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Friday October 18th, 2002
Dobro legend Beecher Bashful Brother Oswald Kirby: 1911-2002
By Michelle Nikolai
Beloved Grand Ole Opry member Beecher Ray Kirby, better known as Bashful Brother Oswald, died yesterday morning in his home in Madison, Tenn. at age 90. A Gibson signature Dobro artist, Os, as he was affectionately called by his friends, was a true pioneer on the instrument, taking it up shortly after it was introduced in 1929 by John and Rudy Dopyera. He popularized the Dobro during his long association with Roy Acuffs band, the Smoky Mountain Boys, which began in 1936 and ended when Acuff died in 1992.
Id say Oswald was one of a kind, says Charlie Collins, Kirbys close friend and bandmate in Acuffs band. He learned from a Hawaiian boy by the name of Rudy Waikiki when he was in the North playing clubs. A guy came in one night and said theres a crowd going down the street because theres a Dobro player, and Os said Well, theyll be a Dobro player here tomorrow night. So he went and got him a Dobro, and started to learn it the hard way, Collins recalls with a chuckle.
He come across Rudy Waikiki, and he learned a lot of things from him. Os said he was really a great player, a very good picker, and he learned from him. That started his Dobro playing, Collins explains.
Kirby was living in Flint, Mich. at the time, working in a Buick factory. When he lost his job during the Great Depression, he began playing for radio station WFDF, and Hawaiian music was prevalent in regular programming. He relocated to Knoxville, Tenn. and began playing with several bands including Acuffs then called the Crazy Tennesseans in 1934 and became a permanent member when Acuff was invited to join the Opry.
He was born Dec. 26, 1911, in Sevierville, Tenn., the son of an Appalachian musician. As a young boy, his first instruments were banjo and guitar, and he was self taught, learning to play by ear and singing gospel music. He was one of the first artists to play the Dobro, and through his featured role in Acuffs band he single-handedly kept the Dobro alive through a period when virtually all steel-guitar players had switched to electric guitars.
Farmers overalls, a floppy yellow hat, oversized shoes and a horse-like braying laugh were part of Kirbys clowning Bashful Brother Oswald persona, the name given to him by Acuff. He played older brother to Rachel Veach, the guitarist/vocalist in Acuffs band, as a smoke screen to disguise the fact that she was unmarried and in an all-male band, making it more acceptable to then conservative audiences.
Kirby played many instrumentals, and is best known for his Oswald Dobro Chimes, also known as Steel Guitar Chimes. He contributed supporting vocals and his tasteful Dobro work to Acuffs seminal songs, The Precious Jewel and Wreck on the Highway. He also did a handful of solo albums including Brother Oswald and Dont Say Aloha. His solos on the songs Wabash Cannonball and Great Speckled Bird were held up as standards by other Dobro players. He was invited to join the Opry as an individual in 1995, and he performed on the radio show until 1999.
Collins and Kirby began their professional association in 1967, when Collins joined Acuffs band, although they had met previously in early 1965 while picking in the dressing rooms at the Opry. They had a musical/comedy duo act, Os and Charlie, for over a decade, playing the Opryland theme park while still working with Acuff. Each man performed on three instruments and they sang songs and told jokes, with Collins playing the straight man to Kirbys foil. They also released a couple of albums together, Oz and Charlie and Thats Country.
We just enjoyed each other on the stage. I enjoyed his work because he was so professional, and it was always consistent, Collins says. No matter how bad he felt and we all do he never let it show through. He always come off to the audience like [he was] having fun, this is it.
When youre together that much, youre really closer than brothers and sisters a lot of times. We traveled with each other on the road, and we understood each other quite a bit. To me, he was a part of country music history. Youre just lucky to be around a person like that, its been a blessing in my life.
Gibson introduced a Bashful Brother Oswald signature model Dobro in 1995, modeled on the late-1930s instrument that Os played.
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