True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe by Laurie Lewis and Kathy Kallick, released in 1996, is a focused and affectionate tribute to the composer whose songs form the backbone of the bluegrass canon. Lewis and Kallick — both significant figures in the California progressive bluegrass scene — bring their own harmonic sensibilities to Monroe's material, and the result is a record that honors the source without simple imitation. "Little Cabin Home on the Hill" and "True Life Blues" are among the best-known Monroe compositions, and the duo's versions reveal how much formal intelligence is embedded in songs that can seem straightforward on the surface. The album appeared a year before Monroe's death and stands as a respectful accounting of his songwriting legacy from two musicians who understood what they were inheriting.
Tracklist
- 1 Molly and Tenbrooks alt version 3:07
- 2 True Life Blues Source Recording 2:48
- 3 I’m On My Way Back to the Old Home alt version 2:10
- 4 Highway of Sorrow alt version 2:55
- 5 Old Ebenezer Scrooge alt version 3:38
- 6 Memories Of You 3:07
- 7 Rawhide alt version 2:31
- 8 Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ alt version 4:10
- 9 Letter From My Darling 3:34
- 10 Sitting Alone in the Moonlight alt version 3:19
- 11 Big Mon alt version 2:53
- 12 Get Down on Your Knees and Pray alt version 2:59
- 13 Used to Be Source Recording 2:05
- 14 Scotland 3:11
- 15 Travelin’ this Lonesome Road alt version 3:04
- 16 Heavy Traffic Ahead alt version 2:28
- 17 Little Cabin Home on the Hill Source Recording 3:49
