Tag Archives: Bill Monroe

Wade Mainer, Laxatives, and the Grandfather of Bluegrass?

Wade told me once, that Bill Monroe asked him to play banjo for the Blue Grass Boys . . . this was before Stringbean. Wade turned him down. He explained to me that he didn’t want to become a sideman. Continue reading

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A glimpse of the past . . .

I am speaking of Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys (“BGB”), with Bessie Lee Maudlin on bass, Del McCoury on guitar, Bill Keith on banjo, and Kenny Baker on fiddle. They were playing the Ash Grove Continue reading

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Visiting Earl Scruggs

. . . He went down the hall and quickly came back, holding an old Gibson open-back banjo. “This belonged to Uncle Dave . . . here, play me a tune!” Continue reading

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Thoughts on the Bluegrass Music

I first met Bill Monroe in May of 1963. At that time, he told me (and I still have the interview on tape): “When it comes to music, I always considered myself as an inventor, sort of like Henry Ford. … Continue reading

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Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention: Beginnings

Peter tells the tale of how the Rolling Stones and Hell’s Angles helped get the Santa Barbara Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention going, way back in the early 1970s . . . Continue reading

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