Pete "Oswald" Kirby
b. Beecher Kirby, c.1915, near Gatlinburg, Sevier County, Tennessee, USA. The Kirby's were a musical family with all 10 siblings playing some instrument, though not professionally. Kirby learned guitar and banjo but worked in mills and on a farm before finding work as a guitarist in an Illinois club. After hearing a dobro, he also mastered that instrument. In 1939, he became a member of Roy Acuff's, Smoky Mountain Boys, starting an association that lasted to Acuff's death in 1992. Kirby's dobro became a distinctive feature of the Acuff sound and he has become known as one of the instrument's finest exponents. He was also a fine harmony vocalist. He figured in the comedy routines that were part of Acuff's show and wearing his bib and brace overalls and frailing a banjo for his solo spots, he became known as Bashful Brother Oswald and a great favourite of the GRAND OLE OPRY audiences. He played on many of Acuff's recordings but recorded in his own right for Starday in 1962 and for Rounder in the '70s, including two fine albums with fellow Acuff band member, Charlie Collins. He was also one of the stars chosen to play on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's famous 1972 WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN project.