UNCLE PEN

Created on 11/12/2001
Latest update on 30/12/2022

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:

1951:

Stanley Brothers

1956:

Porter Wagoner [hit C&W]

1962:

Rose Maddox

1968:

Roy Acuff

1971:

Manassas [outtake]

1971:

Lonnie Mack

1972:

Flying Burrito Brothers

1973:

Leon Russell

1973:

Eric Weissberg

1974:

Buck Owens

1975:

Mel Tillis

1975:

Doug Kershaw

1977:

Hank Williams Jr.

1984:

Ricky Skaggs [n°1 C&W, the first bluegrass n°1 ever]

1988:

Wood Brothers

2001:

Byron Berline

Elvis Presley cut a version for Sun, shelved in favor of his Blue Moon Of Kentucky, also by Bill Monroe.

Contact


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)

info@originals.be

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