“Cheyenne” was recorded by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys on 31 December 1954 in Nashville, most likely at the Bradley studio in Hillsboro Village. The same date produced two more instrumentals, “Wheel Hoss” and “Roanoke,” and the vocal “You’ll Find Her Name Written There.” Monroe played mandolin, with Bobby Hicks and Charlie Cline both on fiddle, Jackie Phelps on guitar, Hubert Davis on banjo and Ernie Newton on bass. Decca issued “Cheyenne” as the A side of Decca 29406 on 7 February 1955, backed with “Roanoke,” a tune credited to Joe Ahr. Monroe later included it on two Decca LPs, My All-Time Country Favorites (1962) and Bill Monroe’s Greatest Hits (1968).
The tune moves between G minor and its relative major, B-flat. Decca’s label credits Monroe alone as composer, but The Fiddler’s Companion lists it as the work of Monroe and Bobby Hicks, and the Bluegrass Album Band’s 1985 recording carries the same joint credit.
Later recordings came from Monroe’s circle and beyond it. On 29 March 1976 Kenny Baker recorded it in Nashville for Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe (County 761), with Monroe himself on mandolin. That January David Grisman had cut it at his home in Marin County, California, for The David Grisman Rounder Album, with Tony Rice on guitar, Vassar Clements on fiddle, Bill Keith on banjo, Jerry Douglas on dobro, Todd Phillips on bass and Buck White on a second mandolin. Hicks went back to it twice. The first time was on his own album Texas Crapshooter (County 772, 1978), with Roland White, Alan Munde, Sam Bush and Roy Huskey Jr. The second was with the Bluegrass Album Band on The Bluegrass Album, Vol. 4 (Rounder 0210, 1985), recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley with Tony Rice, J. D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Jerry Douglas and Todd Phillips.
