Bill Monroe Biography

Home	Music	Video	Stock Footage	Help

Original Recordings by the Original Artists!

Bill Monroe
Country Music | 3 CD Set
Reg. $24.99 ON SALE!
$19.99

William Smith Monroe was born Sept. 13, 1911, in Kentucky. Monroe had been slowly formulating his evolving music almost since childhood. By the time he formed his band, the Blue Grass Boys, in 1938, he had already been involved in other groups, both with his brothers and by himself. The Kentuckians preceded the Blue Grass Boys and that name stuck. Monroe's different way of performing country music involved his instrument, the mandolin, plus banjo and fiddle, and with Monroe's high-pitched voice roaring over the ensemble, the music cried out for a new name. Monroe’s popularity surged and by the early ‘40s it was called bluegrass music. And it still is bluegrass, although the style has changed a bit from the original. There are still pure bluegrass bands performing, but years ago the music’s evolution caused someone to call it "newgrass." Known as the Father of Bluegrass, Monroe grew up in a musical family. His father was known as a step- dancer and his mother played fiddle, harmonica and accordion. The youngest of the family, Bill was handed a mandolin as a child. He and his siblings, all musically inclined, were influenced by his uncle Pendleton Vanderver, with whom Bill later moved in with (his parents both died a year apart when he was ten) and began performing as a duo on guitars. One of Monroe’s later hits was a tribute to his uncle, "Uncle Pen." With their father’s death, the elder boys moved to Detroit to seek work in the auto industry as the Depression began changing lives. At eighteen, in 1929, the start of the Depression, Bill moved north, too, all the boys now working in oil refineries in Indiana. Soon, Bill was the only Monroe working and so the brothers, Bill, Charlie and Birch, began playing at local dances to raise money. By 1932, they had become part of a dance team and show organized by a Chicago radio station, WLS, which aired the popular National Barn Dance. Other radio stations had them appear and by 1934, Bill had decided to become a fulltime musician. Birch gave it up, but Bill and Charlie toured as the Monroe Brothers with growing success in the mid ‘30s throughout the South. Bill married in 1935. The Bluebird label of RCA put them in the studio in 1936, the records having success and creating more popularity for the Monroe Brothers. But in 1938, the brothers split and Charlie kept the record contract and formed his own band, the Kentucky Pardners. Bill moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and formed his first band, the Kentuckians, but he moved on to Atlanta, eventually forming his first band with the title Blue Grass Boys. He had begun working in mandolin and vocal solos, something he had not done on record before, and in 1939 Bill made his initial appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. He stayed with the Opry until the end of his life. It gave him a 50th anniversary celebration in 1989. There still was no distinct difference in what Monroe was playing from other styles of string-band country in the ‘40s. But his increasingly volatile mandolin playing and high, even shrill at times, vocals were going a step away from those other bands. By the end of the '40s, it was called "bluegrass music" and Monroe was responsible for it. By 1941, he was a national name and recording and playing on radio shows aired around the country. He recorded a variety of music for RCA but after 1941, due to what many call "wartime restrictions," most recording was halted. It was, in fact, more of a national musicians’ union problem than World War II, and virtually all instrumental recording was halted for years. But singers belonging to a different union, could record, hence the rise of popular singers like Frank Sinatra. Monroe returned to the studio in 1946, achieving his first country hit, the No. 3 "Kentucky Waltz" and following that with the No. 5 single, "Footprints In the Snow." By this time, Monroe’s band had seen several fiddlers come and go, all adding to the band’s sound and popularity. In 1945, the soon-to-be-eminent players guitarist-vocalist Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs joined. Their tour of duty lasted until 1948, but their contribution to the Blue Grass Boys was immense and when they left they became nearly as large as Monroe. Scruggs’ banjo had become one of the identifiable sounds of bluegrass music. One of the sidebars of Bill Monroe's career involved Elvis Presley, hardly a bluegrass practitioner. When Elvis made his lone appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1954, at the beginning of his career, he sang Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" but changed the arrangement, the song apparently disappointing the audience. He never returned to the Opry. Later Presley apologized for his radical change and in a strange turn of events, Monroe began using the Presley arrangement at his own shows. Monroe had begun recording for Columbia but left the label in 1949 when it signed the now-surging Stanley Brothers, an act that made Monroe irate because he felt the Brothers were imitating him. Moving to Decca, he was asked to become more modern country but rebelled at that, too. He did record some songs with electric guitar but soon returned to his sound. By the end of the ‘50s, rock music had caused a downward popularity in many styles of music, including Monroe’s output, but, oddly enough, not in the case of Flatt & Scruggs, whose popularity grew. Monroe was also apparently a somewhat difficult person to work with. He refused to play a major concert in Carnegie Hall because he felt promoter Alan Lomax was a Communist and he also refused to deal with the press, rarely giving interviews. And, the frequent turnover of band personnel reflected his relationships with musicians. The ‘60s saw a revival of folk music and Monroe's sound became popular with college crowds in general. With the advent of music festivals (jazz, rock, folk), he was soon doing bluegrass festivals and later began staging his own bluegrass events at his Bean Blossom, Indiana property. He has garnered a number of awards and honors over the years and even as he was aging, he continued performing hundreds of shows a year. Cancer floored him in 1981 but he recovered and returned to his hectic schedule. He recorded the "Bill Monroe and Friends" album in 1984, an event that paired him with several others, including Oak Ridge Boys, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Barbara Mandrell, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. He has made hundreds of recordings, singles and albums over the years. He was given a Lifetime Achievement award by the Grammy board in 1993. Monroe underwent double-bypass coronary surgery in 1991 but that didn’t fell him, either. He died in 1996, just four days shy of his 85th birthday.

TIMELESS MEDIA GROUP 100% GUARANTEED
If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase you may return it for a prompt refund, credit or exchange. Click here for details

All Items Usually Ship Within 24 Hours!