Ricky Skaggs on Bill Monroe: FAVORITES
Compiled by Brian Mansfield
CDNOW Senior Editor, Country
With cuts from Bruce Hornsby, Dolly Parton, Steve Wariner, Patty Loveless, John Fogerty, the
Whites, the Dixie Chicks, Travis Tritt, Charlie Daniels, Joan Osborne, Mary Chapin Carpenter,
and Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Skaggs' latest project, Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe, is sure
to introduce a lot of folks to the music of the Father of Bluegrass. CDNOW asked Skaggs to
sort through the dozens of Monroe's albums and choose the best of the original recordings.
Ricky Skaggs &
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Big Mon-Songs Of Bill
Monroe
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Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Bo: Essential 1945-1949
Ricky Skaggs: "That's the Fab Five of bluegrass. That's Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise, and
Howard Watts -- they called him Cedric Rainwater. To me, that is what bluegrass was and still is. We kind of refer to
them as the litmus-paper recordings. I check myself and see where I'm at with this music. Plus, there're great liner
notes and lots of info."
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Bill Monroe: Father Of Bluegrass-Early Year
"This was basically his first band after leaving Charlie [Monroe, his brother]. He's experimenting with new
instruments like the accordion. He's using the slap bass which, 10 years later, would become Bill Haley's "Rock
Around the Clock." It's an informative album, because you really do get to hear the experimentation of what he's
doing musically. He hasn't quite nailed that bluegrass sound yet."
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Bill Monroe: Bluegrass 1950-58
"The reason I love this one is because it's got another great set of photos, liner notes, and information. And just the
fact that he's got Carter Stanley and Jimmy Martin. Lester and Earl have left at this point. Ralph's in the army, so
Carter's out doing a few things with Bill, and he's got Jimmy Martin, too. It became that high, lonesome sound after
Lester and Earl left. He started digging a lot deeper into his emotions.
"The Stanley Brothers were really giving him a run for his money. I think Monroe was picking up on that stuff as
well; they were important to each other. Monroe was realizing that this was something people were really digging.
He's doing that with things like 'On the Old Kentucky Shore' with Jimmy Martin, and 'Memories of You.' Both those
things are on this collection.
"There're great instrumentals, great gospel songs -- it was a great time for Bill Monroe. He'd been doing this
professionally for almost 20 years by the time this stuff was being recorded. He's really an old hat at it, and has a lot
of great music inside him."
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Bill Monroe & Monroe Brothers: Essential
"If you start listening to him and Charlie and the stuff he's playing, he's evolving on the mandolin as a player. He
still hasn't been able to step out in the starlight yet by singing lead, because Charlie's doing that.
"After he left Charlie, he'd learn how to lean in and take command. But, with Clyde Moody, he still felt like he needed
a strong lead singer, and even hiring Lester Flatt… But it's those formative years that I just love -- hearing that
experimentation. When I hear him, as a musician, I think, 'Okay, Bill experimented; it's okay for us to experiment.'
It does give me a lot of courage to dip into those songs."
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Monroe Brothers: Vol. 1-What Would You Give In
"The last interview that Monroe gave -- before he had his stroke -- my partner Stan Strickland did it. One of the last
things he sang, he had his mandolin and he began singing, 'Brother, afar from the Savior today / risking your soul
for the things that decay / Oh, if today God should call you away / What would you give in exchange for your soul?'
"He started singing the first verse of 'What Would You Give?' It's amazing that the very first record he recorded --
that very first trumpet sound -- was the last trumpet song he gave to the public. I didn't have room to explain the
whole thing in the liner notes [of Big Mon], but I included the verse. It was a complete circle." |
