Like his longtime friend and fellow bluegrass pioneer Jesse McReynolds, Kentucky-born Bobby Osborne recently faced, at 74, the breakup of a long-running, highly successful brother act, though fortunately in this case it was due not to death, but rather to the retirement of his brother Sonny.

Following shoulder surgery, which hampered his banjo playing, Sonny limited himself to singing with Bobby at select venues like their longtime Opry home, but eventually decided to pack it in for good.

From his Nashville-area farm, Bobby Osborne says in a telephone interview, "I think he just kind of got burned out, you know, and he wanted to retire from everything altogether. So, he and I just had a discussion, and I told him I'd like to go on, and he said, 'Well, be my guest and go on because I think I'll just give it up.' So, at that point there, which I think is just about four months ago, he quit the Opry and quit the road, just completely retired, and I've been on my own ever since."

Sometimes, he acknowledges, it's just good to be in the right place at the right time.

"Of course, about the time that he retired from the road...the contract with Rounder came up, and everything just kind of fell in place for me. I wanted to go on, and that's what I'm doing, and I'm just really enjoying it."

The Rounder deal has resulted in his first CD, "Try A Little Kindness," as a solo act with his new band, the Rocky Top Xpress.

Produced by fiddler par excellence Glen Duncan (who spent considerable time in the Osbornes' band), the title cut is a cover of the '70s-era Glen Campbell hit, and the rest of the songs may strike longtime Osborne fans as remarkably eclectic, from old Stanley Brothers tunes to legendary writers like Hazel Dickens and Kris Kristofferson.

Perhaps the most striking selection is his version of a classic Stanley piece, "The Fields Have Turned Brown," on which he manages to place his own distinctive vocal stamp.

"I've loved the way Carter and Ralph did it. You know, I worked with the Stanley Brothers back in the '50s, before I went into the Marine Corps. I used to sing that song with them, and I always did want to record that song, I just love that song...When I got a chance to do it, I didn't want to do it like them, and I don't know, I just did it the way I felt like singing it, and it turned out really good. I was really proud of that song 'cause it's a good one."

Another standout is "West Virginia My Home," Dickens' anthem to her native state. Osborne says he's long wanted to record it, but it took a while to make it happen.

"I met Hazel years ago, and the last time I saw her was at the IBMA down here, back just a few months ago. Somehow (Rounder chief) Ken Irwin sent me (a) tape, it came through him somehow or another, a tape of her recording of it on Rounder."

With Sonny bowing out of the picture, he realized that he had a bit more latitude in selecting material to perform and record.

"I hung on to that tape and hung onto it, oh I don't know, a bunch of years, and I tried to get my brother to record it, and (it) seemed like he never did care about the song."

"So, when the Rounder contract came up, I asked Ken if there were any favorite songs that he would like me to do, and he sent a whole bunch of songs to me. In the meantime, I had misplaced that tape of Hazel's recording of it, and Ken sent me some songs to listen to, and 'West Virginia My Home' was in that bunch of songs. Of course, the very minute I heard it, I recognized that song. I thought, well, being as how he sent that to me, he might not mind if I recorded it."

"So, we worked that up just a little bit different from her, and it just turned out really good. I saw Hazel, and she was just tickled to death that I recorded it, and so was Ken. He really liked it too."

Perhaps the widest departure from the classic Osborne repertoire comes on what might be called the quintessential "hangover song," Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down."

"Glen Duncan...and I were picking out material, and we had a couple of songs that we had already decided to do. I don't know, one morning I woke up, and I got up, and somehow or another that song came to my mind when I woke up, you know." "And, of course, I was familiar with the song from a long time ago, but I never, ever really thought about singing it. But when I woke up that morning thinking about that song, I spoke to Glen...about it and he said, 'Well, I'll tell you what, when you wake up with a song on your mind, the best thing to do is record it.' So, we discarded another song and put that one in there, and boy, the people that's heard it, it's shocked them that I would do a song like that, but it turned out good, I thought."

Faced with the unique problem of having to find a new banjo player for the first time in a half-century, Osborne didn't have to look any farther than the existing Osborne Brothers band.

For the last few years of Bill Monroe's life and career, Detroit native Dana Cupp ably held down the banjo slot in the Blue Grass Boys, and following Monroe's passing in 1996, came aboard with the Osbornes as rhythm guitarist. With Sonny's departure, Cupp simply steps over to the banjo side of the stage.

"Of course, (Dana's) been familiar with Sonny's playing down through the years, and he's been a great friend for many, many years (that) we've known him... and of course, he's followed Sonny's playing, and he's followed Earl Scruggs' playing...Dana is on the same order that Sonny plays. He can play either one. On the things that I do on stage like the Osborne Brothers, he plays like Sonny, and on the things I do as Bobby Osborne, like on this new CD, I told him to play it just a little bit different, just like he would like to. So, it worked out great that way."

For a new guitarist in Cupp's old spot, Osborne again didn't have far to look, bringing his son Bobby Jr. on board. Doing the classic Osborne-style Dobro is Tim Graves, who has since departed to resume running his own band, Cherokee, replaced in the current lineup by Matt DeSpain.

In the midst of a turnover in the fiddle slot, Osborne says Duncan contributed fiddle parts and a good share of the vocals.

Osborne is pleased and optimistic about his future, but is quick to recognize that his past is comforting not only to himself, but to his audiences as well.

"I'm still doing some of our recordings (onstage), especially the ones that people request, of course, you know, 'Kentucky' and 'Rocky Top'...and some of those ballads that we did, I still do them, and I'm slowly working into some of these newer ones."

"But until the CD came out, I'd been sticking strictly to the Osborne Brothers (material) that (Sonny) and I recorded together, and the ones that people request - if they request 'em, I'll still do 'em and always will because Sonny and I were together 51 years...so I just have to hang with that, you know?"

As bluegrass evolves, more and more new bands come along that look to pioneers like Sonny and Bobby Osborne for inspiration.

Looking back to the early years, Osborne recognizes that, like Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanleys, Jim and Jesse and others, he and his brother were able to develop their own additions and innovations to the bluegrass sound.

"When my brother and me started recording, we didn't want to be exactly like anybody else. We ran into a song back in the '50s, 'Once More,'...and we always liked the steel guitar, I always thought the steel guitar was a beautiful instrument. So, I don't know, we was just riding along in the car one time, and all of a sudden I just started singing 'Once More'."

"We'd always featured just regular harmony, like the regular style of bluegrass - the tenor, the high tenor part on top, you know, but somehow or another I just started singing that song way up in the high range, and Sonny and Red Allen, who was with us at the time, they just came in and did the two lower parts under that, and we'd never heard anything like that before, we just lucked into it. So we got to listening to it and thinking about that steel guitar and the harmonies that the guys have with the pedal steel, and the same harmony is what they use on the steel guitar. It was beautiful, so we just kept working with that until we perfected that style of singing that made us different from anybody, you know."

As one of the hardest working bands in the business, the Osborne Brothers did upwards of 200 dates a year in their heyday, but that kind of breakneck pace isn't what Bobby has in mind.

"Oh, I've slowed down quite a bit. I'm gonna do possibly 40 dates this year, something like that...I don't think I would want to be away from home that much. I've got 76 acres here at home, way out in the country, and I enjoy doing all my cuttin' the fields and stuff like that with my tractor, and I don't believe that I would like to be gone that long."

He pauses and laughs as he marvels at the stamina of some of today's bluegrass headliners.

"Rhonda Vincent's got a schedule that I don't think I could keep anymore. She works an awful lot. I wouldn't turn anything down or anything like that, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing...Sonny and me were young back then, and we just wanted to go all the time, we didn't have as many responsibilities then as we do now, you know, and me especially. But I'm really happy with what I'm doing, and the band I have, I'm really proud of them."

Joining his brother in full retirement, though, is not yet in the cards.

"As long as I can sing to suit me, I'm gonna stay as long as I can, 'cause I enjoy it, you know. I really love to sing, and I enjoy playing still yet, and as long as I can sing and perform, I think I'll just stay with it."