Letter from My Darlin’ · Raw Hide

Bill Monroe’s singles as a bandleader begin in Atlanta. WSM had hired him for the Grand Ole Opry in October 1939 on the strength of “Mule Skinner Blues,” and on 7 October 1940, in rooms at the Kimball House hotel, he recorded it for Bluebird with the Blue Grass Boys. On that side Monroe played guitar, with Clyde Moody on mandolin, Tommy Magness on fiddle and Bill Wesbrooks (Cousin Wilbur) on bass. It came out in November 1940 backed with “Six White Horses.” A second Atlanta session on 2 October 1941, with Pete Pyle on guitar and Art Wooten on fiddle, produced “Orange Blossom Special,” “In the Pines” and the sacred pairing “Shake My Mother’s Hand for Me” and “Were You There,” issued in March 1942.

The Columbia years opened on 13 February 1945 at the CBS studio of radio station WBBM in Chicago’s Wrigley Building, with Art Satherley producing. Tex Willis sang lead and played guitar, David “Stringbean” Akeman played banjo, Sally Ann Forrester played accordion and Chubby Wise fiddled. “Kentucky Waltz,” “Footprints in the Snow” and “Blue Grass Special” all came from that date. In the same studio on 16 and 17 September 1946, Lester Flatt (guitar and lead vocal), Earl Scruggs (banjo), Howard Watts (bass) and Wise recorded “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Heavy Traffic Ahead” and “Toy Heart.” That band returned on 27 and 28 October 1947 for “Molly and Tenbrooks,” “Blue Grass Breakdown” and “Little Cabin Home on the Hill.” Flatt and Scruggs left early in 1948, and Columbia went on issuing those sides into 1949. The final Columbia date, on 22 October 1949 at Castle Studio in Nashville’s Tulane Hotel, had Mac Wiseman singing lead and Rudy Lyle on banjo.

Decca took over on 3 February 1950, also at Castle, with Jimmy Martin on guitar, Lyle on banjo, Joel Price on bass and Vassar Clements on fiddle. That session produced “New Mule Skinner Blues” and “My Little Georgia Rose.” With Red Taylor on fiddle, “Uncle Pen” followed in October. In March 1951 Monroe remade “Kentucky Waltz” with Grady Martin on guitar, Owen Bradley on piano and Farris Coursey on drums. On 4 September 1954 Monroe cut “Blue Moon of Kentucky” again, the year Elvis Presley put it on the B-side of his first Sun single. The new version was issued that October with “Close By.”

From 1955 the sessions moved to Bradley’s studio on 16th Avenue South, which later became Columbia’s Nashville studio. Harry Silverstein produced from 1962. There, on 20 March 1963, Bill Keith played banjo and Kenny Baker fiddle on the instrumental “Salt Creek,” issued in April 1964 with “Darling Corey.” “I Live in the Past” and “There’s an Old, Old House” followed in December 1965. By the late 1960s Monroe’s son James was playing guitar in the band. “With Body and Soul” (April 1969), with Rual Yarbrough on banjo and Baker on fiddle, backed “Fireball Mail.” “Walk Softly on My Heart,” cut on 28 October 1969 at Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, came out in March 1970 with “McKinley’s March.” Decca, which became MCA, kept him until the 1980s.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.