Bill Monroe in the 1950's

[Bernie Daniel]

Did everyone see this video -- if not you should....

[JaybirdNC]

Please post the link--you got my curiosity up!

John Bird

[John Kasley]

Please post the link. Thanks

[Bernie Daniel]

You just double click on the embed to get to the YouTube version and the link -- but it looks the same there -- what do you mean by "curiosity"?

[evanreilly]

That is a pretty good song ( i guess around 1956) & ole Bill is sure hamming it up in the interview. THE PATRIARCH!!!!

[f5loar]

You'll Find Her Name Written There was recorded by Monroe in late 1954. I think this performance is sometime in 1955 and it is from the old Gannam Opry TV shows. You don't see this one as much as others from that series. Playing guitar is Jackie Phelps, banjo is Charlie Cline, fiddles are Bobby Hicks and Gordon Terry and on bass is Ernie Newton. This is preElvismania so Bluegrass was cooking along pretty good. I guess they are all dead except Bobby Hicks.

[MikeEdgerton]

It's amazing to see a non-Gibson style banjo being played in a bluegrass band let alone with Monroe.

Unless I'm nuts. Are the holes in that banjo flange round or are they the standard Gibson style oval shaped holes?

[woodwizard]

Great video! Bluegrass was really hot back then I bet ... the teens and everybody I bet was eating it up until Rock & Roll kind of stole the teens away.

[Ivan Kelsall]

A great video,& for all the dozens of times i've scoured YouTube for Bill Monroe clips,that one's evaded me. You beat me to it there Mike. I noticed the small headstock on the Banjo & it's definitely not a Gibson 'standard' style,however it could be one of these - a Gibson Recording King made around the 1930's. The video's a bit too blurry to get a good look at the resonator flange holes,but the resonator seems to be a lightish color,another mark of a Recording King style.
Great to see Gordon Terry in that clip along with one of my all time fiddle greats,Bobby Hicks,who incidentally was a heck of a good Banjo player as well. Bill Monroe - well what can you say about the man that hasn't been said thousands of times. For me he's one of the greatest figures in music of the last century & every time i pick up an instrument to play,i have him & his music to thank for all the great places i've been & the folk i've met where HIS music has been played,
Ivan ;)

[Fretbear]

Bill's wearing his big old BGB belt buckle that he gouged out a coffee cup sized chunk of finish out of the back of Charlie Derrington's Loar with. Charlie was kind enough to lend him his while he was lavishing his love and skill on #73987, and he never said a word about it to Bill. Charlie needed a Bill-Guard....!

[Fretsman]

Here's one of my fav's by him off 16 Gems It's Mighty Dark For Me To Travel, I wish they had a good one of Going Back To Old Kentucky.

[Fretsman]

I'll try again?

[John Malayter]

Quote "Bill's wearing his big old BGB belt buckle that he gouged out a coffee cup sized chunk of finish out of the back of Charlie Derrington's Loar with. Charlie was kind enough to lend him his while he was lavishing his love and skill on #73987, and he never said a word about it to Bill. Charlie needed a Bill-Guard....!"

Wooooo just a minute there.....Thats a story that needs repeating. Why did bill do that, on purpose, accident....please elaborate.

Thanks

[John Malayter]

Quote "Bill's wearing his big old BGB belt buckle that he gouged out a coffee cup sized chunk of finish out of the back of Charlie Derrington's Loar with. Charlie was kind enough to lend him his while he was lavishing his love and skill on #73987, and he never said a word about it to Bill. Charlie needed a Bill-Guard....!"

Wooooo just a minute there.....Thats a story that needs repeating. Why did bill do that, on purpose, accident....please elaborate.

Thanks

:popcorn:

[Bernie Daniel]

f5loar:This is preElvismania so Bluegrass was cooking along pretty good. I guess they are all dead except Bobby Hicks.

That statement really caught my attention. In 1954 I was living in northwestern North Dakota out where it collides with Montana and Sasketchewn on our family's sheep ranch/wheat farm.

We were country for sure -- but the only thing we got our radios up there were things like Eddie Arnold and Johnny Cash etc. Of course the family was into hard work for survival so listening to the radio was only for the evenings and mostly the weekends --but I do not recall getting the Grand Old Opery up there. So bluegrass happened and I missed it.

We finally got TV came about 1955 -- mostly the test pattern and snowstorms -- by 1957 or so we finally had actual reliable programs but by then Elvis and rock had almost taken over.

[300win]

Yep the '50's were a changing time for Monroe. Some of his best material in my opinion was written then. Then the next big change was when Bill Kieth, Richard Green, and Peter Rowan became Bluegrass Boys, then his music changed again, also during that time period wrote alot of good stuff with Rowan.

[Fretbear]

Quote "Bill's wearing his big old BGB belt buckle that he gouged out a coffee cup sized chunk of finish out of the back of Charlie Derrington's Loar with. Charlie was kind enough to lend him his while he was lavishing his love and skill on #73987, and he never said a word about it to Bill. Charlie needed a Bill-Guard....!"
Wooooo just a minute there.....Thats a story that needs repeating. Why did bill do that, on purpose, accident....please elaborate.
Maybe because it's true that "No good deed goes unpunished..."
Charlie and Bill have both gone on, so they are not here to ask. Bill was a unique, complex individual and had to know that Charlie's Loar was precious to him, and could not have been unaware as to what he was doing to the back of the pristine and perfectly maintained instrument....draw your own conclusions...

[f5loar]

The only scratch put on my Loar was when I loaned it to Monroe during the "poker repair" days. I offered to take off the pickguard and he said that would be fine and it was there the scratch was imbedded. I have no regrets.
:mad:

[Bernie Daniel]

Fretbear: Quote:
Originally Posted by John Malayter
Quote "Bill's wearing his big old BGB belt buckle that he gouged out a coffee cup sized chunk of finish out of the back of Charlie Derrington's Loar with. Charlie was kind enough to lend him his while he was lavishing his love and skill on #73987, and he never said a word about it to Bill. Charlie needed a Bill-Guard....!"
Wooooo just a minute there.....Thats a story that needs repeating. Why did bill do that, on purpose, accident....please elaborate.

Maybe because it's true that "No good deed goes unpunished..."
Charlie and Bill have both gone on, so they are not here to ask. Bill was a unique, complex individual and had to know that Charlie's Loar was precious to him, and could not have been unaware as to what he was doing to the back of the pristine and perfectly maintained instrument....draw your own conclusions...


Hmmm... interesting way of putting at it Scott. I guess the critical piece of missing information is did Bill also grind the finish off his own mandolins with that belt buckle as well?

[mandolirius]

Seems odd to me. I've never seen a pic of Monroe holding his mandolin that low. He started out in the days when it was common to wear it high, so it was able to be picked up by the single mic. I've seen him live many times and he always wore it that way.

[John Kasley]

It's amazing to see a non-Gibson style banjo being played in a bluegrass band let alone with Monroe.

Unless I'm nuts. Are the holes in that banjo flange round or are they the standard Gibson style oval shaped holes?

In the clip from Hee-Haw (Mighty Dark to Travel) it looks like the banjo is an Ode/Baldwin Ode. Is that Jack Hicks playing banjo?

Also, why is video flipped to mirror image?

[Ivan Kelsall]

Here's one with Bobby Hicks on Banjo - quite a picker by anyone's standard & along with Benny Martin,my favourite Fiddler,
Ivan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-ZYcEWVDE

I'll have to put on my other hat & zip along to the 'Banjo Hangout' to see if i can get any info.on Charlie Cline's Banjo.

[evanreilly]

In addition to the obscurity of this clip showing Bobby Hicks on banjo, there are glimpses of Ernie Newton's drumhead that was attached to his bass.

[BradKlein]

The only scratch put on my Loar was when I loaned it to Monroe during the "poker repair" days. I offered to take off the pickguard and he said that would be fine and it was there the scratch was imbedded. I have no regrets.
:mad:

The talk of Monroe's rough treatment reminds me of the (possibly true!) story of Napoleon, who seized the Strad belonging to cellist Jean-Pierre Duport between his legs (this was before the endpin was invented), and left the marks of his spurs on the instrument. (visible to this day, it is said)

Those marks didn't deter Rostropovitch from buying the instrument, and it's one of the most valuable musical instruments in the world today! Might reasonably be expected to bring 100X the average Loar, were it to come up for sale.

[TEE]

Nope. Tater Tate.


Another story (I'm tired of the other one http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif )

When I got my early '25, it was dead mint. I mean, not a scratch on it, and I babied that thing like you wouldn't believe.

I felt that Mon should have an old F-5 to play, so I lent him mine. When I returned his, he handed me mine. He was wearing that huge, sharp, pointy Bluegrass Boy belt buckle a whole lot during that time period. Well, I guess you-all can surmise the rest......

I turned my mando over after he handed it to me, and all of the finish on the back (about the size of the bottom of a coffee cup) was missing. My heart sank. What does a young nobody say to the Father of Bluegrass? How about nothing. I kept my mouth shut and frenched it back later. Oh well, live and learn.

Charlie

From the Archives.

[John Malayter]

From the Archives.

Mannnn ohhh mana shevits!!!!!

In retrospect he probably did the right thing, I don't know I could have done the same.

He must of been a pretty special man...............

[Fretbear]

Thanks TEE, I couldn't find it anywhere;

Yes, it was Charlie's "unsigned Loar".....he eventually got a signed one.
You know that if Charlie was going to purchase one without a signature, the kind of dead-mint condition that it must have been in....
Live and learn...sometimes just live.

[evanreilly]

Here is a pic of Bill playing that instrument. I sent a copy of this one to Charlie & he had it on the wall @ OAI. The guy on the left, well..... he's happy just to be there!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Brad - that Cello's probably still out on the road today in spite of it's megabuck value.I wouldn't like to have to pay the insurance premium though,possibly gives a new meaning to the word 'premium' ! :grin:
Ivan