Artist: Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
Author: Bill Monroe
Label: Decca
Year: 1950
Ode to one of his uncles (from mother's side) and teacher: Uncle Pendleton Vandiver, an excellent fiddler with a Scots-Irish sound. Bill Monroe also learned a lot from a black fiddler, Arnold Schultz, but that's a lesser known fact. Why would that be? That same Bill Monroe is regarded as the undisputed father of bluegrass, which makes the banjo to be regarded as a white instrument, while it's coming out of Africa. More Taj Mahals, Alvin Harts and Corey Harrises please.
Covers:
Porter Wagoner [hit C&W]
Manassas [outtake]
Ricky Skaggs [n°1 C&W, the first bluegrass n°1 ever]
Elvis Presley cut a version for Sun, shelved in favor of his Blue Moon Of Kentucky, also by Bill Monroe.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)