We were singing I Saw the Light, Monroe leading the audience at the end of a show, Hot Rize on stage with the Blue Grass Boys, I think in 1984 on a summer night in Boulder. He not only gets there, he gets there early too. The one time I got to sing on the same mic as the Father of Bluegrass, I learned something about his timing.
The musical variations built on bluegrass rhythms and techniques are amazingly diverse and fully international. Monroe didn’t create the styles, but he created and for over 50 years sternly and lovingly cultivated the seedbed where they flowered. Even if they go into rock or country, many musicians acknowledge a debt to the music that launched virtuoso styles of three-finger banjo picking, flatpicking an acoustic dreadnought guitar or F-style mandolin, fiddle, and Dobro resophonic guitar. The attitude and presentation of classic core bluegrass, bearing Monroe’s indelible stamp, remains home base for all bluegrass. In Monroe’s last years, he basked in the title “Father of Bluegrass Music,” performing on the Opry and widespread festival locations, always in a sharp suit and big white hat, writing many mandolin tunes, exploring minor keys, and seeing the world from the White House to Japan as an honored representative of American culture, and mentor to many.įew music figures in history have commanded such influence and respect for over sixty years while on earth, and far beyond. Bluegrass music’s legacy grew, nationally and internationally.
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Lester and Earl then started their own band, but Bill dug his heels in and cultivated a succession of stellar sidemen who went on to their own influential careers: Don Reno, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, Sonny Osborne, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Byron Berline and many more. Blue Grass Breakdown and On My Way Back to the Old Homewere exciting hallmarks of a distinct new music, featuring new virtuoso picking styles on acoustic string instruments and high harmony singing-direct and pure. In the mid-40s, the dream Blue Grass Boys came together, Lester Flatt (guitar), Earl Scruggs (banjo), Chubby Wise (fiddle), and Howard Watts (bass) recording 28 tracks that became the Holy Grail of bluegrass. That fiery tenor and mandolin made him one of country’s biggest stars… and the Opry job lasted 57 years. In 1939 Bill assembled the first Blue Grass Boys, and was told by the Grand Ole Opry he had a lifetime job. In the 30s Bill and Charlie, the Monroe Brothers, were country’s hottest mando/guitar singing duet. Bill gigged from the 1920s to 1996, his final year.
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In 1929 the teenager joined his brothers in the Chicago area, and worked with them playing music, and on a professional dance team. The two played dances and mixed it up with good musicians. Bill stayed there alone until he was taken in by his uncle Pen, who happened to be an outstanding fiddler. By age 16 his parents had died and his brothers and sisters left the family home. Walking the Kentucky hills and doing his plowing, he’d sing in a high intense wail. 13, 1911-the youngest of 8, cross-eyed and a loner, who took up mandolin because it was the only instrument the others weren’t playing.
One hundred years ago there was not much pavement in America, no such thing as an old car or a world war. I’ll bet a lot of you wizened BNL readers already know the story of Bill Monroe, but even for you, it’s good to have a capsule look at the hundred years that will be celebrated next month. Their music and their efforts made possible my life as a musician, and the community I call home. These men mean more to me than words can say. Those who still perform will be with their bands. Crowe, Sonny Osborne, Eddie Adcock, Paul Williams and the rest. This Monday-Wednesday does not fit my schedule at all, but I cannot miss what’s sure to be the last time to gather with this large a gallery of the seminal bluegrass pioneers-Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Bobby Osborne, Jesse McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, and Doc Watson, all in their 80s, and Curly Seckler, in his 90s-not to mention the likes of J.D.
Next month’s Monroe Centennial celebration is sure to be a never- before and never-again event: The International Bluegrass Museum has commitments from every living Bluegrass Hall of Famer to come to Owensboro, Kentucky for a music gala like no other, Sept. By Pete Wernick – August 2011 column, Banjo Newsletter ( PDF)