The first single from the highly anticipated final recordings by Bobby Osborne, from his duet project with fellow mandolinist C.J. Lewandowski of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, is released today to radio on Turnberry Records.
They’ve chosen a new version of Too Old To Die Young, written by Scott Dooley, John Hadley and Kevin Welch, and performed by a great many country and bluegrass artists over the years, including The Osborne Brothers.
C.J. and Bobby had started on this project, Keep On Keepin’ On, earlier this year, not long before Osborne died in June. When it was announced in January, Bobby was feeling fine, and was greatly looking forward to getting in the studio.
Lewandowski says that they were able to finish in the studio before his hero’s passing, but he felt unsure how to proceed once it sunk in.
“If you were to ask me if I would have ever expected to be recording an album with Bobby Osborne, I would have told you that you needed to get your head checked! At the time of these recordings, Bobby was 91-years-old and singing better than most people 1/3 his age.
These are special moments, and I feel so blessed to have captured our friendship on recording. Too Old To Die Young was initially supposed to be released at the end of June, but with Bobby’s death I really had to sit down and figure out what I was supposed to do.
One night on my front porch, I heard Bobby tell me to keep on keeping on, and that’s what I had to do. I considered him one of my best friends, and I will never forget him, his smile, his kindness, his natural talent.
I hope listeners enjoy our recorded efforts of what Bobby wanted to do. He always loved Paul Brewster and Terry Eldridge singing Too Old on the Osborne Brothers live shows, but never got to record it, until now.”
Turnberry has released this sneak peak of the single, which will be available for download purchase soon.
Pre-saves for Too Old To Die Young are enabled now online, as are pre-orders for the full Keep On Keepin’ On album.
