I Haven’t Seen Mary in Years · Crossing the Cumberlands

James Monroe played in his father’s Blue Grass Boys through the late 1960s and 1970s, and the records billed to Bill Monroe and James Monroe came out of that band. On 14 November 1968, at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, James played bass when the band cut Bill Monroe’s instrumental “Crossing the Cumberlands.” Roland White was on guitar, Vic Jordan on banjo and Kenny Baker on fiddle. The following March, on the 26th, James played guitar and sang lead on Damon Black’s “I Haven’t Seen Mary in Years,” with his father singing tenor. Rual Yarbrough played banjo, Kenny Baker and Red Hayes fiddles, and Joe Zinkan bass, with Harry Silverstein producing. Decca put the two sides on a single (32502) released on 19 May 1969, and only the vocal side was credited to father and son.

The second joint single came from sessions at Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, in March 1972, produced by Walter Haynes. Jack Hicks played banjo, Kenny Baker and Tommy Williams fiddles, and Monroe Fields bass. MCA 40006, issued on 29 January 1973 under both names, coupled another Damon Black song, “Tall Pines,” with James singing lead and Bill tenor, and A. P. Carter’s “Foggy Mountain Top,” on which Bill sings the verses and James leads the chorus. Both went onto the album Father & Son (MCA 310, March 1973). It also collected “I Haven’t Seen Mary in Years” and “Bonny,” recorded at Bradley’s Barn in December 1969 and issued as a Decca single under James’s own name in March 1970.

A second duet album, Together Again (MCA 2367), was recorded at Bradley’s Barn in January and February 1978, again with Haynes producing, and released that June. Alan O’Bryant and Butch Robins played banjo, Kenny Baker and James Bryan fiddles. Bill also sang tenor and played mandolin on James’s own sessions for the Atteiram label in February 1976 and March 1978. Some of those tracks, including new versions of “I Haven’t Seen Mary in Years” and “Bonny,” were gathered on Blue Grass Special Memories (Raintree, 1999).

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.