“True Life Blues” is credited to Bill Monroe and was recorded by Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys at their first Columbia session, on 13 February 1945 at the WBBM radio studio in Chicago. Tex Willis sang the lead, with Monroe singing tenor and playing mandolin, Chubby Wise on fiddle, Stringbean Akeman on banjo, Sally Ann Forrester on accordion and Bill Westbrook on bass. Columbia released it in 1946 as a single, with “Footprints in the Snow” on the other side.
The song is a woman’s lament. She believed the promises of a man who said his love was true, and it has turned out like a dream that left her sad. The verses list the housework and the many worries she cannot explain, and she tells other women to think of her before they change their names, because men leave their wives at home and forget they have them.
The title gave its name to True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, a tribute album released by Sugar Hill in October 1996 with Todd Phillips as producer, which won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in 1997. Laurie Lewis sang lead on its version of the song, with Kathy Kallick singing harmony and playing guitar, Mike Marshall on mandolin, Tony Trischka on banjo, Lewis on fiddle and Phillips on bass.
