The Washington Post

This was actually an offshoot of a more serious discussion about the future of country music, and how much he prefers working in bluegrass – specifically because it has stayed truer to its roots.

From the interview with Chris Richards:

Your new album is look back on the history of bluegrass, but how do you feel about the future of the genre?

Bluegrass, I think, is really doing well. There’s a lot of new, young horses out there running… I’m much more hopeful for bluegrass music than I am for country music. Listening to country on the radio? Phew! Wow.

You think it’s that bad, huh?

Country music has really, really lost its identity. It’s tried to be something that it’s not for so long now, it doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be. It’s really lost its way. There’s groups out there that are making good-sounding records but they have such a rock influence or such a pop influence. It’s too rock to be country or too country to be rock. It’s just… somewhere, hanging in the balance.

But the real fun starts when they turn to the topic of bluegrass hair. Jesse McReynolds, Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley, and Marty Stuart are singled out for their coif before the questions begin.

Why do so many bluegrass stars have such fantastic hair?

Oh my goodness… Well, in the early days, probably one of the reasons people had these great hair-dos — and long hair — is that they probably couldn’t afford to get it cut! They weren’t making enough money to get it cut in the early days. And probably traveling on the road so daggone much, they probably didn’t have time, either.

What about your hair?

Hair is something that comes in and goes out. I’ve certainly had two, three or four different looks during my career. But I guess it was in 2007 when I felt it was time to grow my hair back out again. So I haven’t really cut it since then. Just a trim here and there.

Do people comment on your hair?

I know Mr. Monroe [the late bluegrass icon Bill Monroe] had quite a coif there for many years. When I was working with J.D. Crowe & the New South, Mr. Monroe used to say “That J.D. Crowe and his outfit — they look like a herd of Shetland ponies!”

Read the whole thing to see who Ricky thinks has the best bluegrass hair of all time. You might be surprised.

Thanks to Josh Kohn at the National Center for the Traditional Arts for pointing us to this interview.

Several items of Bill Monroe memorabilia were recently sold at auction by the Christie’s auction house in New York. They included some minor items, like Monroe’s Country Music Hall Of Fame medallion, his BMI citation for 1,000,000 broadcasts of Uncle Pen, and his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction statuette.

The big item was the damaged headstock overlay from his 1923 Loar F-5, a major piece of bluegrass folklore. Monroe had gouged out the Gibson name from his headstock after receiving unsatisfactory repair service on his prized instrument in the early 1950s, and the retelling of this story made for fascinating conversation among mandolin enthusiasts back in the day.

Gibson restored the Monroe mandolin after it was even more seriously damaged in 1985, and an original peghead overlay reproduction was installed. Big Mon left the damaged overlay with Gibson, and it went up for auction earlier this month.

All of the items sold in in the range of the Christie’s estimates, except for the overlay which went for $37,500! They had projected a high side of $7,000, but had seriously underestimated the interest in the classic piece of Monroe-abilia.

The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, hometown paper for The International Bluegrass Music Museum, ran a detailed piece about the auction on December 18, including an interview with IBMM director Gabrielle Gray. She came away with a piece from this lot, but not the storied peghead veneer.

Gray said the bidding began at just over $3,500 and a lot of people were bidding.

“It was very, very exciting to be in New York City at Rockefeller Center, seeing that many people interested in Bill Monroe,” she said. “Bill would have been so excited to see it.”

Gray said she had backers who had authorized her to spend “up to a certain amount” for the headstock veneer.

“I was the last person to drop out,” she said. “I was well over what I was authorized to spend, but I wanted it for the museum.”

You can read the full article online, and see details from the auction at www.christies.com.

Gene also chronicled the time he was most actively involved in bluegrass (1960s) as a photojournalist. Recently, he has added some new photographs and memorabilia to his web site. To see them, go to www.genelowinger.com, click Galleries and select the option ‘I Hear A Voice Calling – Historical.’

Lowinger studied photography at the New School in New York, and spent many years shooting in the Middle East, Europe and Russia. He went on to study classical violin after his “intership” with Big Mon, and now teaches both music and photography from his home in New Jersey.

The Bean Blossom Jamboree Foundation is still offering personalized bricks for the Bean Blossom Memorial Brick Wall, adjacent to the performance stage on the grounds of the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park & Campground in Bean Blossom, IN. Mr. Monroe once owned and operated this property, and the foundation is trying to raise the funds necessary to purchase the park and operate it as an enduring monument to Bill Monroe’s music.

You can hear their direct appeal below in this audio file which the foundation created as a PSA…

You can find full details about having a brick personalized for your favorite bluegrass lover on The Bean Blossom Jamboree Foundation web site.

On September 21, 1995 in Rosine, Kentucky, the US Navy’s Country Current bluegrass group performed for the birthday celebration and plaque dedication ceremony for Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music. At that ceremony, as the leader of Country Current, I had a conversation with John Sheldon, the Secretary of the Scottish Bluegrass Association from Penicuik Scotland. As we were talking, John inquired about the possibility of Country Current performing in the United Kingdom but, at that time, the possibility of a performance would not come to fruition.

John spoke face to face with the Father of Bluegrass Music on that day and made a vow that he would do all he could to promote bluegrass music in the United Kingdom. Bill boasted with pride that his music would continue to grow around the globe. Since that ceremony in 1995, John has worked feverishly to fulfill his promise by hosting tours for over 100 USA, Canadian, and European bluegrass bands in the UK.

Upon my retirement from Country Current, I contacted John Sheldon to get the wheels rolling toward getting my new group, Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa to the UK. John arranged a thirteen-day tour, a series of performances ranging from state of the art theaters in Newcastle, England to Moniaive’s first annual bluegrass festival in the south of Scotland. We also did a pair of Music in the Schools performances for 500+ children in grades Kindergarten through 6th grade, which was funded by the International Bluegrass Music Association and the Scottish Bluegrass Association. Our schedule also included group and individual workshops.

Throughout the 13-day tour WT and Appaloosa traveled many miles, performing 18 shows for hundreds of bluegrass enthusiasts as ambassadors of bluegrass music and as US citizens. The tour was highly successful. John continues to fulfill his promise to Bill Monroe with other groups lined up for next year.

I would highly recommend this adventure for any bluegrass group who would like to experience the trip of a life time to see some of the most amazing scenery, landscapes, castles and meet some of the friendliest people anywhere.

Here are a few photos from our trip.

To see more photos and information regarding the tour, visit our web site, or to contact John Sheldon visit www.scottishbluegrass.com.

Gene Lowinger, a New Jersey boy by birth, was the first northerner to play the fiddle for Bill Monroe. He first played with Monroe in 1964, filling in on shows in the northeast. In June 1965 he was hired as a regular Blue Grass Boy and stayed for about eight months.

Lowinger oscillated between playing bluegrass fiddle and classical violin, mastering both in a highly-driven pursuit  for perfection. As well as being a talented fiddler/violinist, Lowinger is an excellent photographer. I Hear A Voice Calling is Lowinger’s photographic tribute to the Father of Bluegrass music. However, it is not designed for the coffee table. The black and white photographs are placed in two sections with Lowinger’s own story framing them.

Lowinger’s narrative takes the reader through his life, in which he always had a penchant for music, beginning in 1942 in the Greenwich Village (New York) bluegrass scene and his friendship with David Grisman, the visits, while a college student, to the early bluegrass festivals, through to the passing of Bill Monroe and beyond. As well as relating his own story of his trials and tribulations, he shares a personal account of his experiences with Bill Monroe on and off the road. In the process we learn a lot about both  individuals and the relationship between the two; one the mentor, the other a willing student, both friends.

After a ten year hiatus working on Wall Street Lowinger overcame a serious neck injury, recreational drugs and alcohol to return to music. He doesn’t discuss his dependencies, but his return to playing bluegrass fiddle just prior to Monroe’s passing is most welcome.

I Hear A Voice Calling is a vivid, sometimes emotional, record of a very significant era in bluegrass music.

Highly recommended.

Note: Gene Lowinger is a freelance photojournalist based in New York and New Jersey. Lowinger is also the author of Bluegrass Fiddle (Oak Publications), one of the first books to accurately capture the bluegrass fiddle style in standard musical notation.

Richard offered to share this cartoon he drew for the paper at the time of Monroe’s death, which perfectly captures the no-nonsense, headstrong personality of our Father of Bluegrass (click to enlarge).

Crowson is a banjo player as well as an artist, and performs with his wife Karen on guitar as The Crowsons. He told us that he is such a music nut that he moved from Memphis to Wichita to take the job with the Eagle primarily so that he could be closer to the Walnut Valley festival in Winfield, which is coming up next week.

He also offered to let us post this other cartoon which he drew for the Eagle in 1990 as a promo for the Winfield fest. I think I know that guy!

Richard is semi-retired at this point, but still draws for the paper, and for himself. You can see his many cartoons – including a Winfield retrospective – on his blog at www.richardcrowson.blogspot.com.

WAMU’s Bluegrass Country has a week full of special programming to remember the Father Of Bluegrass, starting on Sunday (9/13). Here are a few highlights to watch for:

• David Peterson: Bluegrass Country Master Class, on the music of Bill Monroe, circa 1946 – Sunday 3:00 p.m. (EDT)
• Dick Spottswood: Happy Birthday Mr. Bill, featuring Monroe’s music as he and other artists — Johnny Cash, Maddocks Brothers, Seldom Scene, Country Gentlemen, Everly Brothers and the Stanley Brothers – have recorded it. Sunday 1:00 p.m.
• Katy Daley – Road To Rosin. Katy tells of her pilgrimage to Monroe’s homeplace. Sunday 6:00 p.m.

These shows will repeat throughout the week, along with many others dedicated to Bill Monroe, his legacy and his music. You can catch Bluegrass Country streaming online 24/7, and see a complete list of programs and airtimes on their web site.

A great many folks are collecting signatures on a petition to have Bill Monroe honored with a commemorative stamp from the US Postal Service.

Peter Thompson, long time host of Bluegrass Signal on KALW in San Francisco, sent along these photos he took at the California Bluegrass Association’s Grass Valley Festival in June. Bluegrass Signal airs Saturdays from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on KALW, and is also broadcast several times each week on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

Here’s the report Peter sent along with the photos:

“Here’s Randy Pitts (late of Keith Case, previously of the Freight & Salvage and other venerable organizations) signing the Monroe stamp petition as Laurie Lewis looks on.

Laurie had already signed.

Then Randy watches Kathy Kallick sign the petition in front of the Vern’s Stage, where Kathy & Laurie had just finished a tribute to Vern & Ray.”

We can all get involved in this effort. Anyone can download a copy of the petition, collect signatures, and send them on to the Postal Service. There is a web site with information about this campaign at www.billmonroestamp.org, and here are links to the various resources you need to take part.

• Download the petition
• Contact your Senator
• Contact your Representative
• Get a Monroe Stamp shirt from Grassware

Completed petitions should be mailed to:

Get on board!

UPDATE 10:00 a.m. -  Cindy Baucom sent along this photo of hubby Terry Baucom signing the Bill Monroe Stamp petition at the High Country Bluegrass Festival in Boone, NC in July.

She told us that 10 pages of signatures were collected at the festival.

If you have news and/or photos of any efforts on behalf of the Bill Monroe Stamp campaign, please contact us.

Lowinger’s pictures accompany his own story of a New Jersey boy obsessed with folk and bluegrass music and he recounts college trips to country music parks in Pennsylvania and his stints as a fiddler for the New York Ramblers and Blue Grass Boys.

The 144 page book contains 75 black & white photographs. It will be published in both cloth and paper backed editions this October by the University of Illinois Press.

The Country Music Sale on 12/3 includes the framed, original peghead overlay from Monroe’s 1923 Loar-signed F-5 mandolin. In a fit of pique, he had gouged out the word Gibson from the mandolin’s headstock after he was dissatisfied by some repair work they did on his instrument.

From the piece by Bill Graham at Mandolin Cafe:

The gouge became part of both Monroe’s and the instrument’s legends.

He sent the mandolin to the Gibson factory at Kalamazoo in the early 1950s, most accounts have 1951 or 1952. According to Smith, Monroe wanted the neck reset, new frets and fingerboard, new tuning pegs, a new bridge and refinishing. Gibson kept the instrument about four months, a short time to wait on a luthier for a hobby musician, but a long wait for a touring pro like Monroe who probably didn’t fritter money on extra mandolins in those days.

Gibson expert Roger Siminoff remembers that the neck may have been cracked.

Either way, when Monroe once again had the mandolin, both Smith and Siminoff say only the neck work had been done. So out came the pocket knife, onto the floor in little shavings went “Gibson,” with “The” remaining intact above it.

Monroe felt he’d prompted a lot of bluegrass musicians to buy Gibson mandolins, so he deserved better, Smith said.

But bluegrass music wasn’t yet big and a price boom in American-made acoustic instruments was decades away.

“Bear in mind that in the 1950’s, no one at Gibson really knew who Bill Monroe was,” Siminoff said. “He was just some guy with an early Gibson mandolin.”

The headstock was fully restored in 1980 after Gibson and Monroe buried the hatchet, and though they offered the original overlay to Bill afterwards, he said that Gibson could keep it. Graham quotes the folks at Christie’s estimating the auction sale at $5,000-7,000.

Read all the details and the tale of this storied mandolin at Mandolin Cafe.

The Foundation is trying to raise sufficient funds to purchase the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park & Campground in Bean Blossom, IN, once owned and operated by Big Mon himself. The fate of the park has been uncertain in recent years as current owner (and former Blue Grass Boy) Dwight Dillman has announced plans to sell the property.

The wall is being erected near the music stage. A brick can be personalized with 3 lines of text for $100 prior to construction, going up to $125 after the wall is up. The fee is fully tax deductible and proceeds go to the Foundation’s goal of taking over the park and Bill Monroe Museum on site.

To purchase a brick and support the The Bean Blossom Jamboree Foundationup, you may contact them by phone (877-989-BBJF),or email them from their web site. You may also download the PDF order form for a mail-in donation.

According to a report on WGNS Radio, Murfreesboro, TN, the museum has raised about $680,000 of the $1,100,000 needed to keep several prized instruments on display.

In addition to Monroe’s Lloyd Loar mandolin, Mother Maybelle Carter’s Gibson guitar and Johnny Cash’s guitar could both be lost by the museum.

As reported previously, the predicament stems from the forcing of Robert McLean’s estate into bankruptcy. The Murfreesboro investor donated funds for the instruments, but was accused of obtaining the money fraudulently.

According to the USPS guidelines, such stamps can not be issued until ten years have passed since the person to be honored has died. As such, this campaign launched in 2006 and is heating up now with the goal of seeing the stamp issued in time for the centennial of Monroe’s birth, which will occur on September 13, 2011.

A number of bluegrass artists, organizations, events and personalities are trying to enlist the general bluegrass and Monroe-loving public to get involved in the hopes of swamping the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee with petitions until they cry for mercy!

The Bluegrass Blog enthusiastically joins in this effort, and encourages all our readers to pitch in where they can.

Here are a few suggestions for ways you can help make this happen:

• Bluegrass Associations – make petitions available at meetings, jams and concerts – or consider printing them in your newsletter.
• Bands – take petitions with you to shows, and encourage fans and friends to add their names.
• Radio hosts – post information on the show or station’s web site and encourage listeners to download the petition. You might even find sponsors who would love to have petitions at their business locations in exchange for a mention.
• Festivals – print a bunch of petitions and have a central signing point which you promote from the stage.
• Music teachers – keep petitions in your lesson room and ask students to sign.
• Everyone - contact your elected representatives and ask for their support in this effort.
• Everyone – wear one of the shirts or hoodies from grassware.com with the Monroe stamp image. They make a great conversation starter, and a perfect opening to ask folks to sign the petition you just happen to be carrying with you!

There is a web site with information about this campaign at www.billmonroestamp.org, and here are links to the various resources you need to take part.

Completed petitions should be mailed to:

We have a number of photos of prominent grassers adding their names to the petitions which we will post from time to time, and we encourage anyone who hosts a stamp petition event to send us photos as well.

If we all look for creative ways to generate signatures, we’ll not only succeed in honoring Bill Monroe, but be helping spread the word about bluegrass music in the bargain.

Just do it!

Cafe member John Fields posted several pictures he took of Bill Monroe on tour in England during 1996, which he had waylaid and only recently rediscovered. They show Big Mon with Richard Greene on fiddle, Lamar Grier on banjo, Peter Rowan on guitar and James Monroe on bass.

The photos show some damage from time, but do offer an interesting glimpse at some never-before-seen images of our dear, departed Patriarch.

See them all at Mandolin Cafe.

Signed by President Steve Johnson on behalf of the Board of Directors, the letter states that the Foundation has built well on the success of collecting nearly $25,000 in funds at the annual Summer Festival in June by adding another $20,000 in merchandise sales, direct donations and in-kind services by the end of the year.

Another significant success came in the form of confirmation of their receipt of the Not for Profit 501 (c) 3 status from the Internal Revenue Service.

While the Board thinks that the support has been incredible given the current economy, it is seeking further donations during 2009, hoping this year to match the total of last year’s pledges.

The full letter, which includes details about how to make a donation, can be found at the Foundation’s blog.

The BBJF mission is to preserve the music park at Bean Blossom in perpetuity and continue the Brown County Jamboree’s heritage of musical shows and the bluegrass music festivals established at Bean Blossom by the Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe.

The museum has already raised $300,000 for the Precious Jewel Fund from the Academy of Country Music in Los Angeles and $150,000 from RPM Management in Nashville, where former museum board member Scott Siman is president. However, the museum still wants to raise $650,000.

The full story about the campaign, including suggestions for fund-raising from Ricky Skaggs, can be found at The Tennessean website.

According to a report in Country Standard Time, under the terms of the agreement, the museum is required to pay the $750,000 settlement by February 22.

The book apparently stirred up a bit of controversy with its suggestion that the Briarhoppers had influenced Bill Monroe.

I don’t have a PhD in Bluegrass History, so someone who does may want to weigh in here, but it seems to me there are a few problems with the authors’ dates.

We made the point that Bill Monroe and the Briarhoppers were in the same place, the WBT studio, at the same time, between 1940 and ‘43. Both were performing on separate radio shows. Bill Monroe was in a duet with his brother (Charlie) and they were sitting back, listening to this band, the Briarhoppers, with a three-fingered banjo style. It could have inspired Bill to form his Bluegrass Boys and hire someone like (three-finger-style) banjo player Earl Scruggs.

My understanding was that the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Monroe acquired a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry in late 1939 with his band The Blue Grass Boys. Stringbean came on board in 1942, being replaced by Earl Scruggs in December of 1945.

So what gives? Is there any truth to Warlick’s claim? I’m not against admitting that Monroe had influences. He didn’t come up with the bluegrass sound in a vacuum. There was very clearly other music going on around him. This comment from Warlick troubles me though.

Members of the International Bluegrass Association started hitting me with e-mails. ‚ÄòHow dare you blaspheme the name and memory of Bill Monroe.’ One e-mail said, ‚ÄòDo you know how much damage you’re doing?’ I got e-mails from some big folks (in the music industry), but I won’t mention names. ‚ĶIn the bluegrass community, to say Bill Monroe is not the true father of bluegrass, you are crucified.

Even if the Briarhoppers were using a 3-finger banjo style and influenced Monroe in that way, he would still have a valid claim to the title of Father of Bluegrass.

Is there any substance to the allegations of these emails?

I’m counting on some of you who know to chime in on this. Hit the comments folks.

Born December 14, 1928, in Kingsport, Tennessee, Haynes was an under-rated steel guitar player who worked with Little Jimmy Dickens, Ferlin Husky and Webb Pierce.

However, Haynes’ legacy is not solely defined by his steel guitar playing prowess. He was the producer at several of Bill Monroe’s recording sessions from December 2, 1970 through to May 1983. As well as the regular studio sessions, Haynes oversaw the recording of a ‘live’ album, that at Bean Blossom, and the gospel set at Cathedral Caverns, near Huntsville, Alabama, the recordings from which remained unreleased for over two decades.

Haynes was producer for as many as 40 Monroe Decca/MCA sessions, which yielded recordings of such titles as Kentucky Waltz, My Little Georgia Rose, Tallahassee, Milenburg Joy, Tall Pines, Walls Of Time [both with James Monroe], Jerusalem Ridge, Old, Old House, Weary Traveler, My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darling and That’s Christmas Time To Me.

Additionally, Haynes produced the wonderful all-instrument album, Master Of Bluegrass, which includes the immediately emotive cut My Last Days On Earth, and the less successful collection, Bill Monroe And Friends.

This agreement, if ratified by the Bankruptcy Court, will mean that Bill Monroe’s 1923 F5 mandolin will continue to be displayed at the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The settlement, whereby the CMF will pay the Trustee $750,000, safeguards the exhibition of several instruments that were given to the organization by philanthropist, but alleged fraudster, Robert W. McLean, Monroe’s mandolin included.

Further details regarding the deal can be found at The Tennessean website.