The First Whippoorwill, released on Sugar Hill in 1985, is Peter Rowan's tribute to the songbook of Bill Monroe, in whose Blue Grass Boys Rowan had sung and played guitar two decades earlier. The album gathers Monroe compositions and renders them in Rowan's own grain — a warmer, folk-inflected voice with a rougher edge than the bluegrass mainstream, but no less faithful to the material. Because Rowan learned many of these songs from Monroe directly, the record carries a biographical charge that a more distant tribute would lack; it is less an act of homage than a reckoning with an early teacher. The performances make the case that Monroe's songs hold up under a range of approaches, and that Rowan's, drawn from the same well, is among the more credible. It remains one of the more personal entries in his sprawling catalog.
Tracklist
- 1 On My Way Back to the Old Home alt version 2:30
- 2 I’m Just a Used to Be alt version 2:07
- 3 I Believed in You Darling alt version 2:30
- 4 Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong alt version 3:31
- 5 When The Golden Leaves Begin To Fall 3:52
- 6 I Was Left On The Street 2:50
- 7 Goodbye Old Pal alt version 2:20
- 8 When You Are Lonely alt version 2:52
- 9 The First Whippoorwill alt version 4:21
- 10 Sitting Alone in the Moonlight alt version 3:04
- 11 Boat Of Love 2:40
- 12 It’s Mighty Dark to Travel alt version 2:17
