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
No, he was a mandolinist. No, he was a mandolinist. No, he was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter. No, he played the mandolin.
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?
user
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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Yes,  Blue Grass Boys
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was he also a guitarist?
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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
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
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
This group of men became the prototype of what a bluegrass band would become.
Earl Scruggs | With Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
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
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
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
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
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
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
From 1977 until 1981, Robins played banjo for Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, performing throughout the United States, including the White House and Lincoln Center in New York City.
Butch Robins | Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
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
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
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
Randall has joined other members of the Blue Grass Boys in special performances beginning in 2007.
Randall Franks | Bill Monroe
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
During this time, the Blue Grass Boys were also a baseball team, so they would arrive early to towns they were playing at and challenge the local baseball team. Unfortunately, there were no recordings made while Shumate was in the Blue Grass Boys. During a visit to Nashville, Shumate met Earl Scruggs, who he knew because they were both from Hickory, North Carolina, and encouraged Scruggs to audition for Bill Monroe. During the time that Scruggs auditioned for Monroe, the band members were Jim Shumate, Lester Flatt, Sally Ann Forrester, Jim Andrews. By the next week, Howdy Forrester had returned from the Navy.
Jim Shumate | Introduction
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
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
As he wavered between guitar and banjo, he was a star on both. In March 1944, Reno joined the Army and served as company barber in Burma and China. After the war, he operated a grocery store in South Carolina and played jazz and country music at night. In 1948, he heard that Bill Monroe needed a banjo player after earl Scruggs had left, so he drove to Taylorsville, North Carolina, where he got onstage without invitation and played banjo with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. He stayed with them until 1949, when Reno left the Blue Grass Boys because of an occurrence of malaria and formed the first edition of the Tennessee Cut-Ups in South Carolina with his nephew, Verlon Reno.
Reno and Smiley | Background
Monroe also regularly performed with flat-picking guitar virtuoso Doc Watson.
Bill Monroe | Legacy and influence
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
At the time, banjo players often functioned in the band as comedians, and the instrument was often held as a prop — their clawhammer playing was almost inaudible. Monroe, along with band member Lester Flatt, auditioned several banjo players who had the same traditional playing style as Akeman. When Scruggs auditioned for them at the Tulane Hotel in Nashville, Flatt said," I was thrilled. It was so different! I had never heard that kind of banjo picking." Scruggs joined Monroe in late 1945, earning $50 a week. After they accepted Scruggs as one of the Blue Grass Boys, the roster consisted of Bill Monroe (vocals/mandolin), Lester Flatt (guitar/vocals), Earl Scruggs (banjo), Chubby Wise (fiddle), and Howard Watts (stage name Cedric Rainwater) on bass.
Earl Scruggs | With Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
Jim Shumate (October 21, 1921 – October 10, 2013) was a fiddler that played with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys from 1943–1945. Shumate's main influences were Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, Curly Fox, and his uncle who played the fiddle while he was growing up. Shumate joined the band after Bill Monroe heard him playing on the radio station WHKY from downtown Hickory, North Carolina, and asked him to join the Blue Grass Boys. Howdy Forrester, who was Bill Monroe's fiddle player at the time, gave his notice and was going into the Navy. At age 20, Shumate became the fiddler for the Blue Grass Boys, and he sang bass on gospel songs.
Jim Shumate | Introduction
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
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
That original guitar is on permanent display at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. During the 1970s, Bentonia blues musicians, Jack Owens, Cornelius Bright, Tommy West, Adam Slater, Dodd Stuckey (Henry Stuckey's brother), and Jacob Stuckey, (Henry Stuckey's cousin), came to the Blue Front Cafe to play. Slater, Bright and West initially started to teach Holmes how to play, but it took the arrival of Jack Owens at the Blue Front Cafe on a regular basis in the 1980s, before Holmes fully grasped the style. Owens came to the Blue Front several times a week and Holmes sat outside with him and learned how to play such songs as "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues", "Devil Got My Woman", "Cherry Ball", and "Catfish." At the same time, Tommy West, a Hill country blues musician was also teaching Holmes how to play in that idiom.
Jimmy &quot;Duck&quot; Holmes | Musical influences
The discography for the American bluegrass musician Bill Monroe includes a selection of compilation albums. No duplicates are listed.
Bill Monroe discography | Introduction
He came back to play fiddle for the Blue Grass Boys and Jim Shumate left to work in the furniture business in North Carolina. Although Shumate convinced Earl Scruggs to audition for Monroe's band, he did not end up playing when Scruggs joined. In 1948, the band members of the Blue Grass Boys changed again. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs started their own band, The Foggy Mountain Boys, with Cedric Rainwater and Jim Eanes. Soon after, Jim Shumate joined them and played the fiddle on their first recording session. That same year, he competed against some of the best fiddlers in the United States and won the National Fiddler's Convention in Richlands, Virginia.
Jim Shumate | Introduction
At an early age, White formed himself, his two brothers (Eric and Clarence) and his sister (Joanne) into a bluegrass band which performed locally. When the family moved to California, the group won a talent show on a local radio station, after which a television station hired them (minus Joanne) as The Country Boys. After a two-year US Army enlistment, White re-joined the Country Boys, now renamed The Kentucky Colonels. In 1967, he had the opportunity to join the Blue Grass Boys, the backup band of his childhood idol Bill Monroe. He contributed to nine cuts with this band. He stayed with that group until 1969, when he joined the Nashville Grass, the new backup band of Lester Flatt.
Roland White | Biography
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
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
He cut his first recordings with Monroe's Blue Grass Boys on December 15, 1957. Kenny Baker served more years in Monroe's band than any other musician and was selected by Monroe to record the fiddle tunes passed down from Uncle Pen Vandiver. After leaving the Blue Grass Boys in 1984, Baker played with a group of friends, Bob Black, Alan Murphy, and Aleta Murphy. Bob Black and Alan Murphy recorded an album with Baker in 1973, "Dry & Dusty". After the one summer with Black and the Murphy's, Baker teamed with Josh Graves, who had played resonator guitar for Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs as a Foggy Mountain Boy.
Kenny Baker (fiddler) | Biography
Anyhow, three weeks later, Lyle was hired by Monroe, went to Nashville and joined the Blue Grass Boys. The first show he played with Monroe in the Ryman Auditorium was the RC Cola Show. The band consisted of Monroe, Lyle, Mac Wiseman, Chubby Wise, and Jack Thompson. He continued to work with Monroe until the summer of 1951. He was replaced by James Bowers and later by Sonny Osborne. In 1953, Lyle returned to the Blue Grass Boys, but left again the next year. Lyle recorded a total of 31 songs for Bill Monroe. In 1954, he worked with Jimmy Dean and later also with artists such as Roy Clark, Claude King, Patsy Cline, Cas Walker and Red Rector.
Rudy Lyle | Biography
Jim Nunally plays bluegrass-style, flat pick guitar with John Reischman and the Jaybirds, and with The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience. Jim has received two Grammy award certifications and two IBMA awards for his performance on the 1996 Bluegrass Album of the Year "True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe".
Jim Nunally | Introduction
Jimmy and Johnny began playing guitar in the late-1960s, at the ages of 14 and 12 respectively. Influenced by their parents—mother Virginia was a pianist, father Edward was a vocalist—they received no formal music training and had joined bands by 1971. After hearing progressive rock band Wishbone Ash (notable for featuring two lead guitarists) on the radio in 1973, the brothers formed a similar band with local musicians by the name of Westfall. They progressed from playing local clubs to having their first studio session and recording their first two tracks, "Everything I Could Ask For" and "Sunshine Daydream", in a short space of time, developing their double lead style along the way.
The Flyin' Ryan Brothers | History
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
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
Clements was born in Kinard, Florida, but grew up in Kissimmee. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7, learning "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor" as his first song. Soon, he joined with two first cousins, Red and Gerald, to form a local string band. In his early teens Clements met Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys when they came to Florida to visit Clements' stepfather, a friend of fiddler Chubby Wise. Clements was impressed with his playing. In late 1949 Wise left Monroe's group, and the 21 year-old Clements traveled by bus to ask for an audition.
Vassar Clements | Biography
Charlie Monroe (July 4, 1903 – September 27, 1975) was an American country and bluegrass music guitarist.
Charlie Monroe | 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
Mayfield was born in Dawn in Deaf Smith County, southwest of Amarillo, to William Fletcher Mayfield (died 1952) and the former Penelope Drake (died 1937). The family was involved in music, rodeo, and ranching. Mayfield served in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Mayfield Brothers were offered a recording contract, but turned it down because of the business of the family's Green Valley Ranch. In the summer of 1951, Bill Monroe's guitarist, Carter Stanley, left the band, and Monroe, who had heard of Mayfield, offered him the vacant slot as guitarist in the Bluegrass Boys. At the time he joined the Bluegrass Boys, Edd Mayfield was described as "a handsome, tough-as-barbed-wire cowpuncher, who literally grew up on a ranch, who could ride hard, lasso accurately, and literally toss and tie up a bull.
Thomas Edd Mayfield | Biography
Bill Monroe was made an honorary Kentucky Colonel in 1966. He 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. Monroe was a recipient of a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
Bill Monroe | Legacy and influence
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
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
In the winter of 1949, Mac Wiseman had just left Bill Monroe's "Blue Grass Boys". Martin, who wanted to apply for the vacant post as guitarist, rode the bus into Nashville. He sneaked in backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. While picking his guitar, he was overheard by Blue Grass Boys" banjo player Rudy Lyle who brought him forward and presented him to Monroe. Martin sang two songs with Monroe and was hired instantly. Beginning in 1949 Martin was lead vocalist for Bill Monroe's "Blue Grass Boys". Martin's high voice mixed with Monroe's tenor came to be known as the "high lonesome" sound.
Jimmy Martin | Music career
Accompanied by Keith, Rowan went to Nashville and was hired in 1963 or 1964 as songwriter, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. His recording debut as a "bluegrass boy" took place on October 14, 1966 and he recorded a total of fourteen songs with Monroe, including the classic "Walls of Time" co-written with Monroe, before his tenure ended in the spring of 1967. Rowan teamed up with David Grisman in 1967 forming the band Earth Opera which frequently opened for The Doors. In 1969, Rowan joined Seatrain, along with Richard Greene. In 1973, Rowan, together with Greene, Grisman, Bill Keith, and Clarence White, formed the bluegrass band Muleskinner.
Peter Rowan | Biography
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
Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band Peter Rowan's career in bluegrass started in 1964 as part of Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass legend Bill Monroe thought that Peter sounded like himself. “When the two harmonized together, they were said to reach ‘heavenly heights.’" Rowan co-wrote with Monroe to produced ‘Walls Of Time,’ which has since become a bluegrass standard. Peter Rowan's Bluegrass Band consists of exceptional players; Keith Little on banjo, Paul Knight on bass, and Mike Witcher on the dobro. The band plays Rowan's original tunes along with Bill Monroe and Carter Family classics. Rowan's Bluegrass Band is beloved amongst the bluegrass community.
Peter Rowan | Various Acts
An album titled "Legend of Bill Monroe and More Bluegrass" was engineered By Bernard Rousseau of the Harriman Sound Lab and made available through Scott Morgan's Morgan Stringed Instruments on CD. Williams enjoyed a long-time collaboration with Scott's father Tom Morgan, himself an IBMA Hall of Fame inductee. On this album, Benny plays fiddle on "Never Again" and "The Legend of Bill Monroe" and banjo on "Soldier's Joy". On other tracks he plays cross pick mandolin and Travis -tyle guitar.
Benny Williams | Legend of Bill Monroe and More Bluegrass
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
The seeds of Sons of Bill formed in 2005 when James Wilson graduated from Deep Springs College in California and moved back to Virginia. On his way home he visited his older brother Sam Wilson who was living in Brooklyn, NY playing guitar in a rock band and free-lancing as a jazz guitarist. The two brothers spent an evening in Sam's apartment playing old country songs that their dad had taught them, as well as some new songs that James had recently written. Upon returning home that summer, James began playing those same songs with his other older brother Abe Wilson at parties and open mic nights around Charlottesville and the idea of forming a band was hatched.
Sons of Bill | Formation
The Delmore Brothers were one of the original country vocal harmonising sibling acts that established the mold for later similar acts, such as the Louvin Brothers, and even later, the Everly Brothers.
Tenor guitar | Use and performers
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
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
After the war, Monroe had a few performances with Bill. One of them include "Just a Little Talk with Jesus" at a 1948 performance in the Grand Ole Opry. Monroe played bass on tour with Bill after Howard Watts left the band. In late April 1963 he joined Bill Monroe for a performance with The Bluegrass Boys in Bean Blossom. Monroe was also manager, in the early 1960s, of Bill Monroe's country music park, the Brown County Jamboree, in Bean Blossom, Indiana. On July 3, 1969, at the Smithsonian Festival of American Culture, Monroe performed with Bill and Charlie. Birch can also be found on radio transcriptions that Charlie Monroe made in 1944 for the Noon-Day Jamboree released on County Records in 1974.
Birch Monroe | Later performances
. . 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
His listening of country and string bluegrass growing up influenced this considerably: "I played mandolin, ukulele, and fiddle before I ever touched a guitar, which may be where a lot of the major keys I play come from." He later characterized their style as "question and answer, anticipation and conclusion," which involved allowing each musician's downbeat to arrive in a different spot, while also keeping consideration of the bass guitar lines.
The Allman Brothers Band | Musical style and influences
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
There was one other guitarist in my school who actually showed me the first chords that I learned and I went on from there. I was bored so I taught myself the guitar from listening to records. So obviously it was a very personal thing. This "other guitarist" was a boy called Rod Wyatt, a few years his senior, and together with another boy, Pete Calvert, they would practise at Page's house; Page would devote six or seven hours on some days to practising and would always take his guitar with him to secondary school, only to have it confiscated and returned to him after class.
Jimmy Page | Early life
Baldassari played guitar in rock bands as a teen with his brother Buster, but converted to mandolin in 1972 at the Philadelphia Folk Festival when he saw Andy Statman with David Bromberg and Barry Mitterhoff with the Bottle Hill Boys.
Butch Baldassari | Early life
That year's fellowships were the first bestowed by the NEA. 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 No. 16 on "CMT 40 Greatest Men of Country Music". Artists that claimed to be influenced by or to be playing the bluegrass genre were often bullied by Bill Monroe. He always considered himself the father and caretaker of bluegrass.
Bill Monroe | Legacy and influence
Vandiver had been crippled earlier, and he made some money with his music. Bill Monroe's biographer, Richard D. Smith writes, "Pen gave Bill more: a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones. Sometimes Bill played guitar behind his uncle, sometimes the mandolin." On September 13, 1973, a monument in honor of Uncle Pen was unveiled by Monroe at the Rosine Cemetery. Another way he honored Penn's memory was to play the part of "Uncle Penn" in Ricky Skaggs' Country Boy music video.
Pendleton Vandiver | 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
Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, was also an early musical influence, followed by B.B. King and Steve Cropper. As a teenager he learned to play on a borrowed guitar and made several attempts to build his own instrument, first by gluing and bolting together cigar boxes for the body and an unsanded fence-post for the neck with model aircraft control-lines and frets simply painted on.
Jeff Beck | Early life
Later, Monroe and McCoy played together for a short time in a band called Bolin. Monroe then went on to play saxophone in Maukka Perusjätkä's band, where he also met guitarist Nasty Suicide. Monroe auditioned as a bassist for Pelle Miljoona Oy but, even though the audition went well, they chose bassist Sami Yaffa.
Michael Monroe | Early life
Osborne began playing the banjo at the age of eleven when his father bought him one. With a little help from Larry Richardson, he soon found out how to play. His brother, Bobby, worked with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers and Sonny had a chance to join in with them during jam sessions. Bobby enlisted in the Marine Corps., and Sonny went on to work with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys for a couple of months between June and September 1952. Only fourteen years old, he recorded nine tunes with the "Father of Bluegrass". Meanwhile, the same year, he recorded, on Gateway Records, together with guitarist Carlos Brock, fiddler Billy Thomas, mandolin player Enos Johnson, and Smokey Ward on bass, calling themselves "Stanley Alpine".
Sonny Osborne | Biography
Rhythm guitarist/vocalist David Price (born on September 23, 1944 in Ballinger, Texas) and drummer/vocalist Don Poncher (born on July 29, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois) were original members of The New Buffalo Springfield, formed in September 1968 by Dewey Martin, the drummer in the original Buffalo Springfield. David Price had previously played with Austin, Texas group, The Chelsea in the mid-1960s and (briefly), L.A-based Armadillo in mid-1968. Price was also Davy Jones's stand-in in The Monkees TV show thanks to his connections with his old friend Mike Nesmith. Don Poncher, who'd worked with Tex Williams when he was 16 years old, had also played with Brothers Keepers in the San Fernando Valley in the mid-1960s.
Blue Mountain Eagle (band) | Origins
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
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
Larry Richardson (August 9, 1927- June 17, 2007) was an American bluegrass and old time banjoist and guitarist from Galax, Virginia. He is known for his work with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, and the Blue Ridge Boys. Larry Richardson began his bluegrass career with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers alongside mandolin player Bobby Osborne of Osborne Brothers fame. These two musicians are credited for transforming the band from western swing to bluegrass music in 1949. Larry and Bobby left the band after only a year and were replaced by Jimmy and Paul Williams. After Larry's brief time with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, he joined Bill Monroe as a banjo player from 1950-1951.
Larry Richardson | 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
Davis was raised In Cullman, Alabama in a musical family. His grandfather J.H. Bailey played banjo and fiddle. In the 1930s, his father Leddell Davis and uncles sang the "brother duets" music style (a forerunner of bluegrass music), and Davis's uncle Cleo Davis was a member of the first incarnation of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys.
David Davis (bluegrass) | Early years
Kenneth Clayton Baker (June 26, 1926 – July 8, 2011) was an American fiddle player best known for his 25-year tenure with Bill Monroe and his group "The Blue Grass Boys".
Kenny Baker (fiddler) | Introduction
The band is named after Bill Monroe's horse "King Wilkie".
King Wilkie | Band name
Monroe's style involved playing lead melodies in the style of a fiddler, and also a percussive chording sound referred to as "the chop" for the sound made by the quickly struck and muted strings. He also perfected a sparse, percussive blues style, especially up the neck in keys that had not been used much in country music, notably B and E. He emphasized a powerful, syncopated right hand at the expense of left-hand virtuosity. Monroe's most influential follower of the second generation is Frank Wakefield and nowadays Mike Compton of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and David Long, who often tour as a duet.
Mandolins in North America | Bluegrass and the jug band
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
Sam also claimed to have been the first performer to play an electric guitar on the Opry, for which he was chided by Opry founder George D. Hay, who told him the electric guitar was not "down to Earth." The Dixieliners disbanded in 1938. In the 1940s, the McGee Brothers performed with some of the biggest names in country and bluegrass, among them Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. They also continued making appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, sometimes accompanying their old bandmate, Uncle Dave Macon. Early in the decade, they worked briefly with the comedy act, "Sara and Sally".
McGee Brothers | 1930s and 1940s
Rice was born in Danville, Virginia, but grew up in California, the oldest of the Rice brothers (Tony, Ronnie, and Wyatt). His father Herb started the Golden State Boys bluegrass band along with Hal and Leon Poindexter. While playing in the Golden State Boys, Rice befriended Chris Hillman. Inspired by brothers Roland and Clarence White of the California-based Kentucky Colonels Rice and his brothers Tony (guitar) and Ronnie (bass) performed as The Haphazards and in other configurations, including Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party.
Larry Rice (musician) | Early years
Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open...he stuck his head out and said, "What are you doing?" And we said, "We don't know." "Well, back up," he said, "try to find a place to start and do it again." Phillips quickly began taping as this was the sound he had been looking for.During the next few days, the trio recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.
Scotty Moore | Biography
The band still tours all over the US & Canada. In 2013 original Bluegrass Brother Robert Dowdy returned on banjo and Victor's youngest son Donald returned on mandolin. Since 2013 the band line-up has been Victor Dowdy : bass & vocals, Steve Dowdy : guitar & vocals, Jamie Sparks : banjo & vocals, Donald Dowdy : mandolin & vocals, Chris Hart : dobro. In 2014 the band signed with Mountain Fever Records and in July released the album "Generations" The album has performed well on the national Bluegrass charts with songs "Memories of my Childhood", "Moonshine Man", "Grand Reunion", "Blue Ridge Mountain Man", and "When the Mountain Fell" getting national radio airplay.
Bluegrass Brothers | Band history
Abe was currently home for the summer from architecture school at the University of Maryland. Childhood friend Seth Green was recruited to play bass and Todd Wellons, who had independently played in bands with both Seth and Abe, was brought in to play drums. The band played their first formal show on December 23, 2005 and within several months both brothers had moved home to Virginia to pursue the band full-time.
Sons of Bill | Formation
McCoury has had a long career in bluegrass. Although originally hired as banjo player, he sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1963, with whom he first appeared on the "Grand Ole Opry". McCoury briefly appeared with the Golden State Boys in 1964 before taking a series of day jobs in construction and logging, while continuing to work as an amateur musician in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. In the 1980s his sons began performing with him. Fiddler Tad Marks and bass player Mike Brantley joined McCoury's group in early 1990s. McCoury's group toured widely throughout the US.
Del McCoury | Career
As well as being an accomplished bluegrass vocalist, Bush also is an accomplished instrumentalist on mandolin and fiddle winning title of National Fiddle champion at fifteen years of age. He was a founding member of the New Grass Revival and has been called a modern day Bill Monroe, or as Sam would tell . . Sam, affectionately "Sammy", or "Mr. Entertainment", also recalls meeting Mr. Monroe as a young teen. After demonstrating his mandolin technique Monroe offered the advice: "stick to the fiddle". Sam is one of the main attractions at the annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado and plays the eight p.m.
Sam Bush | Performance
Cliff's brother Bill Carlisle became his guitarist after Ball left in 1934. During the 1930s Carlisle, who recorded a large amount of material despite a hiatus from 1934 to 1936, frequently released songs with sexual connotations including barnyard metaphors (which became something of a hallmark). Carlisle toured with his son, "Sonny Boy Tommy," to occasional consternation from authorities in areas where this contravened local child labor laws. He continued to perform on WMPS-AM in Memphis, Tennessee for several years in the 1940s, but by the 1950s had retired from music.
Cliff Carlisle | Biography
Homer Robert Eanes Jr. was born in Mountain Valley, Virginia and grew up in Martinsville. Eanes learned to play the guitar at an early age despite an injury to his left hand. He had his first musical training as a rhythm guitarist in his father's string band. In 1940, he joined "Roy Hall's Blue Ridge Entertainers" performing at a radio station in Roanoke, Virginia until 1943 when Roy Hall died. In the mid-1940s, Eanes joined "Uncle Joe and the Blue Mountain Boys". He also performed with Flatt & Scruggs, and in 1948, with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. In 1949, he made his solo recording debut on the Capitol label together with Homer Sherrill on fiddle and Snuffy Jenkins on banjo.
Jim Eanes | Biography
Rudy R. Lyle (March 17, 1930 – February 11, 1985) was an American bluegrass banjo player, mostly known for being a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in the period 1949–1954.
Rudy Lyle | Introduction
Bessie Lee Mauldin (Bessie Lee "The Carolina Songbird" Mauldin; in Norwood, North Carolina – ) was an American bluegrass bassist just like her brother Isaac Mauldin. She was the fifth of five children. Bessie first met Bill Monroe in 1938, and a few years later went on to become his bass player with the Bluegrass Boys, from 1953–1964. She played in many recording sessions of the band. Her love affair with Bill Monroe began around 1941 and carried on largely while Bill was touring with the Bluegrass Boys. In their years together she was his confidante and lover, and acted as a peacemaker.
Bessie Lee Mauldin | Introduction
The brothers were born and raised in East Hickory, North Carolina, as the fourth and fifth siblings in a family of six children. Their parents, who were deeply religious and belonged to the First Church of God, taught them to sing hymns and gospel music. A neighbour taught Bill how to play guitar and banjo while Earl on the other hand learned to play mandolin and guitar. Eventually, they decided to switch instruments and Bill chose the mandolin while Earl concentrated on the guitar. They made their radio debut in 1935 at local radio station WWNC in Asheville, North Carolina as part of the "Crazy Hickory Nuts".
The Blue Sky Boys | Biography
Once Elias left for a solo career, he allowed Davis to keep the name.
The Monroes (American band) | Background
Keith was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He attended Amherst College and graduated in 1961. In 1963 he became a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. Keith's recordings and performances during these nine months with Monroe permanently altered banjo playing, and his style became an important part of the playing styles of many banjoists. After leaving the Bluegrass Boys, he joined "Jim Kweskin Jug Band" playing plectrum banjo. He began playing the steel guitar and soon after 1968, worked together with Ian and Sylvia and Jonathan Edwards. In the 1970s, Keith recorded for Rounder Records. Over the years he performed with several other musicians, such as Clarence White and David Grisman in Muleskinner, Tony Trischka, Jim Rooney and Jim Collier.
Bill Keith (musician) | Professional career