The Music Of Bill Monroe 1936-1994 (Box Set) (CD)

One of the giants of 20th-century music, Kentucky-born Bill Monroe was the undisputed creator of bluegrass. His mandolin-picking and plaintive tenor are among the genre's most moving and distinctive sounds. His band, the Bluegrass Boys, provided the launching pad for innumerable bluegrass careers, graduating such luminaries as Flatt and Scruggs, Reno and Smiley, and Peter Rowan. Though his period of greatest popularity was the '40s and '50s, Monroe was a tireless performer who continued to play live into the '90s, even after treatment for cancer and a double bypass operation. By the time of his death in 1996, he had been crowned several times over as the king of bluegrass and proved a seminal inspiration to several generations of musicians.

• Category:  Music  »  Country  »  Bluegrass
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: June 21, 1994
• Label: MCA Records (USA)
• UPC: 008811104825
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106609318
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #45316 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #2164 in Country (See Top 100 Country Bestsellers)
• #283 in Bluegrass (See Top 100 Bluegrass Bestsellers)

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Sing Out! (11-12/94-1/95, pp.137-138) - "...Two things stand out in this summary of Monroe's career. First, it is striking how consistent his sound has remained over the years....The second revelation is just how much of the working repertoire of bluegrass bands today consists of Monroe's compositions..."

Personnel includes: Bill Monroe (vocals, mandolin, guitar); Jimmy Maynard (vocals, guitar); Charlie Cline (vocals, guitar, fiddle); James Monroe (vocals, guitar, bass); Blake Williams (vocals, banjo); Benny Williams (vocals, fiddle); Tex Willis, Wayne Lewis, Dale Sellers (guitar); Rudy Lyle, Lamar Grier, Bob Black (banjo); Buddy Pennington (mandolin); Dale Potter, Charlie Smith, Red Hayes (fiddle); Sheldon Kurland Strings (strings); Owen Bradley (vibraphone); Amos Green, Bessie Lee Mauldin, Billy Rose (bass).

Additional guest artists: Carl Butler, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Sonny Osborne, Curtis McPeake, Bill Keith, J.C. Davis, Chubby Wise, Vassar Clements, Gordon Terry, Bobby Hicks, Tommy Jackson, Buddy Spicher, Richard Greene, Byron Berline, Glen Duncan, Emory Gordy, Jr.

Producers: Eli Oberstein (disc 1, track 1-2); Frank Walker (disc 1, tracks 4-5); Art Satherley (disc 1, tracks 6-11); Harold Bradley (disc 2, track 22); Owen Bradley (disc 3, tracks 2, 6-7); Harry Silverstein (disc 3, tracks 11-27); Walter Haynes (disc 4, tracks 1-6, 10-12); Walter Haynes, Leonard "Snuffy" Miller (disc 4, track 7); David Freeman (disc 4, tracks 8-9); Emory Gordy, Jr. (disc 4, tracks 13-19); Steve Buchanan, Bill Monroe (disc 4, tracks 20-21); Steve Buchanan (disc 4, track 22); Vic Gabany (disc 4, track 23).

Compilation producer: The Country Music Foundation.

Recorded between 1936 and 1994. Includes liner notes by John W. Rumble.

There aren't many 20th Century American musicians who contributed as much to their forms of expression as mandolinist Bill Monroe did to his. After all, how many can credibly claim that they invented their style? The "Daddy of Bluegrass" surely can, since he defined not only its rhythmic breakdowns and hillbilly harmonies, but the music's scriptural intentions and fervent connections to the common folk. From his tours with brother Charlie as the Monroe Brothers, through his spotlight as smooth, expert bandleader and Grand Ol' Opry mainstay, into his autumn as a patriarchal preacher of bluegrass, he carried himself as a dignified giant--and he was. The comprehensive four-disc THE MUSIC OF BILL MONROE chronicles his long story.

All the seeds of Monroe's Eastern Kentucky-bred style can already be spotted in the Monroe Brothers selections: Bill's hyperactively precise mandolin attack, the two-part vocal harmonies, the blues and negro-spiritual influences. When he debuted the initial version of his Blue Grass Boys on national radio, driving through Jimmie Rodgers' "Muleskinner Blues," Monroe added a backwoods fiddle and a stand-up bass to the guitar/mandolin/voices lineup. He added a banjo in 1945. Monroe went through many sidemen in those years, and his choosiness paid off. His Blue Grass Boys of 1946-49--featuring guitarist-vocalist Lester Flatt and father of bluegrass banjo Earl Scruggs on some of the country's greatest musical recordings--became the standard by which all other bluegrass groups were judged, adding a jazz-influenced flexibility to the interplay.

From there on, Monroe became the music's ambassador and its main mentor. Much as with Miles Davis' jazz ensembles, just about every important bluegrass musician in existence served time as a Blue Grass Boy (just look to the credits for proof). Monroe finally passed on to the grand honky-tonk in the sky in September 9, 1996, but his legacy will not be soon forgotten.

A comprehensive four-disc box set produced under the auspices of the Country Music Foundation, THE MUSIC OF BILL MONROE 1936-1994 is the first collection to cover Monroe's entire musical career, one which spanned several decades and nearly as many record labels. This collection of 98 songs, presented in strict chronological order, begins with Monroe's early duets with his brother Charlie, and ends on a relaxed and graceful run through the traditional folk tune "Boston Boy" nearly six decades later. The result is not only a history of Monroe's career, but also a history of bluegrass music as a whole.

In the early, frenetic bluegrass days of the '30s, the high-speed instrumental breakdowns of the Bluegrass Boys' still-breathtaking first singles arrived with the same impact as Elvis would have two decades later, or even the Sex Pistols 40 years on. In fact, it's important to remember that this music was as new and foreign as rock & roll or punk rock would be in their nascent days. The young turk Monroe eventually became bluegrass's elder statesman, and while purists might occasionally cringe at the countrypolitan sweetening that Owen Bradley and others added to Monroe's folk-influenced style in the '60s and '70s, the strength of Monroe's abilities never wavered.

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