“Used to Be” is a Bill Monroe composition. Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys recorded it on 16 September 1955 at the Bradley Film & Recording studio in Nashville, with Monroe singing lead and playing mandolin, Charlie Cline on guitar, Joe Stuart on banjo, Bobby Hicks and Gordon Terry on fiddles and Bessie Lee Mauldin on bass. It was issued in March 1964 on the Vocalion LP Bill Monroe Sings Country Songs with the Blue Grass Boys.
The words are a breakup song, sung by a man who has just learned that his lover has found someone new. Her kisses had turned cold, and he tells her that to her he is only a “used to be.” He expects tomorrow to be another lonesome day, remembers the good times they spent together, and fears he cannot stand knowing she will soon be gone for good, and that he will never know her love again.
Kathy Kallick sang the lead on the version recorded for True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe, the Sugar Hill tribute album released in the fall of 1996 with Todd Phillips as producer. Laurie Lewis sang tenor and played fiddle, with Jim Nunally and Kallick on guitars, Tony Trischka on banjo, John Reischman on mandolin and Phillips on bass.
