Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe is a tribute studio album presenting compositions from Monroe's songbook in performances by a roster of acoustic performers united by their shared debt to the Father of Bluegrass and his career of defining the genre's vocabulary. Ricky Skaggs plays mandolin and sings; Clay Hess plays guitar; Emily Robison plays banjo; Mark Fain holds the bass; and Cub Cleverly and Ricky Lloyd Cleverly contribute additional instrumental work. The album draws from Monroe's most celebrated compositions — the fiddle tunes, gospel pieces, and sentimental songs he had been writing and performing since the 1940s — in a tribute format that presents the Monroe songbook through the lens of performers who absorbed his example directly and built their own careers in proximity to the tradition he created.