“Rosa Lee McFall” was written by Charlie Monroe, the older brother of Bill Monroe. The two had performed as the Monroe Brothers before each formed his own band, Charlie’s being the Kentucky Pardners. Charlie Monroe and His Kentucky Pardners recorded it for RCA Victor on 1 February 1949 at the Fox Theatre Building in Atlanta, with Orne Osborne on guitar, Red Rector on mandolin and Lavelle Coy on bass. Victor issued it in May 1949 as Victor 21-0054, coupled with “They Didn’t Believe It Was True.”
The song is a lament for a bride lost young. The singer remembers Rosa Lee McFall, who lived in a small cabin on a lonely hillside, and tells how she accepted his proposal before God called her away; he has searched the world since and found no one like her.
The Grateful Dead performed it in their acoustic sets in 1970 and 1980, under the title “Rosalie McFall,” and it appears on their live acoustic double album Reckoning (Arista, April 1981), recorded in September and October 1980, with Jerry Garcia singing. Garcia also recorded it with David Grisman and Tony Rice on The Pizza Tapes (2000).
