Customer Reviews

Rca Country Legends

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As with the Chet Atkins volume in the series RCA Country Legends you won't find this one by searching under Artist for Bill Monroe. Which perhaps explains why it has received no attention to this point.

Bluegrass long ago split off from Folk/Hillbilly/Country to become its own sub-genre, and the man who gave it birth was Bill Monroe, born September 13, 1911 in Rosine, Kentucky. When he formed his band, The Blue Grass Boys, they included guitarist/vocalist Lester Flatt, whose smooth delivery melded perfectly with Bill's own hard-edged vocals, banjo player Earl Scruggs, who would invent a unique 3-finger technique, now widely copied, fiddler Howdy Forrester and bassist Howard Watts. A later addition was fiddler Chubby Wise.

These are, essentially, the personnel heard on this volume covering the band's years with RCA Victor, and although there would be no nit singles there (the Country charts were not introduced until 1944), most of these tunes were in demand wherever he played in person. This applies especially to Muleskinner Blues, released on RCA Victor 20-3163 b/w Blue Yodel No. 7, and Back Up And Push, turned out on RCA Victor 20-3295 b/w Katy Hill.

They all are, in fact, seminal cuts that led to that separate genre which now boasts a relatively small (in comparison to mainstream Country) but nevertheless fierce following. The funny The Coupon Song and Dog House Blues, the bouncy Honky Tonk Swing, the classic Orange Blossom Special, and the religious tunes like Were You There When They Crucified My Lord.

Bill passed away four days shy of his 85th birthday on September 9, 1996 - a performer almost to the very end. A member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1939, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1970, won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1883, and in 1997, a year after his death, was brought into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in the early influence category.

The sound quality is excellent and there are several pages of background noted written by Rich Kienzle, author of Southwest Shuffle, among other excellent books. Bill Monroe - High Lonesome personified.