“Get Down on Your Knees and Pray” is a bluegrass gospel song written by Bill Monroe. Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys recorded it in 1951, with Carter Stanley — who sang briefly in Monroe’s band that year — taking the harmony vocal alongside Rudy Lyle and Gordon Terry.
Gospel singing was central to Monroe’s music from the start, and sacred numbers like this one were a fixed part of his stage shows and recordings. The lyric is a plain call to prayer and repentance, the kind of direct exhortation common to the bluegrass gospel form.
The song has remained in the repertoire as one of the many Monroe-penned sacred pieces that helped define bluegrass gospel, and it has been recorded over the years by a range of later artists. Its simple, fervent message and quartet-friendly arrangement keep it a natural choice for the gospel portion of a bluegrass set.
