View Full Version : Monroe recordings at Library of Congress
According to this NYT article: Library of Congress Gets a Mile of Music (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/arts/music/10masters.html?ref=music), there may be Bill Monroe outtakes and b-sides along with a ton of other studio-archival material from Universal/MCA/Decca, being donated to the Library of Congress. The catch? LOC has to physically store them: "some 200,000 metal, glass and lacquer master discs from the period 1926 to 1948", and Universal keeps commercial rights. It may be a while before we get to hear them, and it's unclear what the access will be, but it looks like a lot of archived material is going to become more public.
Who knows what's in there? Me, I'm hoping for a lost Monroe/Baker fiddle tune, but even the studio chatter would be priceless!
Joe
mandolirius
Jan-11-2011, 12:41am
Monroe out-takes, unreleased stuff etc. would be incredible. That's what's cool about live shows. Yeah, for the most part bigtime Monroe fans have heard it all before but every so often there's something truly unique, like the live version of Evening Prayer Blues he played in 1980 in Vancouver.
evanreilly
Jan-11-2011, 10:27am
Egads......
Maybe the long-lost Decca master copy of NA 15846 will be at last be located!!!
f5loar
Jan-11-2011, 12:18pm
I'd be happy with a release of his final instrumental recordings. Those would not be tied to MCA.
evanreilly
Jan-11-2011, 1:58pm
And, of course, the 'final' as yet unreleased instrumental recordings includes the second studio recording of Decca NA 15846.
And someday Mr. Gabany's project may see the light of day!!!
But it would still be an enormous treat to hear the original 1969 Decca recording.
Billy1
Jan-11-2011, 2:17pm
Evan, what song is Decca NA 15846?
evanreilly
Jan-11-2011, 2:49pm
Evan, what song is Decca NA 15846?
Land of Lincoln
From the same session (691125) that produced the tune about your town, Going Up Caney.
Billy1
Jan-11-2011, 3:03pm
Thank you Evan!
Mandoist
Jan-11-2011, 5:57pm
As far as I know, most (or all?) of Monroe's recording session outtakes were released in a Bear Family Records box set...and much better than the bootleg versions that made the rounds from person to person.
Tim W
Jan-11-2011, 11:35pm
Monroe out-takes, unreleased stuff etc. would be incredible. That's what's cool about live shows. Yeah, for the most part bigtime Monroe fans have heard it all before but every so often there's something truly unique, like the live version of Evening Prayer Blues he played in 1980 in Vancouver.
You know how I could hear a copy of that?
mandolirius
Jan-12-2011, 5:51am
You know how I could hear a copy of that?
There is a clip of it somewhere on this site. I think "Spruce" posted it.
KirkwoodCowboy
Jan-12-2011, 6:30am
As far as I know, most (or all?) of Monroe's recording session outtakes were released in a Bear Family Records box set...and much better than the bootleg versions that made the rounds from person to person.
Land of Lincoln wasn't in the bear Family box sets.
evanreilly
Jan-12-2011, 12:06pm
Land of Lincoln wasn't in the bear Family box sets.
The Decca master recording of Decca NA 15846, Land of Lincoln, was not an out-take. It was given a number, as were all the other recordings from that session (691125 = November 25th, 1969) which eventually all made their way to various recordings, such as the Uncle Pen album .
The master to number 15846 was just lost somewhere in the Decca-MCA vaults and has never been found nor released.
See Rosenberg & Wolfe: The Music of Bill Monroe, page 161.
Therefore, it is, maybe a remote possibility, that it lies somewhere in the mile-long shelves of archival material now being moved to the Library Of Congress. Let us hope......