Porter Wagoner
Will You Be Loving Another Man
Musicians
“Will You Be Loving Another Man” was credited to Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt and recorded by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in 1947 for Columbia, the version associated with this entry. The recording belongs to the “classic” Blue Grass Boys lineup with Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts (Cedric Rainwater) — the configuration that effectively defined the bluegrass sound during its 1946–1948 founding window.
The lyric is a quietly bitter speculation piece: the narrator’s lover has gone, and he wonders whether she will be loving another man on the day he comes calling for her again. The conceit gives Monroe and Flatt’s vocal a controlled register rather than the more dramatic departure-and-grief framing of the broader bluegrass heartbreak repertoire.
Flatt’s flat-baritone lead and Monroe’s high tenor harmony on the chorus give the recording its distinctive vocal texture; Scruggs’s three-finger banjo break is one of the more-studied solos from the band’s foundational period. The song works as a moderate-tempo vocal feature in G or A with a strong chorus harmony slot. It pairs naturally with other Monroe pieces from the same Columbia session in a traditional set.
