Customer Reviews

Music of Bill Monroe From 1936-1994

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Bill Monroe is truely the father of bluegrass music. Thiscollection spans his entire career, from his earliest recordings withhis brother Charlie, through his final session in 1994. Throughout his career, Monroe has produced some of the greatest legends in all of bluegrass. Del McCoury,Peter Rowan, Jimmy Martin, Flatt and Scruggs, Don Reno, Kenny Baker, Richard Greene, Vassar Clements and countless others made their debuts on Monroe records. All these artists appear on multiple tracks throughout the anthology. This anthology is a necessary addittion for any lover of American Music.

We grew up calling him Uncle Bill. We listened to his music so much in our house that he felt like part of the family (even if he wasn't really). His songs, most of which are Bluegrass standards now, could make your hair stand on end or put you into a crying fit. This box set is a wonderful collection of those songs. Everything about this set is perfect. From the sound to the song selection. Even the packaging is classy. The music contained herein is delivered by true artists. Many a Bluegrass legend has "served time" in Mr. Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Kenny Baker, "Tater" Tate, Peter Rowen, Cubby Wise are all on this box set for your listening pleasure. And the great thing about it is that the extensive discography will tell you who's playing what and even when the track was recorded! I cannot think of a better collection of "Uncle" Bill's songs.

This boxed set, while certainly not the complete recorded output of Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, is an excellent sampling of Bill's music throughout his storied career. I would recommend this collection to anyone who is interested in the evolution of American music in particular "roots" music and early Rock n' Roll. While Monroe stayed within a simple chord progression format though the years, the textures of the music evolved with the changes of the band's personnel and his own experiences. Some of the instrumentals on disc one and two are examples of bluegrass "breakdowns" that are played at a breakneck pace. The instrumentals on disc three and four, while still played quickly, are more subtle and have a modal "old timey" quality to them, as if Monroe was returning to the sounds he heard as a child.
The vocal songs also show the changes that Monroe went through as a songwriter and song interpreter. The listener can compare "I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome" on disc one with a powerful yet understated quality, to "Blue Night" on disc three sung with a raw nerve exposed. On "Blue Night" with his voice against the urgent fiddle of Richard Greene played with a siren-like quality, the listener can take away the notion that as Monroe got older, the more he was willing to take a chance and challenge the listener as well. Background music this is not!
Credit is due to [the record company] for issuing this material and investing in the liner notes and photographs on such a non-mainstream project. The accompanying booklet is worth almost as much as the recorded material.
Just as Louis Armstrong is an important figure in American music and popular culture, Bill Monroe's music is equally as important as a synthesis of what he heard around him; Blues, Swing, Jazz, Gospel, Celtic and later even Rock n' Roll. Without Bill Monroe we may never have had the Everly Brothers, Elvis, or Buddy Holly. (Listen to Monroe's mandolin and compare it to Chuck Berry's guitar. Coincidence? I doubt it!) If you are reading this and don't own it, buy it now. You'll thank me later.

Simply...this is about the finest collection of the finest work of Bill Monroe that can be found anywhere. I love this set so much that after purchasing it on cassett I then moved to CD's and purchased that set (you can never have to much of the Blurgrass Boys).I own just about every LP that Monroe put out in the 50s & 60s but they just can't stand up to the remastered sound of this box set. I have been listening to my favorite songs like "Footprints in the snow","Put my little shoes away","Blue moon of Kentucky" and of course "Uncle Pen"(the booklet that comes with this set has a picture of Bill at the gravesite on his Uncle Peneton, the grave stone is complete with a fiddle and bow.A little known fact is that Jimmy Martin helped Monroe write this classic song about his uncle).This is a true Bluegrass lovers collection, even the case itself is cool with it's old time book-binding cover. This set is about as good as it gets!A Bill Monroe fan for 50+ years I would never stear anyone wrong.

"ENJOY"

How many people can claim that they "invented" a style of music? And have the music named after their home state. This is the legacy of Bill Monroe and this box set shows the reason why.

Bill's vision regarding his music was absolutely remarkable. It was a new style, unheard of, captivating and invigorating. On track after track his genius is shown. A master mandolin player, a great vocalist for this new style of music and a larger than life figure. He was also tough and unrelenting on what he wanted. Bluegrass music today exists because of his demands and forsight. Almost every major figure of the second generation of bluegrass pickers played in his band at one time or another. We are now in the third generation of pickers and they are still influenced by his mastery. You can not go to a bluegrass concert today and not hear atleast one of his compositions.

This box set shows why he is considered the father of bluegrass. The tracks vary from driving instrumentals, to gospel, to thought provoking songs of real life in the mountains. They attest to his unequaled grasp of the feeling that is meant to be presented in music, especially acoustic music. If you are a bluegrass fan, this is something you should already own. If you are not a bluegrass fan, buy this and enjoy and learn where the music came from.

A classic box set, one of the best ever, an awesome collection.

A constant delight for the Bill Monroe fan or any listener serious about bluegrass and its evolution. One serious flaw, however, and I don't know if it's been fixed, but the first disc and a half has a lot of flutter, probably from the analogue source. This really compromises the quality of the music and it is more audible, the more tracks listened to.

Burt Shapiro

The only criticism I could weigh against this collection is that--although it's true that (as advertised) this is the only domestically available anthology of Bill Monroe's music that is cross-licensed across all of the major labels that he recorded for--within that, it's definitely weighted very heavily toward his MCA years. Four early tracks from his RCA/Bluebird period are represented, and his classic Columbia era gets the shortest shrift relative to its importance with only six songs in total. After that, the set moves quickly to his Decca/MCA period starting in 1950 and covers that in much greater depth over the remaining 87 tracks. The early songs, it must be said, are judiciously chosen and do represent the high points of this era, but a real Monroe afficionado will probably want that period to be represented in greater depth.

This is undoubtedly a major drawback, then, if you are expecting this set to exhaustively document Monroe's early years, but if you're looking for a good general overview of his career--or if you're willing to invest separately for an in-depth anthology of his Columbia years--then this boxed set gets very high marks. It contains well over four hours' worth of prime Bill Monroe music and handsomely showcases his restless inventiveness within his notoriously persnickety insistence on purism and devotion to the classic bluegrass sound he helped to birth.

It is because of that famous refusal to alter his sound that two things should be said about this collection--first, that the quality of the music is uniformly high. Unlike most artists with such longevity (the set covers nearly 60 years!), Bill never attempted to modernize his sound or pander to current trends, as even the great Johnny Cash did in the 80s. Bill Monroe was and remained Bill Monroe. This also means that the set can sound a little same-y after a while, especially if you're not a true bluegrass devotee, so consider before buying whether or not you really are committed to 98 tracks' worth of (true-)bluegrass.

If you are, and if you're not deterred by the emphasis on his MCA period, then this set is hard to top. The sound is excellent throughout--even on the 1936 recording that kicks things off--and the accompanying booklet is gorgeous, with a wealth of great pictures and loving documentation & research. It's not perfect for all purposes, but it's a treasure trove of thrilling, exciting music of uncompromising excellence and energy, perfect for lovers of old-timey music. Dig in...

The packaging of this box set is very nice. The booklet that comes with the set is a pretty good abbreviated history of this fascinating icon of American music. Particularly interesting is reading about all of the Bluegrass Boys who later became bluegrass greats themselves- Flatt and Scruggs, Del McCoury, Sonny Osborne, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin and the list goes on.
The only knock I have against this set is that some of the recordings are re-records of earlier Columbia classics, apparently at the behest of MCA records. It seems every box set either contains alternates or re-records which is puzzling to me. In the interest of history, I am only interested in the originally released recordings...

I have been listening to contemporary bluegrass for awhile now. So I decided it was time to go back and check out the original source of it all - the legendary Bill Monroe.

This outstanding collection begins with his early days playing with brother Charlie in 1936 and goes all the way to a 1994 performance. In between are gathered 98 Monroe songs, including such classics as "Uncle Pen", "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" and "With Body And Soul".

Of course, there were other old timey string bands featuring mandolin and fiddle before Bill Monroe came along. But it was his high pitched tenor vocals and fast playing style that created the unique "high lonesome sound" that came to be known as bluegrass. I can't imagine a better introduction to Monroe's music than this, so many great songs and also a a well designed booklet which provides photos and detailed liner notes outlining the different stages in Monroe's career. For any fan of bluegrass, new or old, this is a great musical purchase.

This is a very nicely packaged set. It comes in a handsome book-like cover, and is filled with great pics and liner notes. And, of course, lots of rare recordings. Get it.