Obit: Bashful Brother Oswald (1911-2002)

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: GUEST,Bill Sanford
Date: 14 Apr 23 - 02:19 PM

Till this day in 2023..I still think of the happiness he brought to so many! R.I.P. Brother.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Sep 03 - 10:47 AM

You can hear Bashful Brother Oswald's "DOBRO CHIMES" at RECORD LADY, along with the following:

'No Letter In The Mail'
'That High Born Gal Of Mine'
'I'll Be All Smiles Tonight'
'Columbus Stockade Blues'
'When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again'
'Tennessee Waltz'
'Sunday In The Mountains'
'Southern Moon'

~S~

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: 53
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 10:21 AM

I'm sorry to hear about this. Bob

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 10:18 AM

One thing I miss on the Opry, is all the corny jokes. Mike Snider (who is a great banjo player, by the way) is the only one left who does. And boy, he tells a few doozies!

My favorite little joke that Oswald used to tell: Whiskey and women kilt my daddy. He couldn't get either one so he laid down and died!

And there was a song he used to sing - I don't remember exactly how it went, but one of the verses was about Adam and Eve hoeing in the garden, and "she hit him in the eye with a tater." :-)

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Banjer
Date: 20 Oct 02 - 07:26 PM

...and so another piece of traditon passes into the night...I grew up listening to a lot of Roy ACuff's music and it was always the wail of the dobro that held my attention...To borrow a phrase..Thanks for the memories, Rest In Peace, Brother Oswald.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Cappuccino
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 02:19 PM

Wow, what a piece of history. Rest in peace, indeed.

- ian B

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Jim Krause
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 11:59 AM

Yep, Sailin' Off to Hawaii: enjoy the trip Brother O.

Jim

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: GUEST,Gern
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 10:31 AM

His distinctive, ever-imitated dobro technique; his clawhammer banjo and bottomless collection of traditional tunes; his incomparable harmonies, a precise match for Acuff's unpredictable modulations; his ready sense of humor and silly-assed laugh... This is a huge loss for those who appreciate artistry and entertainment.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: wilco
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 09:36 AM

Bashful Brother Oswald. Bless his soul.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Mark Clark
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 02:00 AM

I never know what to say in threads like these but, when it's Kirby, I can't just let it pass unnoticed. At least we have a long lifetime of his music to remind us of the man.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 01:35 AM

Damn! Derek Bell and Pete Kirby on the same day. A bad day for Irish music. A bad day for country music. A bad day for music, period.

Hey! Mr. God! Can we please have a few days with no more obit threads? We could use a break.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: DougR
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 11:52 PM

I use to enjoy him on the Opry. I didn't know he died. May he rest in peace.

DougR

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: 12-stringer
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 10:34 PM

"When his earthly race is over, and the curtains 'round him fall ... "

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: khandu
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 10:24 PM

The man made me smile.

Thanks, Brother O.

k

Subject: RE: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 09:58 PM

Brother Oswald......How very sad. I'm sure that Nashville is crying tonight much in the way his Dobro. He had one helluva' run.

Spaw

Subject: OBIT: Bashful Brother Oswald
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 09:28 PM

From SMT's web site:

Known for decades to his legion of fans as "Bashful Brother Oswald," Beecher "Pete" Kirby died Thursday (Oct. 17) at his home near Nashville following a lengthy illness. The Grand Ole Opry star and longtime member of Roy Acuff's legendary Smoky Mountain Boys was 90 years old.

Os, as he was affectionately known to his friends and fellow musicians, joined Acuff's troupe in January 1939 and helped to define the sound of Acuff's music in the 1940s and 1950s with his wailing Dobro and open-throated tenor singing. Following Acuff's death, Os became a full-fledged member of the Grand Ole Opry in his own right -- at age 84 -- in 1995 and continued to work the show until declining health forced him into retirement in 1999.

It is impossible to imagine Acuff's music without Os' distinctive Dobro work on songs including "Wreck on the Highway," "Precious Jewel," "The Wabash Cannonball," "Fireball Mail" and "The Great Speckled Bird." Virtually every Dobro player from Josh Graves to Jerry Douglas owe some of their respective styles to that of Os' pioneering work on the instrument.

Oswald was born Dec. 11, 1911, in Sevierville, located in Eastern Tennessee.

Growing up in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, Os, one of eleven children, was exposed to music at a young age. His father taught at shape-note singing schools and played the guitar, fiddle and banjo. By the time Os reached his teens, he too, was playing the banjo at local square dances while also holding down a day job at the Appalachian Cotton Mill in nearby Knoxville.

In 1929 Os set out for Detroit in hopes of finding a job in the automotive industry, but the Great Depression quelled all hopes of landing such a position.

The move north, however, was not in vain, for Os landed a job on radio station WFDF. It was there that he acquired his first Dobro -- to meet the station's manager demands -- to capitalize on the then-popular musical trend -- that of Hawaiian music. Os expanded his musical repertoire to include that instrument and by the time he returned home to East Tennessee in the mid-1930s, he had become quite adept at the instrument and was able to find work in a series of bands, including an early configuration of Acuff's Crazy Tennesseans.

After Acuff was hired by the Opry in 1938, he reformed his group -- renamed the Smoky Mountain Boys -- and recruited Os into his organization. Until Acuff's death in 1992, Os was a mainstay in the group, both as a musician and comedian, and was the sole constant in the band and on Acuff's recordings for more than 50 years.

In the early 1960s, Os embarked on his own recording career including the Starday release, Bashful Brother Oswald in 1962 and the 1972 Brother Oswald album on Rounder Records. Os was a featured artist on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 watershed album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, that also featured Acuff, Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Norman Blake and Merle Travis.

After the now-defunct Opryland theme park opened its doors, Os and fellow Smoky Mountain Boy guitarist Charlie Collins were among the featured performers in the park, playing down-home rustic numbers to the delight of the park's visitors.

In the 1990s, Os recorded a pair of albums Carry Me Back and Heart Songs, Hymns and Friends. Both albums featured performances by guest artists and included among them Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones. Os also published his memoirs, That's the Truth If I Ever Told It, in which he reflected upon his career as a member of Acuff's band and included anecdotes about many of his Opry co-stars.

Os' wife of nearly 50 years, Lola, died in 1981, and he married Euneta Phillips, who survives him, in 1983. He is also survived by a son, Billy Kirby. A daughter, Linda, preceded him in death.

Funeral services are set for 2 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 19) at Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens in the Nashville suburb of Goodlettsville, Tenn.