Jim & Jesse

A Legacy of Consistent Excellence and Innovation With the passing of Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne on June 23 and 27, 2023, at ages 91 and 93 respectively, most pioneers of the bluegrass sound have passed on and younger musicians are challenged to build on the musical foundation of artists like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley, Jim and Jesse, Mac Wiseman, the Osborne Brothers, and Jimmy Martin.  Jim and Jesse McReynolds were born in 1927 and 1929 in the mountains of southwest Virginia in Carfax, near Coeburn, Virginia, into a musical family. Their fiddling grandfather, Charles McReynolds,  recorded for Victor Talking Machine Company in Virginia at the historic Bristol Sessions the same year elder brother Jim was born. Initially featuring Jim on mandolin and Jesse on guitar, the brothers decided to swap instruments and work up their nerve to try singing to accompany their picking. Reserved by nature with a dry sense of humor, Jim and