Bill Monroe(1911-1996)
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in Rosine Kentucky, he was the youngest of eight children.
Orphaned at age 11 he was raised by his uncle, fiddler Pendleton
Vandiver. Learning the fiddle from his mother and taught further by his
uncle, at an early age he began playing dances with uncle and brothers.
Besides his uncle (whom he immortalized in the song "Unlce Pen") his
musical inspiration was Arnold Schultz, a black guitarist from whom he
learned the blues. By the early 1930s he and his brother Charlie had a
successful duo, cutting their first record in 1936, but in 1938 they
broke up. In the late 1930s, the first person to make the mandolin a
lead instrument in country music, he developed the style that became
bluegrass. In has debut at the Grand Old Opry in 1939 he performed a
version of 'Rodgers, Jimmy (II)' tune "Muleskinner Blues" - this is generally
considered the first true bluegrass tune. In the classic band The
Bluegrass Boys in the late 1940s he set an instrumental standard for
bluegrass that still stands. In later years, with the explosion of
interest in bluegrass on college campuses, he began an expanded career
with festival appearances. In 1981, battling colon cancer, he wrote and
recorded "My Last Days on Earth" - those last days lasted another 15
years.