Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe (/mənˈroʊ/; September 13, 1911[1] –

Bill Monroe
September 9, 1996)[2] was an American mandolinist, singer, and
songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of
this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass".[3]

The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys,
who named their group for the bluegrass of Monroe's home state
of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 69 years as a
singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader.
Monroe (left) and his brother
Charlie in 1936
Contents Background information
Early life Birth name William Smith
Professional career Monroe

"Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a Born September 13,

star 1911

Folk revival Rosine, Kentucky,

U.S.
Later years
Death Origin Kentucky, U.S.
Died September 9, 1996
Legacy and influence
(aged 84)
Discography
Springfield,
References Tennessee, U.S.
Sources Genres Bluegrass · gospel ·
External links country · blues ·
folk
Instrument(s) Mandolin, guitar
Early life Years active 1927–1996

Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, Labels Bluebird · Columbia
United States,[1] the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan · Decca · MCA ·
"Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her RCA Victor
brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented,
and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home.[1] Bill was of Scottish and English
heritage. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill was
resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin.[1] He recalled that his brothers insisted that he remove four
of the mandolin's eight strings so he would not play too loudly.

Monroe's mother died when he was ten, and his father died six years later.[1] By and by his brothers and
sisters moved away, leaving Monroe to bounce between uncles and aunts until finally settling in with his
disabled uncle Pendleton Vandiver, whom he often accompanied when Vandiver played the fiddle at
dances.[1] This experience inspired one of Monroe's most famous compositions, "Uncle Pen", recorded in
1950,[1] and the 1972 album Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen. On that album, Monroe recorded a number of
traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Vandiver has been credited with giving
Monroe "a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped
into his bones."[4] Also significant in Monroe's musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and
guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues.[5][6]

Professional career
In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work at an oil refinery with his brothers Birch and Charlie,[1] and
childhood friend and guitarist William "Old Hickory" Hardin. Together with a friend Larry Moore, they
formed the "Monroe Brothers", to play at local dances and house parties.

Birch and Moore soon left the group, and Bill and Charlie carried on as a duo, eventually winning spots
performing live on radio stations, first in Indiana and then, sponsored by Texas Crystals, on several radio
broadcasts in Shenandoah, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and North Carolina from 1934 to 1936.[1]
RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a recording contract in 1936.[1] They scored an immediate hit
single with the gospel song "What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul?" and ultimately recorded
60 tracks for Victor's Bluebird label between 1936 and 1938.[7]

After the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill Monroe formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock,
Arkansas, but the group only lasted for three months.[1] Monroe then left Little Rock for Atlanta, Georgia,
to form the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys,[1] with singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, fiddler Art Wooten, and
bassist Amos Garren. Bill had wanted William Hardin to become one of the original members of his Blue
Grass Boys; however, he had to decline.

In October 1939, Monroe successfully auditioned for a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry, impressing
Opry founder George D. Hay with his energetic performance of Jimmie Rodgers's "Mule Skinner
Blues".[1] Monroe recorded that song, along with seven others, at his first solo recording session for RCA
Victor in 1940; by this time, the Blue Grass Boys consisted of singer/guitarist Clyde Moody, fiddler
Tommy Magness, and bassist Bill Wesbrooks.[8]

While the fast tempos and instrumental virtuosity characteristic of bluegrass music are apparent even on
these early tracks, Monroe was still experimenting with the sound of his group. He seldom sang lead vocals
on his Victor recordings, often preferring to contribute high tenor harmonies as he had in the Monroe
Brothers. A 1945 session for Columbia Records featured an accordion, soon dropped from the band. Most
importantly, Monroe added banjo player David "Stringbean" Akeman to the Blue Grass Boys in 1942.[1]
Akeman played the instrument in a relatively primitive style and was rarely featured in instrumental solos.
Monroe's pre-1946 recordings represent a transitional style between the string-band tradition from which he
came and the musical innovation to follow.

"Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star

Key developments occurred in Monroe's music with the addition of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to the
Blue Grass Boys in December 1945.[1] Flatt played a solid rhythm guitar style that would help to set the
course for bluegrass timing. Scruggs played the banjo with a distinctive three-finger picking style that
immediately caused a sensation among Opry audiences. Flatt and Scruggs joined a highly accomplished
group that included fiddler Howdy Forrester and bassist Joe Forrester and would soon include fiddler
Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts, who often performed under the name "Cedric Rainwater". In
retrospect, this line-up of the Blue Grass Boys has been dubbed the "Original Bluegrass Band", as the
music finally included all the elements that characterize bluegrass music, including breakneck tempos,
sophisticated vocal harmony arrangements, and impressive instrumental proficiency demonstrated in solos
or "breaks" on the mandolin, banjo, and fiddle. By this time, Monroe had acquired the 1923 Gibson F5
model "Lloyd Loar" mandolin, which became his trademark instrument for the remainder of his career.[9]

The 28 songs recorded by this version of the Blue Grass Boys for Columbia Records in 1946 and 1947
soon became classics of the genre, including "Toy Heart", "Blue Grass Breakdown", "Molly and
Tenbrooks", "Wicked Path of Sin", "My Rose of Old Kentucky", "Little Cabin Home on the Hill", and
Monroe's most famous song "Blue Moon of Kentucky".[1] The last-named was recorded by Elvis Presley
in 1954, appearing as the B-side of his first single for Sun Records. Monroe gave his blessing to Presley's
rock and roll cover of the song, originally a slow ballad in waltz time, and re-recorded it himself with a
faster arrangement after Presley's version became a hit.[1] Several gospel-themed numbers are credited to
the "Blue Grass Quartet", which featured four-part vocal arrangements accompanied solely by mandolin
and guitar – Monroe's usual practice when performing "sacred" songs.

Both Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe's band in early 1948, soon forming their own group, the Foggy
Mountain Boys. In 1949, after signing with Decca Records, Monroe entered what has been called the
"golden age" of his career[10] with what many consider the classic "high lonesome" version of the Blue
Grass Boys, featuring the lead vocals and rhythm guitar of Jimmy Martin, the banjo of Rudy Lyle
(replacing Don Reno), and fiddlers such as Merle "Red" Taylor, Charlie Cline, Bobby Hicks, William
Hicks and Vassar Clements. This band recorded a number of bluegrass classics, including "My Little
Georgia Rose", "On and On", "Memories of Mother and Dad", and "Uncle Pen", as well as instrumentals
such as "Roanoke", "Big Mon", "Stoney Lonesome", "Get Up John", and the mandolin feature "Raw
Hide". Carter Stanley joined the Blue Grass Boys as guitarist for a short time in 1951 during a period when
The Stanley Brothers had temporarily disbanded.

On January 16, 1953, Monroe was critically injured in a two-car wreck.[1] He and "Bluegrass Boys" bass
player, Bessie Lee Mauldin, were returning home from a fox hunt north of Nashville. On highway 31-W,
near White House, their car was struck by a drunken driver. Monroe, who had suffered injuries to his back,
left arm and nose, was rushed to General Hospital in Nashville. It took him almost four months to recover
and resume touring.[1] In the meantime Charlie Cline and Jimmy Martin kept the band together.[11]

By the late 1950s, however, Monroe's commercial fortunes had begun to slip.[1] The rise of rock-and-roll
and the development of the "Nashville sound" in mainstream country music both represented threats to the
viability of bluegrass. While still a mainstay on the Grand Ole Opry, Monroe found diminishing success on
the singles charts, and struggled to keep his band together in the face of declining demand for live
performances.

Folk revival
Monroe's fortunes began to improve during the American folk music revival of the early 1960s. Many
college students and other young people were beginning to discover Monroe, associating his style more
with traditional folk music than with the country-and-western genre with which it had previously been
identified.

The word "bluegrass" first appeared around this time to describe the sound of Monroe and similar artists
such as Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley, Jim and Jesse, and the Osborne
Brothers. While Flatt and Scruggs immediately recognized the potential for a lucrative new audience in
cities and on college campuses in the North, Monroe was slower to respond. Under the influence of Ralph
Rinzler, a young musician and folklorist from New Jersey who briefly became Monroe's manager in 1963,
Monroe gradually expanded his geographic reach beyond the traditional southern country music circuit.[1]
Rinzler was also responsible for a lengthy profile and interview in the influential folk music magazine Sing
Out! that first publicly referred to Monroe as the "father" of bluegrass. Accordingly, at the first bluegrass
festival organized by Carlton Haney at Roanoke, Virginia in 1965, Bill Monroe was the central figure.[1]

In 1964, before the Grateful Dead got together, Jerry Garcia caravanned across the country from California
to tag along with Monroe.[12]

The growing national popularity of Monroe's music during the 1960s was also apparent in the increasingly
diverse background of musicians recruited into his band. Non-southerners who served as Blue Grass Boys
during this period included banjo player Bill Keith and singer/guitarist Peter Rowan from Massachusetts,[1]
fiddler Gene Lowinger from New Jersey, banjo player Lamar Grier from Maryland, banjo player Steve
Arkin from New York, and singer/guitarist Roland White and fiddler Richard Greene from California.

Later years
Even after the folk revival faded in the mid-1960s, it left a loyal audience for bluegrass music. Bluegrass
festivals became common, with fans often traveling long distances to see a number of different acts over
several days of performances.

In 1967, Monroe himself founded an annual bluegrass festival at Bean Blossom in southern Indiana, a park
he had purchased in 1951,[1] which routinely attracted a crowd of thousands; a double LP from the festival
featuring Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Lester Flatt, and Jim and Jesse was released in 1973. The annual Bill
Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival is now the world's oldest continuously running annual bluegrass
festival.[13]

Monroe's compositions during his later period were largely instrumentals, including "Jerusalem Ridge",
"Old Dangerfield" (originally spelled Daingerfield after the town in East Texas),[14] and "My Last Days on
Earth"; he settled into a new role as a musical patriarch who continued to influence younger generations of
musicians. Monroe recorded two albums of duets in the 1980s; the first featured collaborations with country
stars such as Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, and The Oak Ridge Boys, while the second paired him
with other prominent bluegrass musicians.[1] A 1989 live album celebrated his 50th year on the Grand Ole
Opry.[1] Monroe also kept a hectic touring schedule.[1] On April 7, 1990, Monroe performed for Farm Aid
IV in Indianapolis, Indiana along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and with many other
artists.

Death

Monroe's last performance occurred on March 15, 1996. He ended his touring and playing career in April,
following a stroke. Monroe died on September 9, 1996, in Springfield, Tennessee, four days before his
85th birthday.[2][15]

Legacy and influence

Bill Monroe was made an honorary Kentucky Colonel in 1966.[11] He was inducted into the Country
Music Hall of Fame in 1970,[1] the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971,[1] and the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame (as an "early influence") in 1997. Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams Sr., and Johnny
Cash are the only other performers honored in all three. As the "father of bluegrass", he was also an
inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991. Monroe was a recipient of
a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the
United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[16] That year's fellowships were
the first bestowed by the NEA. In 1993, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he
was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995. His well-known song "Blue Moon of Kentucky" has
been covered not only by bluegrass but also rock and country artists, most notably Elvis Presley, Paul
McCartney, and Patsy Cline. In 2003, CMT had Bill Monroe ranked No. 16 on CMT 40 Greatest Men of
Country Music.

Artists that claimed to be influenced by or to be playing the bluegrass genre were often bullied by Bill
Monroe. He always considered himself the father and caretaker of bluegrass. He would often say of new
bands that did not perform to his standards, "That ain't no part of nothin'." Even those who question the
scope of bluegrass refer to Monroe as a "musical giant" and recognize that "there would be no bluegrass
without Bill Monroe."[17]

More than 150 musicians played in the Blue Grass Boys over the nearly 60 years of Monroe's performing
career. Monroe tended to recruit promising young musicians who served an apprenticeship with him before
becoming accomplished artists in their own right. Some of Monroe's band members who went on to greater
prominence include singer/guitarists Clyde Moody, Lester Flatt, Jack Cook, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin,
Carter Stanley, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Roland White, Roland Dunn and Doug Green; banjo players
Earl Scruggs, Buck Trent, Don Reno, Stringbean, Sonny Osborne, and Bill Keith; and fiddlers Tommy
Magness, Chubby Wise, Vassar Clements, Byron Berline, Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, Gordon Terry,
Randall Franks and Glen Duncan. Monroe also regularly performed with flat-picking guitar virtuoso Doc
Watson.

Modern bluegrass singer and mandolin player Ricky Skaggs was influenced by Monroe. Skaggs was only
six years old, in 1960, when he first got to perform on stage with Monroe and his band at the high school in
Martha, Kentucky. He stated, "I think Bill Monroe's importance to American music is as important as
someone like Robert Johnson was to blues, or Louis Armstrong. He was so influential: I think he's
probably the only musician that had a whole style of music named after his band."[18]

In 1999, the portion of Indiana State Road 135 running from Morgantown through to Nashville, Indiana
was dedicated to Bill Monroe and is known as the Bill Monroe Memorial Highway.[19]

Discography
Southern Flavor (1988)
Cryin' Holy Unto the Lord (1991)

References
1. Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness
Publishing. pp. 1729/30. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
2. Flippo, Chet (September 21, 1996). "Industry Mourns Father of Bluegrass" (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=wwkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9). Billboard. pp. 6, 79. Retrieved June 13,
2014.
3. Klein, Bradley. "Bill Monroe: Celebrating The Father Of Bluegrass At 100" (https://www.npr.o
rg/2011/09/12/140366232/bill-monroe-celebrating-the-father-of-bluegrass-at-100). NPR.
Retrieved September 18, 2011.
4. Smith, Richard D. (2001). Can't You Hear Me Callin': the Life of Bill Monroe, Father of
Bluegrass. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306810541.
5. Robert Cantwell (2003). Bluegrass Breakdown: The Making of the Old Southern Sound.
University of Illinois Press. pp. 30–32. ISBN 9780252071171.
6. The Father of Bluegrass Music, DVD Documentary (1993)
 7. "Bill Monroe: American Musician" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bill-Monroe).
Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
8. "Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys" (http://doodah.net/bgb/). Doodah.net. Retrieved January 20,
2018.
9. Rosenberg, Neil V. (2005). BLUEGRASS: A History. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press,
ISBN 0-252-07245-6
10. Bill Monroe and Bluegrass by Roughstock staff, January 27, 2009 "Roughstock's History of
Country Music - Bill Monroe and Bluegrass" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090620032558/
http://www.roughstock.com/history/bill-monroe-and-bluegrass/). Archived from the original (ht
tp://www.roughstock.com/history/bill-monroe-and-bluegrass/) on June 20, 2009. Retrieved
June 7, 2009.
11. Rosenberg, Neil V., Wolfe, Charles K. (1989) "Bluegrass, Bill Monroe", Bear Family Records
Publication
12. "Jerry Garcia's Bluegrass Roots" (https://gardenandgun.com/articles/jerry-garcias-bluegrass-
roots/). Gardenandgun.com. May 3, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
13. Collector, Representative (9th District) Baron P. Hill-- (August 8, 2000). "Bill Monroe
Bluegrass Festival in Brown County" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080905004417/http://lc
web2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/IN/200002995.html). Lcweb2.loc.gov. Archived from the
original (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/loc.afc.afc-legacies.200002995/) on September
5, 2008. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
14. "Stoney Lonesome Fiddle Book", by Stacy Phillips
15. Jon Pareles (September 10, 1996). "Bill Monroe Dies at 84; Fused Musical Roots Into
Bluegrass" (https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/10/arts/bill-monroe-dies-at-84-fused-musical-r
oots-into-bluegrass.html). The New York Times. p. D 22. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
16. "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1982" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200929133224/h
ttps://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1982). www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the
Arts. Archived from the original (https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1982) on
September 29, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
17. Teachout, Terry (September 17, 2001). "Kentucky Troubadour: A biography of Bill Monroe
and the bluegrass music he invented" (https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/17/reviews/00
0917.17teachot.html). The New York Times. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
18. Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London:
Flame Tree Publishing. p. 196. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
19. "Brown County Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site, 2018.08.28" (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20180828170130/http://www.browncounty.com/bill-monroe-memorial-highway).
Archived from the original (http://www.browncounty.com/bill-monroe-memorial-highway) on
August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018.

Sources
Ewing, Tom. 2018. Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-04189-1
Klein, Bradley. (2011). "Bill Monroe: Celebrating The Father Of Bluegrass At 100 (https://ww
w.npr.org/2011/09/12/140366232/bill-monroe-celebrating-the-father-of-bluegrass-at-100)".
NPR.
Rumble, John (1998). "Bill Monroe". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury,
Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 350–2.
Smith, Richard D. (2000). Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of
Bluegrass. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-80381-2.
 Rosenberg, Neil V., and Charles K. Wolfe (2007). The Music of Bill Monroe. University of
Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-03121-0.

External links
Quotations related to Bill Monroe at Wikiquote

"Bill Monroe" (https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bill-monroe). Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Country Music Hall of Fame profile (https://web.archive.org/web/20100730034713/http://ww
w.countrymusichalloffame.org/full-list-of-inductees/view/bill-monroe)
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor profile (https://web.archive.org/web/200709272
24702/http://cms.ibma.org/site/ibma.awards/hall.of.honor/#1991)
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame profile (https://web.archive.org/web/20110927085513/ht
tp://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/l-o/bill-monroe.aspx)
Recording of "Wayfaring Stranger" from the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (available for public
use from the State Archives of Florida) (http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/folklife/fol
klife_cd2.cfm)
Bill Monroe: Father of Bluegrass Music (documentary video) (http://www.folkstreams.net/pub/
FilmPage.php?title=210)
"Bill Monroe in Indiana: From Lake to Brown County, Oil to Bluegrass," (http://blog.history.in.
gov/?p=307) Indiana Historical Bureau
Bill Monroe recordings (https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/103708) at the Discography of
American Historical Recordings.

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