The Very Best of Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys

by Bill Monroe, Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys

Overview

Bill Monroe's recorded legacy resides in the vaults of three major labels. His RCA Victor recordings are controlled by BMG, his Columbia sides are in the possession of Sony, and his Decca/MCA tracks are claimed by Universal. Monroe signed to Decca in November 1949 at the age of 38 and remained with it and its successor, MCA, until his death in 1996. His catalog with the label is vast, but uneven. In its strategy of putting into the marketplace compilations at different price points, MCA issued a four-disc box set, The Music of Bill Monroe, in 1994 and a discount-priced collection, 20th Century Masters -- The Millennium Collection: The Best of Bill Monroe, in 1999. The Very Best of Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys supersedes the label's now out-of-print 1991 album Country Music Hall of Fame as a single-disc, full-priced examination of his Decca/MCA years. It chooses 22 tracks at a running time of less than an hour, ranging from Monroe's first recording session for Decca in 1950 to a 1981 MCA session. Since Monroe didn't really score hits in this period (his two country chart entries, "Scotland" and "Gotta Travel On," are included), the compiler must make many subjective choices to augment certain obvious favorites such as "Uncle Pen," and Mary Katherine Aldin has leaned toward familiar songs from the pens of such well-known figures as Hank Williams ("I Saw the Light") and Jimmie Rodgers ("New Mule Skinner Blues"). She has also included four re-recordings of songs that were successful for Monroe on Columbia in the 1940s. And she has avoided chronological sequencing in favor of a mixed approach. The result is more a sampler than a real best-of, only emphasizing the necessity for the Monroe fan to obtain collections from each of the labels for which Monroe recorded. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	08/27/2002
Label:	Mca Nashville / Mca
UPC:	0008811298227
Rank:	44478

Tracks

1. Blue Moon of Kentucky
2. Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
3. I Saw the Light
4. Goodbye Old Pal
5. Footprints in the Snow
6. Roll on Buddy, Roll On
7. I'm Going Back to Old Kentucky
8. Molly and Tenbrooks
9. When the Cactus Is in Bloom
10. Walls of Time
11. I'm Working on a Building
12. Scotland
13. Walk Softly on My Heart
14. Kentucky Waltz
15. In the Pines
16. Toy Heart
17. New Mule Skinner Blues
18. Roanoke
19. Midnight on the Stormy Deep
20. Uncle Pen
21. Gotta Travel On
22. My Last Days on Earth

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bill Monroe   Primary Artist,Vocals,Mandolin
Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys   Primary Artist
Jimmy Martin   Guitar,Vocals
Don Stover   Banjo
Charlie Cline   Fiddle,Vocals
Joe Stuart   Fiddle
Ernie Newton   Vocals
Del McCoury   Vocals
Vassar Clements   Fiddle
Peter Rowan   Vocals
Richard Greene   Fiddle
Buddy Spicher   Fiddle
Tommy Jackson   Fiddle
Gordon Terry   Fiddle
Dale Potter   Fiddle
Grady Martin   Guitar
Roland White   Guitar,Vocals
Edd Mayfield   Guitar
Rudy Lyle   Banjo
Lamar Grier   Banjo
Red Taylor   Fiddle
Sonny Osborne   Banjo
Bobby Hicks   Fiddle
Kenny Baker   Fiddle
Curtis McPeake   Banjo

Technical Credits

Clayton McMichen   Composer
Cliff Carlisle   Composer
Larry Ehrlich   Composer
Joe Ahr   Composer
Gavin Lurssen   Digital Remastering
Doyle Wilburn   Composer
Huddie Ledbetter   Composer
Mary Katherine Aldin   Liner Notes
Peter Rowan   Composer
Jimmie Rodgers   Composer
Rupert Jones   Composer
Miller   Composer
Owen Bradley   Producer
Rev. Louis Overstreet   Composer
A.P. Carter   Composer
Tom Six   Composer
George Vaughn   Composer
Hank Williams   Composer
Harold Bradley   Producer
Dave Lazer   Composer
Alan Riggs   Composer
Jimmie Davis   Composer
Dave Lazar   Composer
Walter Haynes   Producer
Vartan   Art Direction
Mike Fink   Design
Beth Stempel   Production Coordination
Les Leverett   Photography
Michael Ochs Archives   Photo Courtesy
Harry Silverstein   Producer
Slim Bryant   Composer
Ryan Null   Photo Research
David Lazar   Composer
Paul Clayton   Composer
Teddy Wilburn   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Andy McKaie   Producer
Bill Monroe   Composer
Jake Landers   Composer