Happy Birthday Bill Monroe!

[BradKlein]

From the department of shameless self-promotion, I hope some of my friends at the Cafe will enjoy this portrait of Monroe from tonight's NPR's All Things Considered (http://www.npr.org/2011/09/12/140366232/bill-monroe-celebrating-the-father-of-bluegrass-at-100?ps=mh_frimg1). If you scroll down the NPR Music site, you'll find some additional stories about Monroe from Daves and Thile, Sam Bush, Tony Trischka, Gene Lowinger, and Laurie Lewis.

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/09/12/billmonroe_wide.jpg?t=1315855452&s=4

[JEStanek]

Nice piece, Brad.

Jamie

[Ed Goist]

Fantastic piece, Brad.
Congratulations.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Brad - Thank you so much for sharing those clips with us. I only met & talked with Bill Monroe for around 10 minutes,back in '66 when my band opened for him at the Manchester Sports Guild Folk Club in Manchester UK.Bill was very polite & courteous,but i could tell that he was a man who probably kept most of his passion inside himself & only let it out through his music.
I'd only been playing Banjo for 3 years at the time,but i'd got pretty good at it,good enough for Lamar Grier to complement me anyway when i spoke to him. I didn't know much regarding Bluegrass music as a genre,& still less about Bill Monroe himself.I knew that he was a 'big name' in Bluegrass,but his role as the 'Father of Bluegrass Music' was unknown to me.
I've read all the main books about Bill Monroe & i now realise what a complex man he was in many ways,but his strict adherence to keeping Bluegrass as it should be,fills me with utter respect for the man,regardless of some of his personal failings,which ultimately, were simply another aspect of the man as a whole.
Since i've been involved in Bluegrass for over 45 years now,my deepest regret is in not having had the chance to meet Bill Monroe just once more to say 'thank you'. I dare say that there are many folk around the world who feel the same.The finest tribute & the most heartfelt 'thank you' can come from us continuing to play 'his' music,the way he'd want us to - R.I.P Bill Monroe,
Ivan

[mandopete]

Reminds me of that song by David Grisman.

[Jim Garber]

I thought that was you. Very nicely done.

[Spruce]

...

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[grassrootphilosopher]

That was no shameles self-promotion yet it was a wonderful well deserved centenial birthday recognition of a master musician and a human being. Happy birthday Bill Monroe.

[mandolino maximus]

He did a benefit for Sam Bush?! I did not know that.

[John McGann]

Well done, my friend!

[BradKlein]

Thanks for all the kind words. I had production help from Stephanie Coleman, the fiddle player w Uncle Earl!

We're in NC working on something for next week on The Story, produced by WUNC radio.

[Marty Henrickson]

Nice job Brad. I actually got a little misty-eyed when Del was telling the story about visiting Monroe's parents' graves.

[BradKlein]

Thanks Marty. That's part of a longer Del story that's really great, about learning the words to Monroe's songs. It was tough singing lead for Monroe back in the day! You had to know a lot of lyrics, some of which even Monroe had long forgotten! And it wasn't like you could go to bluegrasslyrics.com to look them up.

[Marty Henrickson]

So, where can I find the rest of the story? This information shouldn't just be filed away in a vault somewhere.

Hmmm, I'm thinking it's about time to re-read "Can't You Hear Me Calling", and re-watch "Father of Bluegrass" and "High Lonesome".

[JEStanek]

Just up on NPR, a collection of Bluegrass (http://www.npr.org/2011/09/07/140247673/the-mix-happy-100th-bill-monroe?ps=mh_frimg1%3Fsc%3Dfb&cc=fmp)in honor of Bill's 100th.

Jamie

[BradKlein]

So, where can I find the rest of the story?

We have a modest grant proposal that we're hoping will help us build a web site to archive the Monroe Stories we've collected and gather more in the future. If it comes through, the site will be up before the end of the year.

[Marty Henrickson]

Brad, that sounds good. I hope that grant comes through.

[BradKlein]

2016! Well, it has been five years since I produced that story for NPR. I usually don't listen back to my own work, but there are so many great voices that took part in this one. Alice Gerrard, Del McCoury, Chris Thile, and others. I hope that the story is new to some of the café folks and that they enjoy it.
PS so nice to see the shout out above from the late John McGann. It was one of the many gifts that the MandolinCafe gave me, reconnecting with him after many years.

[CarlM]

How do you get the clips to play at the end?

[BradKlein]

How do you get the clips to play at the end?

I'm afraid that NPR has let those links die! And I'm really sorry about that, but I can't seem to get them to fix it. So when I get a moment, I'll create a web site where those and additional stories are available.

[Mandolin Cafe]

149645

[DataNick]

149647

[samsondale]

I had no idea that today is Bill Monroe's birthday, which makes it a little spooky that I put a Bill Monroe cd on in my car for my morning commute today (considering I haven't listened to him in close to a year). Serendipity!