Bill Monroe

For the retired NBC News correspondent of the same name, see Bill Monroe (journalist).

Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe, (September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) developed the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. He is often referred to as "the father of bluegrass."

Early life

Monroe was born in Rosine, Kentucky in a small cabin on Jerusalem Ridge (which he named) that burned down when he was only five years old. His father, James Buchanan Monroe, was a well-to-do farmer while his mother, Melissa Ann Van Diver, was from lower down the social scale. Melissa and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically inclined, and Bill Monroe learned old-time music from his uncle who was an itinerant fiddler. Thirty years later, Monroe wrote a song ("Uncle Pen") in honor of him and the music.

Professional career

Monroe's professional career began in the 1930s when he and his older brothers, Birch and Charlie, began performing as a trio, the Monroe Brothers, at a radio station in South Bend, Indiana near Hammond, Indiana where they worked in an oil refinery. Birch left the music scene early on in the Monroes' career, and the younger two brothers continued to perform as the Monroe Brothers. They were successful enough to record 60 songs in two years for Bluebird Records. In 1939, after the brothers parted ways, Monroe formed the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys, and in October of the same year became a regular on the Grand Ole Opry.

Blue Grass Boys and his heyday as a star

As a mandolin player, Monroe brought a virtuosity previously unknown in country music to his instrument. Monroe's personal mandolin, which has become the most famous in history, was a 1923 Gibson, Model F5, "Loyd Loar." In 1945 he hired Earl Scruggs, who similarly elevated the role of the banjo. This version of the Blue Grass Boys, which also included singer/guitarist Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts aka "Cedric Rainwater" on bass, made the first recordings that featured all the elements that later came to be known as bluegrass music. This particular group broke up when Flatt and Scruggs left the oft-domineering bandleader to form their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys.

Monroe quickly replaced them and within a few years had formed what many consider the classic "high lonesome" version of the Blue Grass Boys, featuring the cutting lead singing and powerful rhythm guitar of Jimmy Martin, the banjo of Rudy Lyle (replacing the fuller sound of Earl Scruggs), and dynamic fiddlers such as Merle "Red" Taylor and Charlie Cline. This band recorded songs such as "On and On", "Memories of Mother and Dad" and "Uncle Pen", as well as instrumentals such as "Bluegrass Ramble" and the defining piece of Bill Monroe's mandolin technique, "Rawhide". An instrumential about his birthplace "Jerusalem Ridge" was also performed.

In 1954 Elvis Presley recorded Monroe's 1940's hit "Blue Moon of Kentucky" as the B-side of his first Sun recording. Far from resenting Presley's jumped-up version, Monroe encouraged the young singer to keep developing his own style, and responded by re-arranging the song with an up-tempo arrangement with triple fiddles. Monroe kept the triple fiddles prominent in most of his late 50's recordings and appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. However, throughout this period rock & roll and rockabilly were seriously hurting many established country music stars, including Monroe. He often toured with only one musician (often multi-instrumentalist Charlie Cline) and picked up local musicians as necessary for his shows.

Folk music boom and rebirth

The folk music boom brought another audience to Monroe, mainly via the influence of his folklorist manager, Ralph Rinzler. During this period Monroe assembled another defining version of the Blue Grass Boys: the so-called "Northern" band of the mid-1960s, featuring musicians not of southern rural origin, including Bill Keith and later Lamar Grier on banjo, Peter Rowan as guitarist and lead singer, and Richard Greene as the fiddler.

Artists influenced by Monroe

More than 150 musicians played in the Blue Grass Boys over the years. Many later became stars in their own right, including Mac Wiseman, Clyde Moody, Sonny Osborne, Don Reno, David "Stringbean" Akeman, Del McCoury, Vassar Clements, Buck Trent, Peter Rowan, Byron Berline, Kenny Baker, Carter Stanley, Doug Green, and Randall Franks.

Later years

On April 7, 1990, Monroe performed for Farm Aid IV in Indianapolis, Indiana along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and with may other artists.

Monroe suffered a stroke in April 1996, effectively ending his touring and playing career. He would die on September 9, 1996. Emmylou Harris said of Monroe after his death:

We all knew that if he [(Monroe)] ever got to the point that he couldn't perform that he wasn't going to make it. Music was his life.

Awards and legacy

Bill Monroe was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971, 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. 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 #16 on CMT 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.

References

• Country Music Hall of Fame® profile
• International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor profile
• Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame profile
• Recording of "Wayfaring Stranger" from the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (available for public use from the State Archives of Florida)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® profile
• Rumble, John (1998). "Bill Monroe". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 350-2.