The Bill Monroe Reader

Name: The Bill Monroe Reader
Brand: University of Illinois Press

University of Illinois Press

The Bill Monroe ReaderAuthor(s): Tom Ewing, George D Hay, Gene Dudley, Harold Seligman, Alan Lomax, Ralph Rinzler, Mayne Smith, Doug Benson, Alice (Foster) Gerrard, James Monroe\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University of Illinois Press, United States\nImprint: University of Illinois Press\nISBN-13: 9780252073991, 978-0252073991\nSynopsis\n\""Tell 'em I'm a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice,\"" Bill Monroe said. Known as the Father of Bluegrass Music, Monroe pioneered a whole new category of music and inspired generations of musicians and fans. Yet from his founding of the original bluegrass band through six decades of performing, he remained an enigmatic figure, a compelling mixture of fierce intensity, homespun modesty, and musical integrity.\n\nDetermined to play the mandolin in a way it had never been played before, Monroe distinguished himself in the mid-1930s with the Monroe Brothers then began forming his own band, the Blue Grass Boys, in 1938. By the mid-1940s othe.