Old Ebenezer Scrooge

Monroe recorded it on 3 February 1981 at the Music Mill in Nashville. It was the first tune cut at the first of three sessions for the album Master of Bluegrass, and his first session at that studio. Monroe played mandolin, with the Blue Grass Boys Wayne Lewis on guitar, Butch Robins on banjo and Mark Hembree on bass. Kenny Baker, the band’s fiddler, played on the other tunes cut that day but not on this one. MCA issued the album on 2 July 1981 (MCA 5214) with this tune as the opening track, spelled “Ole Ebenezer Scrooge” on the sleeve.

The piece has four parts. It is in the key of A, but its melody mostly uses the notes of the A minor scale. The first part is built from just two phrases.

Other musicians have recorded it since. David Grier recorded it as a guitar solo for the Sugar Hill tribute album True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe (1996). Fiddler Fletcher Bright and banjo player Bill Evans later recorded it with Norman and Nancy Blake on their 2016 album Songs That Are Mostly Older Than Us.