Knee Deep in Bluegrass, released on Decca in 1958, captures Bill Monroe at a transitional moment: the rock and roll era had disrupted country music's commercial certainties, but Monroe's response was to dig deeper into the music he had founded rather than accommodate pop trends. The album is among his most purely traditional-sounding records of the period, with "Lonesome Wind" and "Cry Cry Darling" representing the aching, blue-toned emotional core that made bluegrass something more than an instrumental novelty. Monroe's high, lonesome tenor carries a quality of ancient grief that no amount of commercial pressure could domesticate. The Bluegrass Boys here are capable custodians of the sound.
Tracklist
- 1 Cry Cry Darling Source Recording 2:24
- 2 Roane County Prison 3:11
- 3 Goodbye Old Pal alt version 2:40
- 4 Out in the Cold World alt version 2:36
- 5 A good woman's love 2:22
- 6 In Despair alt version 2:17
- 7 Come Back to Me In My Dreams alt version 2:25
- 8 A lonesome road (to travel) 2:40
- 9 Sally-Jo 2:39
- 10 Brand new shoes 2:12
- 11 Molly and Tenbrooks alt version 3:07
- 12 Sitting on Top of the World alt version 2:39
- 13 A Lonesome Road to Travel alt version
