William Smith Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys, who named their group for the bluegrass of Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 69 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader.
Introduction
Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe | Introduction
Yes,  Blue Grass Boys Yes, Blue Grass Boys. Yes, the Blue Grass Boys. Yes, THe Monroe Brothers.
who is the original singer of you're gonna miss me when i'm gone
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Over the years, the original has been recorded by many artists, most notably by Charlie Monroe. Lulu and the Lampshades were the first to use the cup game for percussion when performing the song
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who is this mentioned person?
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He  was an American country and bluegrass music guitarist.
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does he have siblings?
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Yes, Bill Monroe, Bertha, Birch
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what are his single works?
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Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
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among the above three brothers; was the first one part of any band?
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They scored an immediate hit single with the gospel song "What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul?" and ultimately recorded 60 tracks for Victor's Bluebird label between 1936 and 1938. After the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill Monroe formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the group only lasted for three months. Monroe then left Little Rock for Atlanta, Georgia, to form the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys with singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, fiddler Art Wooten, and bassist Amos Garren. Bill had wanted William Hardin to become one of the original members of his Blue Grass Boys, however he had to decline.
Bill Monroe | Professional career
In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work at an oil refinery with his brothers Birch and Charlie, and childhood friend and guitarist William "Old Hickory" Hardin. Together with a friend Larry Moore, they formed the "Monroe Brothers", to play at local dances and house parties. Birch and Moore soon left the group, and Bill and Charlie carried on as a duo, eventually winning spots performing live on radio stations, first in Indiana and then, sponsored by Texas Crystals, on several radio broadcasts in Shenandoah Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and North Carolina from 1934 to 1936. RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a recording contract in 1936.
Bill Monroe | Professional career
This band recorded a number of bluegrass classics, including "My Little Georgia Rose", "On and On", "Memories of Mother and Dad", and "Uncle Pen", as well as instrumentals such as "Roanoke", "Big Mon", "Stoney Lonesome", "Get Up John", and the mandolin feature "Raw Hide". Carter Stanley joined the Blue Grass Boys as guitarist for a short time in 1951 during a period when The Stanley Brothers had temporarily disbanded.
Bill Monroe | "Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star
This group of men became the prototype of what a bluegrass band would become.
Earl Scruggs | With Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
Texas Crystals dropped the sponsorship in 1936, but Crazy Water Crystal Company picked it up, and the brothers continued with the show. That same year, the brothers first recorded together for Bluebird Records. Bill and Charlie recorded together for the next two years, but Bill chafed under Charlie's role as the usual lead singer. Both brothers were hot-headed and hard-working and felt they could succeed on their own. Charlie was comfortable leading a band, more so than his brother Bill as a result of his outgoing personality, and they split in 1938.
Charlie Monroe | The Monroe Brothers
Following the release of "Cease to Begin", Monroe became a permanent member of the band, along with new recruits Tyler Ramsey (guitar and vocals) and Bill Reynolds (bass). This once again made Band of Horses a six-piece band. In addition to his role in the band, Ramsey often performed solo as the opening act before the band play live.
Band of Horses | "Cease to Begin" (2007–2009)
Each then formed his own band, with Bill starting The Kentuckians (later the Blue Grass Boys) and Charlie, The Kentucky Pardners. Charlie brought members of the Monroe Brothers act with him to Knoxville and then to Roanoke playing on radio stations. By this time he had hired Bill Calhoun and Zeke Morris, and he was attempting a re-creation of the Monroe Brothers duet sound. He spent most of his time during the early 1940s in Greensboro, North Carolina at radio station WBIG, where he was featured on a show called the Noonday Jamboree every day. He also spent some time in '44 and '45 at WSJS in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Charlie Monroe | Solo career
The discography for the American bluegrass musician Bill Monroe includes a selection of compilation albums. No duplicates are listed.
Bill Monroe discography | Introduction
He would often say of new bands that did not perform to his standards, "That ain't no part of nothin'." Even those who question the scope of bluegrass refer to Monroe as a "musical giant" and recognize that "there would be no bluegrass without Bill Monroe." More than 150 musicians played in the Blue Grass Boys over the nearly 60 years of Monroe's performing career. Monroe tended to recruit promising young musicians who served an apprenticeship with him before becoming accomplished artists in their own right. Some of Monroe's band members who went on to greater prominence include singer/guitarists Clyde Moody, Lester Flatt, Jack Cook, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Roland White, Roland Dunn and Doug Green; banjo players Earl Scruggs, Buck Trent, Don Reno, Stringbean, Sonny Osborne, and Bill Keith; and fiddlers Tommy Magness, Chubby Wise, Vassar Clements, Byron Berline, Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, Gordon Terry, Randall Franks and Glen Duncan.
Bill Monroe | Legacy and influence
His career started with the "Monroe Brothers", a duo with his brother Charlie. Bill sang the high tenor harmony parts, a sound called "high lonesome", for which he became noted. The brothers split up in 1938 and Bill, a native of "the Bluegrass State" of Kentucky, formed a new group called Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. They first played on the Opry in 1939 and soon became a popular touring band featuring a vocalist named Lester Flatt. The name bluegrass stuck and eventually became the eponym for this entire genre of country music and Monroe became known as "the father of bluegrass." When Scruggs was 21, Monroe was looking for a banjo player for his group, because David "Stringbean" Akeman was quitting.
Earl Scruggs | With Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
Birch Monroe (May 16, 1901 – May 15, 1982) was an American old time and early bluegrass fiddler, bassist, dancer, founding member of the Monroe brothers, and older brother to Charlie and Bill Monroe. He grew up on a farm with five brothers and sisters before leaving it in the late twenties. Unlike brothers Charlie and Bill he chose to not pursue a career in music.
Birch Monroe | Introduction
During this time, Bill Monroe was not particularly fond of groups like the Stanley Brothers and Flatt & Scruggs who he believed "stole" his music by copying it; they were seen as "economic threats." Financially hard times in the early 1950s forced the brothers to take a short break in their musical career. They began working for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Eventually, Monroe and the Stanley Brothers became friends, and Carter performed for several months with Bill Monroe in the summer of 1951. In August 1951, Ralph was involved in a serious automobile accident that almost ended his career.
The Stanley Brothers | Careers
Bill Monroe's first solo recording session, to be released as "The Blue Grass Boys", was recorded in a temporary recording studio in the Kimball House on October 7, 1940.
Kimball House (Atlanta) | Later years
By this time, Monroe had acquired the 1923 Gibson F5 model "Lloyd Loar" mandolin, which became his trademark instrument for the remainder of his career. The 28 songs recorded by this version of the Blue Grass Boys for Columbia Records in 1946 and 1947 soon became classics of the genre, including "Toy Heart", "Blue Grass Breakdown", "Molly and Tenbrooks", "Wicked Path of Sin", "My Rose of Old Kentucky", "Little Cabin Home on the Hill", and Monroe's most famous song "Blue Moon of Kentucky". The last-named was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1954, appearing as the B-side of his first single for Sun Records.
Bill Monroe | "Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star
This lineup can be considered as a bluegrass supergroup, a term not often used with bluegrass. The original start of the group was connected with Bill Monroe, as Richard Greene (who played for his Bluegrass Boys before), was asked to put a band together to join him in a television program. However, Monroe's bus had some technical problems and Muleskinner had to play the whole evening on their own and it was a success.
Muleskinner (band) | Planned show with Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys, who named their group for the bluegrass of Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 69 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader.
Bill Monroe | Introduction
"What Do All the People Know" / "Yamarock" (Alfa Records ALF-7119) 1982 U.S.
The Monroes (American band) | Seven-Inch singles
Bill Monroe, sixty years old at the time, refused to participate in the recordings.
Will the Circle be Unbroken (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album) | History
Monroe gave his blessing to Presley's rock and roll cover of the song, originally a slow ballad in waltz time, and in fact re-recorded it himself with a faster arrangement after Presley's version became a hit. Several gospel-themed numbers are credited to the "Blue Grass Quartet", which featured four-part vocal arrangements accompanied solely by mandolin and guitar – Monroe's usual practice when performing "sacred" songs. Both Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe's band in early 1948, soon forming their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys. In 1949, after signing with Decca Records, Monroe entered what has been called the "golden age" of his career with what many consider the classic "high lonesome" version of the Blue Grass Boys, featuring the lead vocals and rhythm guitar of Jimmy Martin, the banjo of Rudy Lyle (replacing Don Reno), and fiddlers such as Merle "Red" Taylor, Charlie Cline, Bobby Hicks, William Hicks and Vassar Clements.
Bill Monroe | "Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star
Once Elias left for a solo career, he allowed Davis to keep the name.
The Monroes (American band) | Background
Monroe also regularly performed with flat-picking guitar virtuoso Doc Watson.
Bill Monroe | Legacy and influence
It was their first single released on MGM Records, and was also included in their first eponymously titled MGM album. After the success of that single, their younger sister Susan and brother Paul joined the band. This was followed by Bill's attempt to get remaining brother Richard in the group. Bill had been impressed by Richard's drumming and set him up for an audition with father Bud, but after listening for about 30 seconds Bud flatly rejected Richard from joining the group. "The Rain, The Park & Other Things" single sold over a million copies in late 1967 and reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Bill Cowsill | The Cowsills
His influence radically changed Monroe's music from the fast-paced but smooth style of the "original" 1945 band with Flatt and Scruggs. Martin challenged Monroe to raise the pitch on many of his classics and to write new, "lonesome" songs. This band with Rudy Lyle (banjo) and Charlie Cline (fiddle) was one of the many high points of Monroe's career. Martin's lead was defining in "lonesome" songs such as "Sitting Alone in the Moonlight", "Memories of Mother and Dad" and "I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome". Martin had a famously high-strung and exuberant personality, and inevitably clashed with Monroe's equally stubborn temperament. He left Monroe and worked briefly with the Osborne Brothers until he formed his own band, "The Sunny Mountain Boys" in 1955.
Jimmy Martin | Music career
In the late 1950s, Kuykendall wrote several articles and discographies for "Disc Collector" magazine which were "the first serious writing about the discographical aspects of the careers of [Bill] Monroe, Reno and Smiley, Flatt and Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers." Folklorist and music scholar Neil V. Rosenberg has called him "the first discographer of bluegrass music."
Pete Kuykendall | Discographer
Charlie Monroe was born on his family's farm in Rosine, Kentucky; he was the older brother of the mandolin player Bill Monroe. His sister Bertha also played guitar, and brother Birch, fiddle. Charlie, Birch, and Bill played together as a band in the middle of the 1920s, and played on radio starting in 1927. Soon after this, however, their parents died and Charlie and Birch moved to Detroit and then Indiana to find work, eventually taking jobs in oil refineries near Hammond, Indiana. Bill followed them into the oil business in 1929, and the three continued performing in small-time and private venues.
Charlie Monroe | Biography
Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan "Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Bill was of Scottish and English heritage. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill was resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin. He recalled that his brothers insisted he should remove four of the mandolin's eight strings so he would not play too loudly. Monroe's mother died when he was ten, and his father died six years later.
Bill Monroe | Early life
However, he had never heard the mandolin played in the style that Bill Monroe played it. Buzz recalled:"Back in those days Monroe played pretty fast; the hottest mandolin playing I ever heard, and I haven't heard it since. His mandolin playing was heavily influenced by a jazz mandolin player named Paul Buskirk, and I haven't heard him play like that again- or maybe I was just easily impressed then."Buzz picked up the guitar first, learning chords and simple runs from his brothers, Wayne and Lemoyne, who were playing guitar-fiddle duets and singing Monroe Brothers harmonies around their community. Buzz would eventually settle on the mandolin, and his complex style was born.
Buzz Busby | Early life
Each of these albums include the song "What Do All the People Know"
The Monroes (American band) | Compilations
First two releases credited to The Bandwagon; subsequent releases credited the full name.
Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon | Singles
Sex, Drugs & Bill Monroe is a 2008 album by Kentucky-based cowpunk band Nine Pound Hammer.
Sex, Drugs and Bill Monroe | Introduction
Monroe's compositions during his later period were largely instrumentals, including "Jerusalem Ridge", "Old Dangerfield" (originally spelled Daingerfield after the town in East Texas), and "My Last Days on Earth"; he settled into a new role as a musical patriarch who continued to influence younger generations of musicians. Monroe recorded two albums of duets in the 1980s; the first featured collaborations with country stars such as Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, and The Oak Ridge Boys, while the second paired him with other prominent bluegrass musicians. A 1989 live album celebrated his 50th year on the Grand Ole Opry. Monroe also kept a hectic touring schedule.
Bill Monroe | Later years
The siblings was involved with music and most of them played instruments and learned shape note singing through visiting teachers in the Baptist and Methodist churches of Rosine. Birch's main instrument was the fiddle.
Birch Monroe | Early days
By and by his brothers and sisters moved away, leaving Monroe to bounce between uncles and aunts until finally settling in with his disabled uncle Pendleton Vandiver, whom he often accompanied when Vandiver played the fiddle at dances. This experience inspired one of Monroe's most famous compositions, "Uncle Pen," recorded in 1950, and the 1972 album "Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen." On that album, Monroe recorded a number of traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Vandiver has been credited with giving Monroe "a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones." Also significant in Monroe's musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues.
Bill Monroe | Early life
At first they covered "a lot of Bill Monroe music" (one of the first groups to pick up the new "bluegrass" format). They soon "found out that didn't pay off—we needed something of our own. So we started writing songs in 1947, 1948. I guess I wrote 20 or so banjo tunes, but Carter was a better writer than me." When Columbia Records signed them as The Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe left in protest and joined Decca. Later, Carter went back to sing for the "Father of Bluegrass", Bill Monroe. Ralph Stanley gave his opinion on Bill Monroe's apparent change of heart: "He [Bill Monroe] knew Carter would make him a good singer ...
Ralph Stanley | Clinch Mountain Boys
A number of noted bluegrass musicians played with Charlie's band, including Lester Flatt, Red Rector, Curly Seckler, Fiddlin' Dale Cole and Ira Louvin. The Kentucky Pardners enjoyed considerable success as a touring outfit in the American South throughout the 1940s. Charlie signed with RCA Victor in 1946 and with Decca Records in 1950; he wrote and recorded a large body of material and continued to tour relentlessly until he announced his retirement in 1957. He moved back to his farm and, after the death of his first wife, worked in manual labor in Indiana again. He remarried in 1969. On July 3 of the same year, at the Smithsonian Festival of American Culture, he performed with Birch and Bill.
Charlie Monroe | Solo career
Cline's Banjo player, Larry Richardson, had been offered a job with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the early 1950s, and was instrumental in bringing Charlie Cline into the group. Cline recorded 32 songs with the Bluegrass Boys between 1952 and 1955, playing every instrument but the mandolin. Monroe brought Charlie Cline to the Stanley Brothers recording session, where they recorded their duet version of Blue Moon of Kentucky. Charlie Cline played the guitar on the recording in the style that Clyde Moody once played. It was the first time that lead guitar was used on the Stanley Brothers recordings - which would soon become an essential part of their sound.
Charlie Cline | Cline's Time with Monroe & Later Career
Bill Monroe loved our music and loved our singing."
Ralph Stanley | Clinch Mountain Boys
After a few years of performing at the Grand Ole Opry and on the road in concert with Monroe, Myrick put together the first professional bluegrass group "Myrick and the Mayfield Brothers" with the ranching Mayfield brothers, Edd, Herb, and Smokey, from the Texas Panhandle area of Dimmitt in Castro County. "Myrick and the Mayfield Brothers" performed on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana and became regulars on the show. Edd Mayfield was also invited to perform with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, precursors to the stylish, rancher look with starched and pressed blue jeans, crisp white shirts, cowboy hats, and cowboy boots, a look common in country music today but innovative in the 1950s.
Bill Myrick | Life and career
He was featured on that session singing "Six White Horses", a blues-based original. He also has the rare distinction of having played mandolin on a Blue Grass Boys session, as he provided the rhythm chops on "Mule Skinner Blues" and "Dog House Blues", while Monroe played guitar - the only instance where a Blue Grass Boy other than Monroe played mandolin at a Bill Monroe recording session. Upon his departure from the Blue Grass Boys in 1944, he remained at WSM and the Opry for several years as a solo artist. In 1952, he recorded as a member of the Brown's Ferry Four with The Delmore Brothers on King Records.
Clyde Moody | Early life and career
The Monroes were a new wave band from San Diego active throughout most of the 1980s. They are best known for their single "What Do All the People Know".
The Monroes (American band) | Introduction
In the 1980s, the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe took a special interest in the young band and especially the young fiddler. Monroe spent hours teaching and sharing with Franks much like Monroe's Uncle Pen had done for him. With the departure of Kenny Baker, Franks was asked to join the Blue Grass Boys. Still in school, he took off to tour from coast to coast. Though school beckoned him back, Franks continued to make appearances with Monroe up until he stopped touring. For his contributions to the work of Bill Monroe, Franks was honored by the state of Kentucky.
Randall Franks | Bill Monroe
The brothers formed a band, the Lazy Ramblers, and performed as a duo on WJHL radio in Johnson City, Tennessee. World War II interrupted their musical career, but once both brothers returned from the United States Army, they resumed their musical pursuits. They formed their band, the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys, in the month of November 1946 as the first band to copy the Monroe sound. Carter played guitar and sang lead, while Ralph played banjo and sang with a strong, high tenor voice. Additional members of this early band were Darrell "Pee Wee" Lambert on mandolin and Bobby Sumner on fiddle.
The Stanley Brothers | Careers
In 1967, following the notoriety they'd achieved on "The Monroes", the Schultz brothers embarked on a music career, forming their own four-piece musical group "The Monroe Doctrine" with Greg Reinhardt and their elder brother Ric Schultz. Keith played rhythm guitar and Kevin played bass while both sang harmony to Ric's lead vocals. By 1970, the group was known as "Keith, Kevin & Air" and featured the twins performing songs written by their brother Ric, as well as other group members, Brad Driver, Keith Fogel, Tim Henderson and Jim Purvis. In 1970, Keith, Kevin & Air signed a record deal with Pzazz Records and released a 7" single which included the songs "Euphoria" and "Michael's Theme".
Keith and Kevin Schultz | Music
Between 1955-57 he worked with the brother duo on the radio show Farm and Fun Time on WCYB in Bristol, TN. In 1958 he joined Bill Monroe’s band, playing off and on for a period of four years. During his stint as a Blue Grass Boy, he played both guitar and bass although his main instrument was guitar. After leaving Bill Monroe, he formed his own group, the Virginia Mountain Boys, including Del McCoury on banjo. In 1970, Cooke joined Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys when he was reoffered a bass playing job after running into Stanley at a Norton, VA flea market.
Vernon Crawford &quot;Jack&quot; Cooke | Introduction
On April 7, 1990, Monroe performed for Farm Aid IV in Indianapolis, Indiana along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and with many other artists.
Bill Monroe | Later years
Thomas Edward "Edd" Mayfield (April 12, 1926 – July 7, 1958) was a Bluegrass singer and guitarist, mostly known for being a member of Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys band during the 1950s. Edd Mayfield and two of his brothers, Smokey Mayfield (1924–2008) of Spearman and Herbert E. Mayfield (1920–2008) of Dimmitt, were part of the Mayfield Brothers Country band in West Texas.
Thomas Edd Mayfield | Introduction
Charlie returned to the Fiddlers briefly before becoming a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. During 1952-1955, Charlie worked off and on with Monroe, recording some 38 songs, all on Decca. It has been said that he played every instrument at one time or another in the Monroe group except mandolin. Charlie spent most of 1953 back with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers working at WJR radio in Detroit. When Ezra brought the band to Pikeville, Kentucky, in November, Charlie rejoined Bill Monroe. In 1954, Charlie did a session, playing lead guitar, with the Stanley Brothers and also another one on RCA with the Fiddlers, although he was not otherwise working with them at the time.
Lonesome Pine Fiddlers | Career
After the Monroe Brothers broke up in 1939, Bill Monroe formed his own group, after a brief time called the Blue Grass Boys, and completed the transition of mandolin styles from a "parlor" sound typical of brother duets to the modern "bluegrass" style. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1939 and its powerful clear-channel broadcast signal on WSM-AM spread his style throughout the South, directly inspiring many musicians to take up the mandolin. Monroe famously played Gibson F-5 mandolin, signed and dated July 9, 1923, by Lloyd Loar, chief acoustic engineer at Gibson. The F-5 has since become the most imitated tonally and aesthetically by modern builders.
Mandolins in North America | Bluegrass and the jug band
Flatt was born in Duncan's Chapel, Overton County, Tennessee, to Nannie Mae Haney and Isaac Columbus Flatt. In 1943, he played mandolin and sang tenor in The Kentucky Pardners, the band of Bill Monroe's older brother Charlie. He first came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1945 and played a thumb-and-index guitar style that was in part derived from the playing of Charlie Monroe and Clyde Moody. In 1948, he started a band with fellow Monroe alumnus Earl Scruggs, and for the next 20 years, Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys were one of the most successful bands in bluegrass.
Lester Flatt | Biography
Monroe's fortunes began to improve during the American folk music revival of the early 1960s. Many college students and other young people were beginning to discover Monroe, associating his style more with traditional folk music than with the country-and-western genre with which it had previously been identified. The word "bluegrass" first appeared around this time to describe the sound of Monroe and similar artists such as Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley, Jim and Jesse, and the Osborne Brothers. While Flatt and Scruggs immediately recognized the potential for a lucrative new audience in cities and on college campuses in the North, Monroe was slower to respond.
Bill Monroe | Folk revival
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio The Johnny Burnette Trio Johnny Burnette
Johnny Burnette | Singles
Martin then formed a new group called Medicine Ball, which released a lone album in 1970 for Uni Records. Martin also released two solo singles, one for Uni and one for RCA, which didn't appear on the album. During the 1970s, he retired from the music industry and became a car mechanic.
Buffalo Springfield | New Buffalo Springfield and reunion attempts
At age 15, Scruggs played in a group called The Morris Brothers for a few months, but quit to work in a factory making sewing thread in the Lily Textile Mill near his home in North Carolina. He worked there about two years, earning 40 cents an hour, until the draft restriction for World War II was lifted in 1945, at which time he returned to music, performing with "Lost John Miller and his Allied Kentuckians" on WNOX in Knoxville. About this time an opening to play with Bill Monroe became available. Bill Monroe, 13 years older than Scruggs, was prominent in country music at the time.
Earl Scruggs | With Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
Oswald began his career as a solo artist and session musician in the 1960s. He released his self-titled debut album in 1962 on Starday Records. He joined the Rounder Records label in the 1970s, releasing around a half dozen albums over the years until his last recording, "Carry Me Back", in 1999. His session work included working with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", an album that paid tribute to the old-time, traditional country musicians of Nashville, Tennessee, Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Doc Watson and others. Bill Monroe declined to participate.
Bashful Brother Oswald | Later years
. . and had the wiry strength of a gymnast." On October 28, 1951, Mayfield made the first of his 19 recordings with Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, but he left the group within a year and was replaced by Jimmy Martin. In 1954, when Martin had left the band, Mayfield rejoined the Bluegrass Boys. A few months later he again quit. In early 1958, Mayfield returned to Monroe for the last time. He contracted leukemia, became ill while on the road with the band, and within 3 days of being stricken, died at a hospital in Bluefield, West Virginia.
Thomas Edd Mayfield | Biography
Tom Owen, a musician on the WLS Barn Dance radio program, heard them play at a dance club in 1932 and asked them to join his group as dancers. They accepted, and toured with Owen for the next two years. In 1934, they once again got offers to play music, this time for Indiana radio stations WAE and WJKS. Not long after this, Texas Crystals, a pharmaceutical company, offered to sponsor the Monroes for a radio program of their own. When Birch refused the offer, Bill and Charlie took the bill as The Monroe Brothers. The resulting program was so successful that it eventually became a daily broadcast on Charlotte, North Carolina station WBT.
Charlie Monroe | The Monroe Brothers
In 1958, Mangione and his brother started performing together as the Mangione Brothers Sextet/Quintet. From 1960–1961 they recorded three albums for Riverside as the Jazz Brothers. In 1968, Mangione released his first solo album, "Diana in the Autumn Wind", with drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Tony Levin in their first recordings, and compositions and arrangements by Chuck Mangione. In 2004, Mangione received the Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.
Gap Mangione | Career
In mid-February 1973, just prior to the break up of the White-era version of the Byrds, White joined with guitarist Peter Rowan, mandolinist David Grisman, fiddler Richard Greene, and banjoist Bill Keith to form the bluegrass supergroup Muleskinner. The musicians initially assembled as a one-off pickup band to back bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe for a television program, but ended up performing on their own when Monroe's tour bus broke down on the way to the television studios. A recording of this broadcast, which was once thought lost, was released as an album in 1992, under the title "". A VHS video cassette of the broadcast was also released in 1992 and later re-issued on DVD.
Clarence White | Post-Byrds
Solo albums Other album credits Credits on singles
Henry McCullough | Discography
Key developments occurred in Monroe's music with the addition of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to the Blue Grass Boys in December 1945. Flatt played a solid rhythm guitar style that would help to set the course for bluegrass timing. Scruggs played the banjo with a distinctive three-finger picking style that immediately caused a sensation among Opry audiences. Flatt and Scruggs joined a highly accomplished group that included fiddler Howdy Forrester and bassist Joe Forrester and would soon include fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts, who often performed under the name "Cedric Rainwater". In retrospect, this lineup of the Blue Grass Boys has been dubbed the "Original Bluegrass Band", as the music finally included all the elements that characterize bluegrass music, including breakneck tempos, sophisticated vocal harmony arrangements, and impressive instrumental proficiency demonstrated in solos or "breaks" on the mandolin, banjo, and fiddle.
Bill Monroe | "Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star
Monroe played saxophone on the song "Big Ten Inch Record." He mostly spent the rest of 1989 and 1990 touring.
Michael Monroe | Solo years and other projects (1985–2001)
When Cowan Powers and his family recorded their old-time music from 1924 to 1926, his daughter Orpha Powers was one of the earliest known southern-music artists to record with the mandolin. By the 1930s, single mandolins were becoming more commonly used in southern string band music, most notably by brother duets such as the sedate Blue Sky Boys (Bill Bolick and Earl Bolick), the Armstrong Twins (Lloyd and Floyd Armstrong) and the more hard-driving Monroe Brothers (Bill Monroe and Charlie Monroe). However, the mandolin's modern popularity in country music can be directly traced to one man: Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music.
Mandolins in North America | Bluegrass and the jug band
Randall has joined other members of the Blue Grass Boys in special performances beginning in 2007.
Randall Franks | Bill Monroe
The band is named after Bill Monroe's horse "King Wilkie".
King Wilkie | Band name
Monroe was born in Clearwater, Florida. He grew up in California, Connecticut, Kansas, North Carolina, and England. There was no history of music in his family, as most of his family members were lawyers. He started off playing the drums at age nine but then switched over to singing. His music career started with hard rock, and he was the lead singer for a hard rock bar band before learning guitar and songwriting, which sent him off in a mellower solo direction. Monroe started working the coffeehouse circuits, but then he formed his own band and developed a touring schedule of over 100 dates a year.
Rick Monroe | Life and career
The Matys Brothers were a rockabilly musical act made up of the four Matys brothers, and their sister Vera for a time, were born and raised in Chester, in the Philadelphia area . The quartet's first record, "Muskrat Ramble," released on the Essex Records label, was a big hit in 1954, and by 1956 the group was part of Bill Haley's talent and booking stable and recording for Decca Records.
The Matys Brothers | Introduction
Under the influence of Ralph Rinzler, a young musician and folklorist from New Jersey who briefly became Monroe's manager in 1963, Monroe gradually expanded his geographic reach beyond the traditional southern country music circuit. Rinzler was also responsible for a lengthy profile and interview in the influential folk music magazine "Sing Out!" that first publicly referred to Monroe as the "father" of bluegrass. Accordingly, at the first bluegrass festival organized by Carlton Haney at Roanoke, Virginia in 1965, Bill Monroe was the central figure. In 1964, before the Grateful Dead got together, Jerry Garcia caravanned across the country from California to tag along with Monroe.
Bill Monroe | Folk revival
After Hanoi Rocks broke up in 1985, Monroe decided to start his solo career, but first he got to work with his good friend Stiv Bators. In the Fall of 1985, Bators and Monroe were asked by Steven Van Zandt to record backing vocals in London and then fly to New York to appear on his song "Sun City" and its music video. Both agreed and recorded backing vocals for the song, and both can be seen in the music video. In December 1985, Monroe announced that he would move to New York, and in 1986, Monroe founded his first solo band.
Michael Monroe | Solo years and other projects (1985–2001)
On October 17, 1957, at their third session for MGM, the Osbornes, always experimenting with their sound, added a dobro and drums, also for the first time on a bluegrass recording. In April 1958, Red Allen, who was the last musician to receive billing next to the Osborne Brothers, left the group. Upon their breaking into the bluegrass scene, the Osborne Brothers quickly became known for their virtuoso instrumentation and tight, melodic vocal harmonies. They first made the country chart in 1958 with "Once More", performing as a trio with Red Allen. The song featured a novel inverted stacked harmony.
Osborne Brothers | Biography
The first was in the medical drama television series "Monroe" – which included three songs known from the previous studio albums by the band.
From There to Here (soundtrack) | Introduction
All members also conducted a number of solo projects.
The Brazz Brothers | Biography
Monroe was asked by Jimmy Martin to play at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival in 1972. His performance was a great success.
Charlie Monroe | Solo career
However, after touring with this band for a while, Denton returned to San Diego, where he bought a recording studio with the goal of creating a group that played all original material. While working in the recording studio (Accusound), Denton had brushes with other budding musicians, one of whom was bassist Bob Davis (a.k.a. "Bob Monroe"), with whom he was especially impressed. Before long the two had joined together, forming the nucleus of what would become The Monroes. Another musician who regularly visited the studio was guitarist Rusty Jones, who had previously played with Davis in the Ken Dixon Band (an all-covers band), and he became the next to join this fledgling group.
The Monroes (American band) | Background
Despite releasing an album and at least one other single that same year, the band was not able to repeat its success in the UK Singles Chart. They remain one-hit wonders.
The Brothers (band) | Introduction
He’s shared bills with bands such as Cake, The Melvins, Papa Roach, The Circle Jerks, The Deftones, Toad the Wet Sprocket among many others.
Stuart Michael Thomas | Introduction
Alton Delmore (December 25, 1908 – June 8, 1964) and Rabon Delmore (December 3, 1916 – December 4, 1952), billed as The Delmore Brothers, were country music pioneer singer-songwriters and musicians who were stars of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s. The Delmore Brothers, together with other brother duos such as the Louvin Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, the Monroe Brothers (Birch Monroe, Charlie Monroe and Bill Monroe), the McGee Brothers, and The Stanley Brothers, had a profound impact on the history of country music and American popular music. The duo performed extensively with Arthur Smith as the Arthur Smith Trio throughout the 1930s.
The Delmore Brothers | Introduction
The two Allman brothers began meeting various musicians in the Daytona Beach area. They met a man named Floyd Miles, and they began to jam with his band, the Houserockers. "I would just sit there and study Floyd ... I studied how he phrased his songs, how he got the words out, and how the other guys sang along with him", he would later recall. They later formed their first "real" band, the Escorts, which performed a mix of top 40 and R&B music at clubs around town. Duane, who took the lead vocal role on early demos, encouraged his younger brother to sing instead.
Gregg Allman | First bands (1960–1968)
Albums Compilations Singles
Bill Henderson (performer) | Discography
All compositions by Bill Frisell except as indicated.
Quartet (Bill Frisell album) | Track listing
Born in Cherokee, North Carolina, Moody got his start in the late 1930s in the string band J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers. In September 1940 he joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys on the Grand Ole Opry. Moody's guitar style was unique, with him finger picking with his thumb and index finger. Moody also had a mellow voice that was a good contrast to Bill Monroe's voice. He appeared on Monroe's first solo recording session for RCA Victor's Bluebird label on October 7 of that year, playing guitar and singing lead vocals and bass on the Blue Grass Quartet's first recording ("Cryin' Holy Unto My Lord").
Clyde Moody | Early life and career
Both members died of cancer in 2013.
The Monroes (Norwegian band) | Introduction
Monroe developed a distinctive style of mandolin playing which emphasized strong syncopation and chording, and played in keys, such as E and B, seldom used by old-time and country musicians. He and his band, the Blue Grass Boys, played at the Grand Old Opry in late 1939 to popular acclaim, and other bands began to incorporate the new "bluegrass" music into their repertoires. Mandolin players in these bands took elements of Monroe's style and then added their own flavor.
Bluegrass mandolin | History
The Three Freshmen were an American Vaudeville acrobatic team active during the 1930s and 1940s. The performers were Freddie Reid, Louis Regan, and Ken Carter. The trio sometimes performed as “Regan, Carter & Reid.”
Three Freshmen | Introduction
Haney had another opportunity through Monroe to work at Bean Blossom. He stayed there from June until September 1955. Although Haney still had not developed an appreciation for the music he was promoting, he took pride in the fact that he was associated with Monroe and his contributions to this music, which had grown in popularity. When Haney went back to North Carolina he stumbled upon a band that needed someone to help them book shows. They were called the Farm Hands and included Allen Shelton, Curly Howard and Roy Russell.
Carlton Haney | Early life
Studio albums Live albums Singles
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings | Discography
True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe is a compilation album of bluegrass music released through Sugar Hill Records on October 15, 1996. In 1997, the album won Todd Phillips the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, as the producer.
True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe | Introduction
Just Brothers was the American musical duo of the brothers Jimmy and Frank Bryant and several session musicians. Their song "Sliced Tomatoes" was a dancefloor hit in 1972, and was sampled in Fatboy Slim's 1998 single "The Rockafeller Skank". In 2009, it was used in Welsh public information film, "Cow". Frank Bryant became a session musician in the mid-1960s in his hometown Detroit, while Jimmy was completing military service. His early credits included the bassline on Gino Washington's "Gino Is a Coward" and vocals on J.J. Barnes' "Lonely No More" at Mickay's Records. Frank also co-wrote J.J.'s "Deeper in Love", and Steve Mancha's "Let's Party." After Jimmy's return, the Bryant Brothers were recruited into a session group for Winifred Terry of the Drifters by the group's drummer Richard Allen.
Just Brothers | Introduction
More recently, he was in "Band of Brothers" and "The Bill".
Simon Fenton | Introduction
His most important legacy was his 1850 book, "Vocal Music Simplified", which was one of the earliest public-school music texts in the U.S.
James Monroe Deems | Introduction
agent; working for many solo artistes and groups, including Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and the Beach Boys, as well as many others.
Bill Harry | Introduction
The Montgomery Brothers were a jazz trio consisting of the brothers Wes Montgomery (electric guitar, 1923–1968), Buddy Montgomery (piano, vibraphone, 1930–2009) and Monk Montgomery (electric bass, double bass, 1921–1982). During the mid-1950s, they were members of the Montgomery-Johnson Quintet with Alonzo Johnson and Robert "Sonny" Johnson. Recordings from these early years, including sessions produced by Quincy Jones in 1955, were released later, most notably as Wes Montgomery's "In The Beginning" (Resonance, 2015).
Montgomery Brothers | Introduction
The Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band from the 1930s to the 1950s, consisted of four brothers, Fred, Cal, Cliff, and Don Maddox, along with their sister Rose. Cliff died in 1949 and was replaced by brother Henry. The group disbanded in 1956.
Maddox Brothers and Rose | Introduction
(UK 12 inch red vinyl EP 1988) Never Mutare - bass and backing vocals Frank Sibanda - guitar and backing vocals Alick Chipaika - guitar and backing vocals Marshall Ticharwa Munhumumwe - drums and lead vocals
Four Brothers (band) | The Peel Seesions
In 1948, the Stanley Brothers recorded the traditional song "Molly and Tenbrooks" in the Blue Grass Boys' style, arguably the point in time that bluegrass emerged as a distinct musical form. Monroe's 1946 to 1948 band, which featured guitarist Lester Flatt, banjoist Earl Scruggs, fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts (also known as "Cedric Rainwater")sometimes called "the original bluegrass band"created the definitive sound and instrumental configuration that remains a model to this day. By some arguments, while the Blue Grass Boys were the only band playing this music, it was just their unique sound; it could not be considered a musical style until other bands began performing in similar fashion.
Bluegrass music | Origin of name
Prior to the Monroes, he was a member of the band Broadway News.
Lage Fosheim | Biography
"Horns and Halos" debuted at number one on the Official Finnish Albums Chart.
Horns and Halos (Michael Monroe album) | Singles
edition.)
The Monroes (American band) | 2013 - Present: New developments
Initially funded by the sale of his grandfather's stock, George's first band The Factory formed in 1965 and released at least one single on the Uni Records label, "Smile, Let Your Life Begin" (co-written by George). Members included future Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (who replaced Dallas Taylor in September 1966), Martin Kibbee (a.k.a. Fred Martin) who would later co-write several Little Feat songs with George (including "Dixie Chicken" and "Rock and Roll Doctor"), and Warren Klein on guitar. Frank Zappa produced two tracks for the band, but they were not released until 1993 on the album "Lightning-Rod Man", credited to Lowell George and The Factory.
Lowell George | Early bands
In the early 1950s, composer and bandleader Meredith Willson hosted a radio program called "Music Today" with his wife, Rini. Hearing the Bills records, he began to admire their work, and he and his wife travelled to Buffalo three years later to meet them. Afterwards, he began featuring the quartet regularly on his radio show. In February 1957, the Buffalo Bills competed on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts", won first honors, and received an invitation to perform on Godfrey's morning show for the rest of the week. Later that year, Willson finished writing his new musical play, "The Music Man", which featured a barbershop quartet in the plot.
Buffalo Bills (quartet) | Discovery
Singles from their recordings have consistently made the BU Songs Chart with "Long Forgotten Dream" lasting eight months, "Picture in the Moonlight" eleven and "She Paints a Picture" thirteen. The first single to attain No. 1 position was held by "Mountain Song" for two consecutive months; "Ring the Bell" for three; "Farm of Yesterday" for two; "Help My Brother" for three; and "They Called It Music" for three.
Gibson Brothers (bluegrass duo) | Bluegrass Unlimited National Bluegrass Survey