Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 03/25/2008
Bill Monroe had already recorded some sixty songs with his brother
Charlie Monroe for
Bluebird/
RCA Records in the late 1930s (as
the Monroe Brothers), but while he was fronting his own group in the early '40s, he felt he wasn't quite getting the sound he was searching for in his head. Then in 1945 he added a singer and guitarist to his band named
Lester Flatt, and later in that same year he added an extraordinary three-finger-styled banjo player named
Earl Scruggs to the group, and suddenly that sound
Monroe had been chasing was right there in front of him.
Bluegrass. Rounded out by
Chubby Wise and
Howard Watts, this version of
the Bluegrass Boys didn't get to record until almost a year later, but the rest, as they so often say, is history. This lovingly assembled album is
Ricky Skaggs' attempt to pay homage to that amazing band and he leads his
Kentucky Thunder ensemble through some of the songs that
Monroe and company recorded in that first burst of sessions for
Columbia Records. It's fitting that the only surviving member of that version of
the Bluegrass Boys, the still astounding
Earl Scruggs, is on hand here to help with the opening track, a fine version of
"Goin' Back to Old Kentucky." Nothing replaces the original sides from 1946 and 1947, naturally, but these renditions, particularly on tracks like the lovely
"When You're Lonely," the wise and cautionary
"The Old Crossroad," and the blistering instrumental explosion of
"Bluegrass Breakdown," gently and warmly remind just how innovative and fresh
the Bluegrass Boys really were some sixty-plus years ago. They created the very template for
bluegrass, and while modern players have stretched the boundaries a bit,
bluegrass in the 21st century is still very much that long ago sound
Monroe heard in his head.
~Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
