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Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe isn’t just the “Father of Bluegrass”; he also is the source of the genre’s very name. In 1939, he formed a band named the Blue Grass Boys, inspired by his native Kentucky, the Blue Grass State. No one called their music Bluegrass while they were at their creative peak; it was only later, with historical perspective, that this type of music was defined.
Monroe was born September 13, 1911, near Rosine, Kentucky. Raised on a farm, he was surrounded by music. His mother played the accordion and the fiddle, his Uncle Pendleton was also a fiddler, and his brothers Birch and Charlie played fiddle and guitar. Because those instruments were already taken, Bill had to settle for playing the mandolin. Playing local dances, he learned a lot about blues guitar from a black musician, Arnold Schultz, and in church he learned about harmony.
After his parents died, Monroe left Kentucky in 1929 and moved north with his Uncle Pen. With his brothers Charlie and Birch, Bill found work as dancers for the WLS Radio “Barn Dance” troupe. In 1934, Charlie and Bill became full-time musicians, as the Monroe Brothers. They performed live throughout the Midwest and the South and played on radio. They became so popular that RCA signed them to a recording contract. They recorded their first session in Charlotte, North Carolina on February 17, 1936. Over a two-year period, the Monroe Brothers recorded 60 songs for RCA’s Bluebird imprint. In 1938 the act broke up, and Charlie remained with RCA. Bill formed a group called the Kentuckians. They never recorded, but in 1939 Bill put together the Blue Grass Boys and played live on small radio stations in Appalachia. The band – consisting of a string bass, a guitar, a fiddle, and Bill’s mandolin – auditioned for WSM’s “Grand Ole Opry.” By 1940 they were recording for RCA. Bill, who was a tenor to brother Charlie’s lead vocals in the Monroe Brothers, was now singing on his own. The Blue Grass Boys had a hit with a speeded-up version of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel Number 8,” better known as “Mule Skinner Blues,” the original of which had been recorded a decade earlier by Ralph S. Peer.
Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys grew in confidence and stature during the war years. In February 1945, they made a deal with Columbia Records and gave the label hits like “Kentucky Waltz.” The roster of the Blue Grass Boys kept changing as members left and new musicians joined. The 1946 version is considered the greatest bluegrass band ever put together. Earl Scruggs played banjo, Lester Flatt was the guitarist and vocalist, Chubby Wise played fiddle, and Cedric Rainwater, a.k.a. Howard Watt, was the bassist.
This incarnation of the Blue Grass Boys made 28 recordings for Columbia between September 1946 and October 1947, including the classic “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” later recorded by Elvis Presley. Flatt and Scruggs left in 1948 to form their own duo; Monroe continued to record, and in the 1950s signed with Decca. Monroe was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970. The National Academy of Recordings Arts and Sciences gave him Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. Monroe died on September 9, 1996. The following year, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence on rock and roll.
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