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Composed

More than 200 songs and instrumentals, including:

  • “Kentucky Waltz” (Billboard peak at #3, 1946)
  • “Wicked Path of Si”n (Billboard peak at #13, 1948)
  • “Little Community Church” (Billboard peak at #11, 1948)
  • “Toy Heart” (Billboard peak at #12, 1949)
  • “Scotland” (Billboard peak at #27, 1958)
  • “Uncle Pen” (Billboard peak at #1, 1984 for Ricky Skaggs)
  • “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
  • “Blue Grass Breakdown”
  • “Raw Hide”

Early Influences

  • Pendleton “Uncle Pen” Vandiver, fiddler, Ohio County, KY
  • Arnold Shultz, guitarist and fiddler, Ohio County, KY
  • Jimmie Rodgers, singer and guitarist, Meridian, MS
  • Prairie Ramblers, WLS Barn Dance, Chicago, IL

Came to Fame With

The Monroe Brothers, 1934-1938

Performed With

  • The Monroe Brothers, 1934-1938
  • Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, 1939-1996

By the Way

  • Sang bass in the Rosine Methodist youth choir at age 12 or 13
  • Purchased Brown County Jamboree Park in Bean Blossom, IN in 1951 and produced one of the earliest and longest-running bluegrass festivals there, starting in 1967
  • Toured with a tent and a semiprofessional baseball team in the 1940s (Bill played shortstop)
  • Many of his songs were autobiographical (“Letter from My Darling,” “Little Georgia Rose,” “Uncle Pen,” etc.)
  • In June, 1985, at Shoney’s Restaurant in Nashville, paid the tab for lunch at the meeting that led to formation of the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Led the Way

  • Pioneered bluegrass music and set its standard for more than half a century
  • Grand Ole Opry member, 1939-1996
  • Country Music Hall of Fame, 1970
  • First Bluegrass Grammy Award, 1989
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 1991
  • Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 1993
  • National Medal of Arts, 1995
  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1997

From the Archives

From the Archives: Left to Right: Gene Lowinger, Bill Monroe, Lamar Grier, Peter Rowan and James Monroe. Photo by Ron Petronko.

From the Archives: Left to Right: Gene Lowinger, Bill Monroe, Lamar Grier, Peter Rowan and James Monroe. Photo by Ron Petronko.

Bill Monroe with Colonel Sanders

From the Archives: Bill Monroe with Colonel Sanders. Photo by Les Leverett.

“You know, I never wrote a tune in my life. All that music’s in the air around you all the time. I was just the first one to reach up and pull it out.”
“Bluegrass Touches – An Interview with Bill Monroe” by Charles Wolfe, in Ewing, Tom, The Bill Monroe Reader, 2000.
“I wanted a style of my own and that’s what I finally came up with.”
“Bluegrass Touches – An Interview with Bill Monroe” by Charles Wolfe, in Ewing, Tom, The Bill Monroe Reader, 2000.
“There are a lot of young bluegrass groups coming along now that are out of this world, boy. They can really sing the harmony and play the music… They’re all over the country, and I like to hear them play.”
“Bill Monroe” (interview) by George Gruhn, in Ewing, Tom, The Bill Monroe Reader, 2000.
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