JeffCo native, legendary bluegrass musician honored at country music museum


Bluegrass musician CJ Lewandowski, a Jefferson County native, will be featured in a Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit starting this month, along with his late friend, mentor, and bluegrass legend Bobby Osborne.

Lewandowski, 36, said it’s a big honor to be included in the exhibit.

“I started playing music right there in Dittmer and Grubville and had jam sessions at the Hardee’s in House Springs for years,” Lewandowski said. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that the Country Music Hall of Fame would recognize something that I did.”

Not only will Lewandowski be featured in the American Currents: State of the Music exhibit at the hall of fame and museum in Nashville, but also he will play in a musician spotlight at the museum. The exhibit will open Feb. 28 and run for a year, and Lewandowski’s spotlight performance will be on March 3.

Ryan Dooley, senior curator at the museum, said a sub-exhibit within American Currents called the Unbroken Circle highlights friendships and mentorships between country artists, and Lewandowski and Osborne were chosen to be a part of that sub-exhibit.

Dooley said artifacts from both Lewandowski and Osborne are on display at the exhibit, including stage costumes and personal effects.

“We examined a lot of the established pillars of country music and how some of the more contemporary artists have been influenced by them directly or through music style or stage presence or touring schedules, really anything under the sun,” Dooley said. “We look for those connections and highlight them to show that the circle is unbroken. The traditions, methods and attitudes have prevailed over the years and continue to directly influence country music today.”

Lewandowski said he first listened to Osborne perform at a bluegrass festival in Eminence in 2003. After meeting Osborne in 2006, Lewandowski said the two formed a strong friendship over the years.

Osborne died June 27, 2023. He was 91.

“Probably two days before he passed, he told his daughter that I was his best friend,” Lewandowski said. “Not to discredit this exhibit or anything that I’ve done, but that was the icing on the cake, the cherry on top for me. I just wanted to help him out, and I think he recognized that. It was a huge honor.”

CJ and Bobby

Lewandowski, who now lives in Sevierville, Tenn., grew up in House Springs, Dittmer and Grubville. He graduated from Northwest High School in 2005.

He currently plays mandolin for the Grammy-nominated band the Po’ Ramblin Boys, alongside Josh Rinkel, Jerome Brown, Jasper Lorentzen and Laura Orshaw. Lewandowski formed the band in 2014.

Lewandowski said he was debating whether a musical career was the right choice for him when he first met Osborne, who played music professionally for more than 75 years, and Osborne gave him hope and inspired him to keep going.

“For someone to play music and be in the music industry and be through the ups and downs and be at the top one day and be at the bottom the next, you know, that’s a really hard thing to keep your wits about,” Lewandowski said. “He did, and I was going through a hard period when I was starting to hang out with him and contemplating a lot of things as far as changing careers, and just sitting with him and listening to him play, it just rejuvenated me and my love for music.”

Lewandowski said he would bring a mandolin along to every visit with Osborne for spontaneous jam sessions.

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Osborne played an iconic Gibson Fern mandolin onstage and on recording albums, and Lewandowski said he and Osborne bonded over their shared appreciation for the mandolin.

The two sometimes headed to a music studio when inspiration struck or watched performances together at the Grand Ole Opry.

“He was a hero of mine,” Lewandowski said.

Dooley said when curators, writers and editors went about putting together the exhibit a year ago, Lewandowski and Osborne’s relationship seemed like the perfect fit, adding that Lewandowski helped the museum procure pieces from Osborne’s collection for the exhibit.

“With CJ, I really kind of got smacked across the face with it,” Dooley said. “Po’ Ramblin Boys was doing a show at Station Inn, in town, and CJ was wearing one of Bobby’s jackets, his old stage wear. He got on stage and talked about how much Bobby’s friendship and mentorship meant to him, how it helped him navigate the business side of things, and the creative side of playing bluegrass music.

“It was exactly the kind of thing we like to highlight in the Unbroken Circle section.”

Upcoming album

After years of the two meeting, playing the mandolin and writing songs, Lewandowski said the idea to collaborate on an album came naturally.

He said they also planned to bring in special guests to perform on certain tracks.

The album is still in the works, but one single titled “Too Old to Die Young,” was released on Oct. 22, 2023, after Osborne died.

“The project was going to be Bobby and me,” Lewandowski said, “and we had a lot of great people who were going to be on the project. But instead of doing it with Bobby, we’re doing it now for Bobby.”

Osborne will be featured on eight of the songs on the album, Lewandowski said, adding that he and the guest artists will fill out the rest of the album.

“It’s really cool to hear Bobby at 91 just playing the heck out of stuff,” Lewandowski said. “I’m glad we got what we got, but I wish I would have hustled a little bit more to get more from him because that’s what he wanted, but our schedules didn’t meet up and you can’t change the past. I just hope people want to hear it and enjoy it because Bobby loved music more than anyone I have ever met in my life.”

Lewandowski said the album will be released with Turnberry Records, probably later this year.

Dooley said the American Currents exhibit, with the special Unbroken Circles sub-exhibit featuring Lewandowski and Osborne, will be on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum until February 2025.

“This has been an incredible experience and I hope that people are proud and might get down to Nashville, to the Country Music Hall of Fame,” Lewandowski said. “To me, being in this exhibit is kind of unthinkable, but the best thing is that I’m being featured with one of my best friends.”

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