I’m Going Back to Old Kentucky #4

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.

  • October 4, 1948 – Single released: Summertime Is Past And Gone / Wicked Path Of Sin (Columbia 20503)
  • October 4, 1954 – Single released: Close By / Blue Moon Of Kentucky (Decca 9 – 29289)
  • October 4, 1969 – Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys were among the performers at The First Annual Indian Summer Maryland State Bluegrass Festival held at the Take It Easy Ranch in Callaway, Maryland.
  • October 4, 1996 – CD released: The Bluegrass Album Band – The Songs Of Bill Monroe (Easydisc ED CD 7003)

At various sessions over a decade and more, starting in 1980, the Bluegrass Album Band;  Tony Rice, JD Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Bobby Hicks, Todd Phillips, Jerry Douglas, Vassar Clements and Mark Schatz, recorded some classic songs and instrumentals for what amounted to six albums of material. Rounder Records released, on their budget label, a selection from those sessions with its focus on the songs of Bill Monroe.

Track Listing – On My Way Back to the Old Home, I Believe in You Darling, Cheyenne, Letter From My Darlin’, Lonesome Moonlight Waltz, When You Are Lonely, Sitting Alone in the Moonlight, Molly and Tenbrooks, On the Old Kentucky Shore, Brown County Breakdown, Toy Heart, River of Death.

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.