look and play were unbending. He dressed soberly and required that his band members did
likewise. Unlike other country acts at that time, they did little or no comedy and barely moved onstage
BILL MONROE:
After Charlie and me broke up, I was searching for a name for my group, and I wanted a name from the state of Kentucky. Before
I come to WSM, I’d already decided on using the name “bluegrass,” because that’s what they’d call Kentucky, the Bluegrass
State, so I just used Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. I showed up at WSM on a Monday morning, and I met the Solemn Ol’
Judge. David Stone and Harry Stone was there. They was all goin’ out to get some coffee and something to eat. They told me
that Wednesday was the audition day. So they come back and I sang “Mule Skinner Blues,” “Bile Them Cabbage Down,” numbers
like that, and a gospel song.
CLEO DAVIS, Bill Monroe’s guitarist:
They put us in one of the studios, and we really put on the dog. We started out with “Foggy Mountain Top,” then Bill and I
did a duet with duet yodel, fast as white lightning. We came back with “Fire on the Mountain” and “Mule Skinner Blues.” That
sewed it up.
BILL MONROE:
They said I could go to work for’em that Saturday, or I could go on lookin’ for another job. Maybe I could make more money.
I told’em I wanted to be at the Grand Ole Opry. They said, “Well, you’re here, and if you ever leave, you’ll have to fire
yourself.”
One of the earliest incarnations of the Blue Grass Boys, around late 1939 or early 1940. From left: Art Wooten, Bill Monroe,
Cleo Davis, and Amos Garren.
Bill Monroe was the only Opry performer not to admit to nerves on the first night.
BILL MONROE:
I wasn’t a bit nervous that first night because I knew I could do what I was up there to do. I sung “Mule Skinner Blues,”
and it got three encores. The management just stood and looked at us. They knew the music was altogether different. They didn’t
know me, but they knew I had a music that would fit in at the Grand Ole Opry. It would be fine for the farm people, the country
people. It had a hard drive to it. Back then, they just drug the music out. Our music was pitched up at least two or three
changes higher than anyone had ever sung it at the Opry.
CLEO DAVIS:
Performers such as Roy Acuff, Pee Wee King, and Uncle Dave Macon who were standing in the wings could not believe when we
took off so fast and furious. Those people couldn’t even think as fast as we played. There was nobody living who had ever
played with the speed we had.
From left: Bill Monroe, Howdy Forrester, Clyde Moody, Cousin Wilbur (Wesbrooks), David “Stringbean” Akeman. Cousin Wilbur:
“Sometimes we’d go to bed one night a week, and it was a good thing we didn’t go to bed more often, because if we had, we
wouldn’t have had no money to pay the bill.”
One of the very few surviving photos of the classic lineup of the Blue Grass Boys. Onstage at the Opry for Purina, from left:
Lonzo Sullivan of Lonzo and Oscar clowning to the side; Chubby Wise, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, and Earl Scruggs.
BILL MONROE:
I dress the way a lot of Kentuckians used to dress years ago. I think it was a help to the music to dress as we did. I never
would have dressed up like the other bands. I wanted to let people know that my music was up where I wanted it. It wasn’t
no low, down-to-earth music. I want people to listen to it. I want people to know I’m playing it for them, right from my heart
to theirs.
In 1945, Bill Monroe hired Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and bluegrass music began to take shape on the Opry stage.
Bill Monroe: “The Opry goes out over WSM, and those are my initials, William Smith Monroe.”
Ricky Skaggs: “I think, on some
level, Bill really believed that the station needed a powerful good name, and they named it after him.”
BILL MONROE:
Back in the early days, Stringbean was
likewise. Unlike other country acts at that time, they did little or no comedy and barely moved onstage
BILL MONROE:
After Charlie and me broke up, I was searching for a name for my group, and I wanted a name from the state of Kentucky. Before
I come to WSM, I’d already decided on using the name “bluegrass,” because that’s what they’d call Kentucky, the Bluegrass
State, so I just used Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. I showed up at WSM on a Monday morning, and I met the Solemn Ol’
Judge. David Stone and Harry Stone was there. They was all goin’ out to get some coffee and something to eat. They told me
that Wednesday was the audition day. So they come back and I sang “Mule Skinner Blues,” “Bile Them Cabbage Down,” numbers
like that, and a gospel song.
CLEO DAVIS, Bill Monroe’s guitarist:
They put us in one of the studios, and we really put on the dog. We started out with “Foggy Mountain Top,” then Bill and I
did a duet with duet yodel, fast as white lightning. We came back with “Fire on the Mountain” and “Mule Skinner Blues.” That
sewed it up.
BILL MONROE:
They said I could go to work for’em that Saturday, or I could go on lookin’ for another job. Maybe I could make more money.
I told’em I wanted to be at the Grand Ole Opry. They said, “Well, you’re here, and if you ever leave, you’ll have to fire
yourself.”
One of the earliest incarnations of the Blue Grass Boys, around late 1939 or early 1940. From left: Art Wooten, Bill Monroe,
Cleo Davis, and Amos Garren.
Bill Monroe was the only Opry performer not to admit to nerves on the first night.
BILL MONROE:
I wasn’t a bit nervous that first night because I knew I could do what I was up there to do. I sung “Mule Skinner Blues,”
and it got three encores. The management just stood and looked at us. They knew the music was altogether different. They didn’t
know me, but they knew I had a music that would fit in at the Grand Ole Opry. It would be fine for the farm people, the country
people. It had a hard drive to it. Back then, they just drug the music out. Our music was pitched up at least two or three
changes higher than anyone had ever sung it at the Opry.
CLEO DAVIS:
Performers such as Roy Acuff, Pee Wee King, and Uncle Dave Macon who were standing in the wings could not believe when we
took off so fast and furious. Those people couldn’t even think as fast as we played. There was nobody living who had ever
played with the speed we had.
From left: Bill Monroe, Howdy Forrester, Clyde Moody, Cousin Wilbur (Wesbrooks), David “Stringbean” Akeman. Cousin Wilbur:
“Sometimes we’d go to bed one night a week, and it was a good thing we didn’t go to bed more often, because if we had, we
wouldn’t have had no money to pay the bill.”
One of the very few surviving photos of the classic lineup of the Blue Grass Boys. Onstage at the Opry for Purina, from left:
Lonzo Sullivan of Lonzo and Oscar clowning to the side; Chubby Wise, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, and Earl Scruggs.
BILL MONROE:
I dress the way a lot of Kentuckians used to dress years ago. I think it was a help to the music to dress as we did. I never
would have dressed up like the other bands. I wanted to let people know that my music was up where I wanted it. It wasn’t
no low, down-to-earth music. I want people to listen to it. I want people to know I’m playing it for them, right from my heart
to theirs.
In 1945, Bill Monroe hired Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and bluegrass music began to take shape on the Opry stage.
Bill Monroe: “The Opry goes out over WSM, and those are my initials, William Smith Monroe.”
Ricky Skaggs: “I think, on some
level, Bill really believed that the station needed a powerful good name, and they named it after him.”
BILL MONROE:
Back in the early days, Stringbean was
Similar Books
