Bill Monroe
Artist: Bill Monroe
Genre(s):
Country
Gospel
Discography:
Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1936-1949 (cd6)
Year: 2002
Tracks: 30
Orange Blossom Special
Year: 1996
Tracks: 12
Bluegrass Gospel
Year: 1995
Tracks: 93
The Music Of Bill Monroe From 1936-1994 (cd4)
Year: 1994
Tracks: 23
The Music Of Bill Monroe From 1936-1994 (cd3)
Year: 1994
Tracks: 27
The Music Of Bill Monroe From 1936-1994 (cd2)
Year: 1994
Tracks: 24
The Music Of Bill Monroe From 1936-1994 (cd1)
Year: 1994
Tracks: 23
The Essential Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys (cd2)
Year: 1992
Tracks: 20
The Essential Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys (cd1)
Year: 1992
Tracks: 20
Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1936-1949 (cd5)
Year: 1950
Tracks: 30
Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1936-1949 (cd4)
Year: 1947
Tracks: 27
Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1936-1949 (cd3)
Year: 1938
Tracks: 29
Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1936-1949 (cd2)
Year: 1936
Tracks: 30
Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1936-1949 (cd1)
Year: 1936
Tracks: 29
Bluegrass 1950-1958 (cd1)
Year:
Tracks: 25
Bill Monroe is the father of the Church of bluegrass. He invented the expressive style, invented the name, and for the great majority of the 20th century, embodied the artistic production sort. Beginning with his Blue Grass Boys in the '40s, Monroe defined a hard-edged style of area that emphasised subservient virtuosity, close vocal harmonies, and a fast, driving tempo. The melodic genre took its name from the Blue Grass Boys, and Monroe's music forever has defined the sound of hellenic bluegrass Region -- a five-piece acoustic string banding, performing incisively and quickly, switch solos and singing in a plaintive, high sole voice. Not only did he invent the selfsame sound of the medicine, Monroe was the mentor for respective generations of musicians. Over the age, Monroe's band hosted all of the major bluegrass Region artists of the '50s and '60s, including Flatt & Scruggs, Reno & Smiley, Vassar Clements, Carter Stanley, and Mac Wiseman. Though the lineup of the Blue Grass Boys changed over the age, Monroe always remained devoted to bluegrass Country in its purest form.
President Monroe was born into a musical family. His father of the Church had been known round their hometown of Rosine, KY, as a step-dancer, while his mother played a form of instruments and panax quinquefolius. His uncle, Pendelton Vanderver, was a locally noted twiddler. Both of his old brothers, Harry and Birch, played fiddle, spell his brother Charlie and sister Bertha played guitar. Bill himself became involved with music as a child, acquisition the mandolin at the geezerhood of ten. Following the death of his parents while he was a preteen, Monroe went to live with his Uncle Pen. Soon, he was playacting in his uncle's band at local dances, playing guitar instead of mandolin. During this time, Monroe met a local blues guitarist called Arnold Shultz, world Health Organization became a major influence on the budding player.
When Monroe turned 18, he moved to East Chicago, IN, where his brothers Birch and Charlie were working at an oil refinery. Monroe too got a job at the Sinclair fossil oil refinery and began playacting with his brothers in a country string band at night. Within a few days, they performed on the Barn Dance on WLS Chicago, which light-emitting diode to the brothers' coming into court in a square dance review called the WLS Jamboree in 1932. The Monroes continued to do at nox, but Birch left the band in 1934. Ironically, it was just earlier the group landed a sponsorship of the Texas Crystals Company, which made laxatives. Charlie and Bill distinct to bear on playacting as the Monroe Brothers.
The Monroe Brothers began playacting in other states, including radio shows in Nebraska, Iowa, and both North and South Carolina. Such exposure light-emitting diode to criminal record tag interest, but the Monroe Brothers were initially reluctant to sign a transcription get. After some persuasion, they inked a deal with RCA-Victor's Bluebird division and recorded their low gear session in February of 1936. One of the songs from the roger Sessions, "What Would You Give in Exchange," became a minor strike and the duet recorded some other 60 tracks for Bluebird over the succeeding deuce long time.
In the beginning of 1938, Bill and Charlie parted slipway, with Charlie forming the Kentucky Pardners. Bill assembled his have band with the intention of creating a new descriptor of country that melded quaint string bands with blues and challenged the instrumental abilities of the musicians. Initially, he stirred to Little Rock, where he formed the Kentuckians, simply that band was ephemeral. He then relocated to Atlanta, where he formed the Blue Grass Boys and began appearing on the Crossroad Rollies radio program. Monroe debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in October of 1939, singing "Raw Muleskinner Blues." It was a performance that made Monroe's calling as well as established the new genre of blue grass.
In the former '40s, Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys exhausted some prison term developing their style, ofttimes sounding similar to other contemporary string bands. The virtually noteworthy component of the band's reasoned was Monroe's high, penetrating tenor voice and his driving mandolin. The Blue Grass Boys toured with the Grand Ole Opry's road shows and appeared weekly on the radio. Between 1940 and 1941, he cut a turn of songs for RCA-Victor, simply a musicians' pairing come to prevented him from transcription for several geezerhood. The classic lineup of the Blue Grass Boys fell into stead in 1944, when guitarist/vocalist Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs joined a lineup that already included Monroe, tinkerer Chubby Wise, and bassist Howard Watts. This is the group that supported Monroe when he returned to the studio in 1945, recording a number of songs for Columbia. Early in 1946, he had his kickoff charting strike with "Kentucky Waltz," which climbed to number tercet; it was followed by the number five strike "Footprints in the Snow."
Throughout 1946, the Blue Grass Boys were one of the to the highest degree democratic acts of the Apostles in rural area music, marking hits and touring to large crowds across America. At each town they played, the band would do underneath a large circus collapsible shelter they countersink up themselves; the tent would besides host a change of former attractions, including Monroe's baseball squad, which would play local teams before the concert began. During the late '40s, the Blue Grass Boys remained a popular dissemble, landing basketball team additional Top 20 singles. Numerous other acts began imitating Monroe's sound, to the highest degree notably the Stanley Brothers.
Flatt & Scruggs left hand the Blue Grass Boys in 1948 to variety their own ring. Their leaving ushered in an epoch of doldrums for Monroe. After Flatt & Scruggs parted ways from his ring, he left Columbia Records in 1949 because they had sign-language the Stanley Brothers, wHO he felt were simply imitating his expressive style. The next year, he signed with Decca Records, wHO tested to sway Monroe to attempt some mainstream-oriented productions. He went as far as thinning a few songs with an electric guitar, but he soon returned to his utter bluegrass sound. At these roger Huntington Sessions, he did foregather Jimmy Martin, wHO became his supporting vocalizer in the early '50s.
End-to-end the '50s -- indeed, passim the repose of his career -- Monroe toured unrelentingly, performing hundreds of shows a year. In 1951, Monroe opened a rural area music parking lot at Bean Blossom, IN; o'er the geezerhood, the locus featured performances from a number of bluegrass acts of the Apostles. Monroe suffered a serious elevator car accident in January of 1953, which sidelined his life history for several months. The next year, Elvis Presley performed Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" at his one and only Grand Ole Opry appearance, radically reworking the organisation; Presley apologized for his version, but Monroe would later on perform the like musical arrangement at his concerts.
Norma Jean Baker released his first base album, Stifle Deep in Bluegrass, in 1958, the same year he appeared on the country singles chart with "Scotland"; the number 27 single was his outset hit in virtually a decennium. However, by the late '50s his stardom was eclipsed by Flatt & Scruggs. Monroe was non helped by his legendary obstinance. Numerous musicians passed through his band because of his temperament and his quest for detail, he rarely given press interviews and would seldom perform on tV; he even canceled a concert at Carnegie Hall because he believed the impresario, Alan Lomax, was a commie. In the '60s, Monroe received a great vocation hike up from the common people music revival, which made him popular with a new generation of listeners. Thanks to his new director, ex-Greenbriar Boys member Ralph Rinzler, Monroe played blue grass festivals across the U.S., frequently on college campuses. In 1967, he founded his possess blue grass festival, the Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Festival, at his country music ballpark, which continued to black market into the '90s.
In 1970, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; the next year, the Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall of Fame. Throughout the '70s, he toured constantly. In 1981, Monroe was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment for the disease successfully. After his recovery, he resumed his busy touring schedule, which he unbroken into the '90s. In 1991, he had surgery for a two-fold coronary thrombosis bypass, only he apace recovered and continued performing and hosting weekly at the Grand Ole Opry. In 1993, the Grammys gave Monroe a Lifetime Achievement Award. After woe a stroke in other 1996, Monroe died on September 9, 1996, four years short of his eighty-fifth birthday.
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