Customer Reviews

Just a Song of Old Kentucky, Vol. 2

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Just A Song Of Old Kentucky is the second of four volumes in an ongoing series of Bill Monroe's duets with older brother Charlie. The overdrive of bluegrass had yet to enter the Monroe style with its guitar-mandolin trade-offs and close, high-pitched harmonies that the Louvin and Everly Brothers would later continue.

Songs of death and parting-the sad, blue heart of true country music-fill this quick 15-song CD. The title track reflects Bill's devotion to his birthplace, the bluegrass state. The oft-recorded "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" comes off as an obscure variant here. Though Bill rarely sang topical songs over his seven-decade recording career, the understated "Forgotten Soldier Boy" is based on the impoverished Veterans Bonus Army's 1932 march on Washington in futile hopes of promised payment for World War I service (a bloody debacle the alt country Hangdogs revisited last year on "Anacostia").

With some of the Monroes' original 1936 masters having deteriorated, Rounder occasionally turned to collectors' 78s here. Still, the sound is far cleaner than on the label's Carter Family reissues. Recorded for Victor's budget imprint Bluebird, these songs were all done in one take using a single mike. Sixty-five years later, they make you wonder how much truly good music really needs today's high tech wizardry.

More essential Monroe Brothers tracks on this second of four CDs reissuing their complete output. You can't get the full Bill Monroe picture without hearing his early recordings with his brother Charlie. Keep in mind, though, that ALL of the Monroe brothers recordings, plus Bill's complete out put for Columbia (with Flatt & Scruggs) and RCA, plus numerous outtakes, are on the new BLUE MOON OF KENTUCKY import box set from Bear Family. Expensive, but worth it.

I'd have to concur with Bob Dylan's assessment, quoted on the album cover - I'd rather listen to Bill and Charlie Monroe than just about anything else out there. This is THE country "brother duet" as far as I'm concerned - whose distinctiveness, power, and virtuosity are simply unmatched in the genre. All the songs are beautifully preserved and reworked for this release - the Monroe Bros. literally come alive in this collection. Fans of Bill Monroe will recognize "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," "Darlin' Corey," and "Where Is My Sailor Boy?" My personal favorite is "My Savior's Train," a lively Gospel tune where Bill's harmony and hard-driving mandolin really come into their own. "The Forgotten Soldier Boy" is a great tune, and also very interesting - it sounds more like something Woody Guthrie would have done. It deals with the "Bonus Army" riots in the 1920's, when destitute WW1 veterans tried to march on Washington, D.C.