Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man

In exhaustive detail, Ewing, who was a guitarist and singer in Bill Monroe’s band, the Bluegrass Boys, for 10 years, provides a workmanlike chronicle of Monroe, known as the Father of Bluegrass. Drawing on interviews with 68 former Blue Grass Boys and hundreds of conversations with Monroe’s family and friends, Ewing presents a complete story of the musician. Monroe was born in 1911 in Rosine, Ky., where as a kid he hauled lumber, dug potatoes, and watched his brothers sing with the Rosine Methodist Church choir. Ewing then traces Monroe’s rise to fame decade-by-decade, from the mandolin player’s early years with his brothers Charlie and Birch to their radio performances in the 1930s. In his 20s, Monroe formed his own band, which became known as the Bluegrass Boys, and developed a signature style of playing mandolin, marked by speed and accuracy. Ewing clearly illustrates that Monroe was instrumental in bringing bluegrass to a wider audience in the 1940s and 1950s through radio and, later, TV appearances. Before his death in 1996, Monroe was inducted into both the Country Music and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although Ewing was close with Monroe, he offers a fair, objective, and entertaining chronicle that’s never fawning or hagiographic. [em](Sept.) [/em]