Bill Monroe’s Country Music Hall of Fame cover

Bill Monroe’s Country Music Hall of Fame

Various Artists

Compilation · 1991 · MCA MCAD 10082

Bill Monroe’s Country Music Hall of Fame (MCA MCAD-10082, 1991) belongs to MCA’s Country Music Hall of Fame Series, which the Country Music Foundation produced. John Rumble and Chris Skinker picked the sixteen tracks and wrote the notes, and Alan Stoker did the audio restoration. Monroe had been elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970, and most of his more than 500 recorded selections were made for Decca, later renamed MCA. This set draws on those recordings from 1950 to 1988.

The earliest track is “New Mule Skinner Blues,” cut at Castle Studio in Nashville on 3 February 1950 with Jimmy Martin on guitar, Rudy Lyle on banjo, Vassar Clements on fiddle and Joel Price on bass. “Uncle Pen” followed that October with Red Taylor on fiddle. From 1954 come “On and On,” sung by Martin with Monroe on tenor, “White House Blues,” and a September 1954 “Blue Moon of Kentucky” with three fiddles: Charlie Cline, Red Taylor and Gordon Terry. The instrumental “Scotland” (1958) has Kenny Baker and Bobby Hicks on twin fiddles. Peter Rowan sings lead on “Midnight on the Stormy Deep” (1966), and “Kentucky Mandolin” (1967) features Roland White on guitar and Vic Jordan on banjo.

The later tracks include “Kentucky Waltz,” recorded at Bradley’s Barn in December 1970. On “My Last Days on Earth” (1981), Sheldon Kurland’s string section joins Monroe, Norman Blake and Mark Hembree. Ricky Skaggs sings lead to Monroe’s tenor on “My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin’” (December 1982), with Kenny Baker and Buddy Spicher on fiddles. The set closes with “Southern Flavor,” recorded in January 1988; the album of that name won Monroe the first Grammy ever awarded for bluegrass.

Tracklist

  1. 1 New Mule Skinner Blues 2:29
  2. 2 Uncle Pen alt version 2:43
  3. 3 Walking In Jerusalem 1:59
  4. 4 On and On alt version 2:46
  5. 5 White House Blues alt version 2:12
  6. 6 Happy On My Way 2:09
  7. 7 Blue Moon of Kentucky alt version 2:07
  8. 8 Scotland 1:54
  9. 9 Midnight on the Stormy Deep alt version 4:04
  10. 10 Kentucky Mandolin alt version 3:03
  11. 11 Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine alt version 2:33
  12. 12 The Lee Weddin' Tune 1:54
  13. 13 Kentucky Waltz alt version 3:15
  14. 14 My Last Days On Earth 4:37
  15. 15 My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin’ alt version 2:52
  16. 16 Southern Flavor alt version 3:17

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