Darrington bluegrass fest hits the highways

What's with highways and the Darrington Bluegrass Festival? Three of the bands for this weekend's 32nd Darrington Bluegrass Festival sport a highway in their names.

Bobby Osborne & the Rocky Top X-Press, Blue Highway, Cedar Hill and Lost Highway are the headliners of the 13 bands from six states who will deliver bluegrass to the faithful in the annual mid-July event.

Local bands include Snohomish's The Combinations and Brier's Three Generations. The rest of the line-up: Red Desert Ramblers, Lee Highway, Cascade Mountain Boys, Hammer Down, Old Circle and Queens Bluegrass.

And yes, that Osborne fellow is one-half of the legendary Osborne Brothers, who has made a career change at age 76. Bobby Osborne had already made a difference in the bluegrass world as a tenor vocalist, mandolinist and band leader for a half-century.

The Osborne Brothers pioneered the high-lead vocal arrangement, placing the melody in the highest voice and the tenor and baritone parts below; they were the first bluegrass band to perform on a college stage, and the first bluegrass band to play a concert at the White House.

Bobby's brother, Sonny, had to retire in 2004 because rotator cuff surgery forced him to stop playing the banjo. For Bobby, one door closed and another opened. His Rocky Top X-Press includes his son, Bobby Jr., on the guitar.

Tennessee's Blue Highway blends classic bluegrass with originals, led by founder (in 1995) and banjo player Tim Stafford, who also played as a road musician for Dusty Miller, Alison Krauss, and the Boys in the Band. Blue Highway's first album stayed on top of the Bluegrass Unlimited charts for five months and won the International Bluegrass Music Association's Album of the Year Award. Many awards later, Blue Highway remains much in demand.

Award-winning Cedar Hill, founded about 40 years ago by mandolinist Frank Ray, has honed traditional Ozarks' bluegrass to a fine art. For several years he has played with daughter-in-law and fiddler Lisa Ray. He's had several Songwriter of the Year awards and she had a chart-topper on the Bluegrass Gospel charts.

Lost Highway, a bluegrass institution, is built around Ken Orrick's soulful baritone and rhythm guitar.

Brier's Three Generations has a new CD out this month, "A Miner's Prayer." The band started in 2003 with a grandfather (mandolinist Harold Christensen), daughter and grandson, but has expanded.