“Heavy Traffic Ahead” is a song written by Bill Monroe, the Kentucky mandolinist regarded as the father of bluegrass music. Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys recorded it in 1946, at one of the landmark sessions that featured the classic lineup of the band — the group, including Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, whose sound essentially defined bluegrass.
The song is unusual in Monroe’s catalog for its road-life subject. Rather than the lost loves and old home places of so much bluegrass, its lyric is drawn from the touring musician’s own world — the long highway miles, the rush to make the next show — giving it an autobiographical, behind-the-scenes feeling.
Issued as a single at the end of the 1940s, “Heavy Traffic Ahead” has remained a part of the bluegrass repertoire as both a piece of Monroe history and a hard-driving showcase. It has been recorded by a range of later bluegrass artists drawn to its brisk pace and its unusual, working-musician’s lyric.
