Friday, June 28, 2013

The Best of Bill Monroe - the Millennium Collection

Bill Monroe is commonly acknowledged as the "father of bluegrass"  and he is certainly the one to popularize the sound that we now consider to be bluegrass with the vocal tones, harmonies and instrumentation - first with the Monroe Brothers and later as he led his own Blue Grass Boys. This is fantastic starting point for learning about this gentleman and will most likely made you want more!

Every song here is a classic, from "Blue Moon of Kentucky" to "New Mule Skinner Blues" to "In the Pines" (yes, the Louvin Brothers were highly influenced by this man) to "I'm Working on a Building" to "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" to "I Saw the Light" and more! Monroe's superb high tenor voice and terrific mandolin playing is augmented by guitar, fiddle, bass and harmony vocals to give us a wonderful sound. Anyone who is interested in bluegrass at all should own this!