming releases from Rounder Records is Bobby Osborne’s third album for the label. Entitled Bluegrass & Beyond (Rounder 0603), the CD is scheduled to be available for general purchase on March 31.

For this 12-track album, Osborne, with his band The Rocky Top X-Press, mixes straight ahead bluegrass, some soulful Gospel and a couple of traditional country songs.

The sound of Glen Duncan’s fiery fiddling kicks off the opening track, Let’s Sing Our Song, and, along with Osborne’s mandolin playing and Dana Cupp’s driving banjo, he stands out as providing some of the brighter instrumental moments on the CD. The vocal harmonies on Let’s Sing Our Song are pleasing also. Osborne is vocally assured, sufficiently so sing tenor as well as lead on many tracks, despite his 76 years.

What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul perhaps fits into all three categories. The arrangement begins with a typical brother-duet coupling of Osborne with guest Marty Stuart before the band kicks in and Country great Connie Smith replaces her husband as one of the vocalists.

Contemporary bluegrass is represented by A Wise Man’s Mind Will Change, a song by Larry Cordle & Jim Rushing, about the intransigence of a fool, and You Can, a reflection on the sharpness of a woman’s tongue (Glen Duncan & Jerry Salley).

Definitely traditional Country is After the Fire Is Gone, which has two more guests, Rhonda Vincent and brother Darrin, in an up-dated version of the Loretta Lynn/Conway Twitty ode to love gone cold.

Certainly in the ‚Äòbeyond’ category is Jerry Reed’s Let’s Sing Our Song, a song from the Eagles’ repertoire, Girl from Yesterday, and Eddie Rabbit’s Country-politan, Driving My Life Away.

The album ends with Chris Stuart’s Civil War ballad Shenandoah Wind, and then the Gospel number Way Up On The Mountain, written by Ira Louvin and Anne Young and which is, incidentally, from Connie Smith’s repertoire.

Rounding out the set is a Bobby Osborne instrumental Hyden, named after his place of birth, of course.

The Rocky Top X-Press are Bobby Osborne, Jr. (guitar and bass), Derrell Mosley (bass), Cupp, Glen Duncan (fiddle, guitar and banzooki) and Matt DeSpain (resonator guitar). Marty Stuart guests on guitar for What Would You Give In Exchange.

Production is by Glen Duncan and Bobby Osborne.

We received a note yesterday from Daniel Grindstaff, banjo player with Marty Raybon. He had a very special opportunity come his way just after Christmas and wanted to share the story with everyone here on The Bluegrass Blog.

Bobby Osborne was scheduled to play on The Grand Ole Opry this past weekend, coinciding with the 41st anniversary of Rocky Top, which was released on December 25, 1967. Bobby’s regular banjo man, Dana Cupp, was unavailable for the show, so Daniel got the call.

“Having filled in and worked with Sonny and Bobby numerous times in the past I always jump at the chance to play that music again. After I spoke to Bobby about doing the show, Sonny got in touch with me on Friday morning (12/26). He asked if I would like to play his RB-3, the banjo that was used on the original recording of Rocky Top and numerous other Osborne Brothers songs.

I, of course, said that I would love to!

The end result of the evening was me getting to perform on the stage of the Opry at The Ryman, during the anniversary of Rocky Top, playing the banjo that recorded it, beside the man who sang it!

What a Christmas gift! A very high point in my career! What a great banjo and a great moment!”

The audio from that Opry show should show up soon in the WSM online archives.

Daniel tells us that the new Marty Raybon CD, This That and the Other, is due for release in January ‘09, and that they will begin touring in support when they return from a Caribbean cruise with Rhonda Vincent in early February.

Tough duty…

The Marty Raybon schedule can be found on his web site, and samples from Daniel’s fine solo CD, April Fool, can be heard at CD Baby.

There are a number of bluegrass acts performing this weekend on the Grand Ole Opry. If you will be near your radio – and are within the huge WSM radio footprint – or close to your computer, you can catch some top bands live tonight (11/28) and tomorrow as well.

Tonight’s show will include performances from Dailey & Vincent, The Whites and Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press. On Saturday night, The Whites are back, along with Melonie Cannon (with Randy Kohrs), and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys.

The Friday Opry is broadcast from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. (EST) and the Saturday show runs from 8:00 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. Both shows are available over the air on WSM AM 650, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.