From October 1, 2010 through to the end of September 2011, we will, each day, celebrate the life of Bill Monroe by sharing information about him and those people who are associated with his life and music career. This information will include births and deaths; recording sessions; single, LP and CD release dates; and other interesting tidbits. Richard F. Thompson is responsible for the research and compilation of this information. We invite readers to share any tidbits, photos or memories you would like us to include.
- April 13, 1974 Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys appeared at the two-day International Country Music Festival, at Wembley, London. With Bill Monroe at this festival in England were Kenny Baker [fiddle], Bill Box [guitar], Jim Moratto [banjo] and Gregg Kennedy [bass].
- April 13, 1994 CD released – Bill Monroe – Blue Grass 1959-1969, 4 CD set (Bear Family BCD 15529-4-DH) *
- April 13, 2010 Noah Crase passed away **
* Bill Monroe – Blue Grass 1959-1969, 4-CD Box-set with 28 page booklet,
…continues the story of BCD 15423 (Blue Grass 1950-1958). This was the period when Bluegrass had moved to the festival circuit, but it didn’t matter to Bill Monroe. He continued to make his music the only way he knew how: riveting and pure. This set includes his original version of Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine, as well as classics like Linda Lou, Put My Rubber Doll Away and Toy Heart, and stellar reinterpretations of standards like Pike County Breakdown, Going Home, Farther Along, Devil’s Dream, and Midnight on the Stormy Deep. The Blue Grass Boys include Kenny Baker, Vassar Clements, Richard Greene, Roland White, Pete Rowan and Byron Berline. (Product description)
Track listing…
When The Phone Rang, Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone, Dark As The Night, Blue As The Day, Stoney Lonesome, Lonesome Wind Blues, Thinking About You, Come Go With Me, Sold Down The River, Linda Lou, You Live In A World All Your Own, Little Joe, Put My Rubber Doll Away, Seven Year Blues, Time Changes Everything, Lonesome Road Blues, Big River, Flowers Of Love, It’s Mighty Dark To Travel, Bluegrass Part 1 (Bluegrass Twist), Little Maggie, I’m Going Back To Old Kentucky, Toy Heart, Shady Grove, Nine Pound Hammer, Live & Let Live, Danny Boy, Cotton Fields, Journey’s End, John Hardy, Bugle Call Rag, Old Joe Clark
There Was Nothing We Could Do, I Was Left On The Street, Cheap Love Affair, When The Bees Are In The Hive, Big Ball In Brooklyn, Columbus Stockade Blues, Blue Ridge Mountain Blues, How Will I Explain About You, Foggy River, The Old Country Baptising, I Found The Way, This World Is Not My Home, Way Down Deep In My Soul, Drifting Too Far From The Shore, Going Home, On The Jericho Road, We’ll Understand It Better, Somebody Touched Me, Careless Love, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Jimmie Brown, The Newsboy, Pass Me Not, The Gloryland Way, Farther Along, Big Sandy River, Baker’s Breakdown, Darling Corey, Cindy, Master Builder, Let Me Rest At The End Of The Day
Salt Creek, Devil’s Dream, Sailor’s Hornpipe, Were You There? Pike County Breakdown, Shenandoah Breakdown, Santa Claus, I’ll Meet You In Church Sunday Morning, Mary At The Home Place, Highway Of Sorrow, One Of God’s Sheep, Roll On, Buddy, Roll On, Legend Of The Blue Ridge Mountains, Last Old Dollar, Bill’s Dream, Louisville Breakdown, Never Again, Just Over In The Gloryland, Fire On The Mountain, Long Black Veil, I Live In The Past, There’s An Old, Old House, When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again, I Wonder Where You Are Tonight, Turkey In The Straw, Pretty Fair Maiden In The Garden, Log Cabin In The Lane, Paddy On The Turnpike, That’s All Right, It Makes No Difference Now, Dusty Miller
Midnight On The Stormy Deep, All The Good Times Are Past & Gone, Soldier’s Joy, Blue Night, Grey Eagle, Gold Rush, Sally Goodin’, Virginia Darlin’, Is The Blue Moon Still Shining? Train 45 (Heading South), Kentucky Mandolin, I Want To Go With You, Crossing The Cumberlands, Walls Of Time, I Haven’t Seen Mary In Years, Fire Ball Mail, Dead March, Cripple Creek, What About You, With Body & Soul, Methodist Preacher, Walk Softly On My Heart, Tall Pines, Candy Gal, Going Up Caney, Lee Weddin’ Tune, Bonny and Mary and The Miles In Between.
** Noah Crase was first recruited by Bill Monroe to play banjo for about a 12 month spell in 1954 and rejoined the Blue Grass Boys in 1956.
Prior to that Crase was one of the pioneering bluegrass banjo pickers in the Dayton, Ohio, area. With Red Allen and Frank Wakefield, he soon became deeply involved in the bluegrass world of the Cincinnati-Middletown-Dayton region.
He played and recorded with numerous people in those years in addition to Allen and Wakefield, including Jimmy Martin, Carlos Brock, Dorsey Harvey, Dave Woolum and others.
Some of Crase’s best music of the 1960s and 1970s came in the company of Paul ‘Moon’ Mullins, fiddler and legendary DJ on WPFB in Middletown. He played with Mullins in the Valley Ramblers (appearing weekly on a TV show on Dayton’s WKEF-TV), the Nu-Grass Pickers and, beginning in 1973, the Boys from Indiana, with whom he recorded two albums; We Missed You in Church Last Sunday and the extremely popular Atlanta is Burning.
Crase will also be remembered for his original banjo tune Noah’s Breakdown, recorded in 1957 and released on the flip side of Dave Woolum’s Sage single Old Age (immortalized on the 1976 Rounder album Early Days of Bluegrass, Vol. 2), and the song I Can’t Go On This Way, recorded by the Traditional Grass.
In later years Crase lived in the Franklin-Springboro area, where he worked as a mail carrier at the Springboro post office.
