Bill Monroe
The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
From cradle to great, the comprehensive real story of Bill Monroe
The Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe was a major star of the Grand Ole Opry for over fifty years; a member of the Country Music, Songwriters, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame; and a legendary figure in American music. This authoritative biography sets out to examine his life in careful detail--to move beyond hearsay and sensationalism to explain how and why he accomplished so much.
Former Blue Grass Boy and longtime music journalist Tom Ewing draws on hundreds of interviews, his personal relationship with Monroe, and an immense personal archive of materials to separate the truth from longstanding myth. Ewing tells the story of the Monroe family’s musical household and Bill’s early career in the Monroe Brothers duo. He brings to life Monroe’s 1940s heyday with the Classic Bluegrass Band, the renewed fervor for his music sparked by the folk revival of the 1960s, and his declining fortunes in the years that followed. Throughout, Ewing deftly captures Monroe’s relationships and the personalities of an ever-shifting roster of band members while shedding light on his business dealings and his pioneering work with Bean Blossom and other music festivals.
Filled with a wealth of previously unknown details, Bill Monroe offers even the most devoted fan a deeper understanding of Monroe’s towering achievements and timeless music.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In exhaustive detail, Ewing, who was a guitarist and singer in Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, for 10 years, provides a workmanlike chronicle of Monroe, known as the Father of Bluegrass. Drawing on interviews with 68 former Blue Grass Boys and hundreds of conversations with Monroe's family and friends, Ewing presents a complete story of the musician. Monroe was born in 1911 in Rosine, Ky., where as a kid he hauled lumber, dug potatoes, and watched his brothers sing with the Rosine Methodist Church choir. Ewing then traces Monroe's rise to fame decade-by-decade, from the mandolin player's early years with his brothers Charlie and Birch to their radio performances in the 1930s. In his 20s, Monroe formed his own band, which became known as the Bluegrass Boys, and developed a signature style of playing mandolin, marked by speed and accuracy. Ewing clearly illustrates that Monroe was instrumental in bringing bluegrass to a wider audience in the 1940s and 1950s through radio and, later, TV appearances. Before his death in 1996, Monroe was inducted into both the Country Music and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although Ewing was close with Monroe, he offers a fair, objective, and entertaining chronicle that's never fawning or hagiographic.
