Track Listing

1. New Mule Skinner Blues
2. Uncle Pen
3. Walking in Jerusalem
4. On and On
5. White House Blues
6. Happy on My Way
7. Blue Moon of Kentucky
8. Scotland
9. Midnight on the Stormy Deep
10. Kentucky Mandolin
11. Walk Softly on My Heart
12. Lee Weddin' Tune
13. Kentucky Waltz
14. My Last Days on Earth
15. My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin' - Bill Monroe, Ricky Skaggs
16. Southern Flavor

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137012 in Music
• Released on: 1996-11-19

Amazon.com
Boiling down Bill Monroe's 40-plus years of Decca work into 16 songs is an unenviable task, but this collection does an excellent job in surveying his post-Columbia highlights. Monroe signed with Decca in 1950, after Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs had moved on to form their rival ensemble, but each of the musicians he brought into his Blue Grass Boys thereafter added a unique and vital voice (singing and instrumental) and helped in part to build an enormous legacy. For those not willing to go whole hog with the four-CD Music of Bill Monroe, this compilation provides a nice overview of his Decca tenure, including many of his best-loved favorites. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

AN ABSOULTE MUST FOR ANY BLUEGRASS FAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This CD has it all, from Bill's old standbys to some of his lesser known tracks. I listen to "Happy on my Way" anytime I feel blue and in no time, I'm whistling, tapping my feet and singing along!! There are no better instrumentals than "Kentucky Mandolin"," My last days on earth", the first bluegrass instrumental ever to win an Emmy, "Southern Flavor". Bill had his mandolin tuned to C# to record "Last Days on Earth" and after recording it, retired it to be displayed at The Grand Old Opry. I always think of my late granfather when hearing this song and it always brings a tear to my eye!! This CD will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. First it lifts you up, then it makes you think, then cry then brings you to your feet again with the last two tracks. I own alot of Bill's music, and I promise you, this is the last one I would ever part with, if ever!!!!

My Last Days On Earth...
...has got to be one of the most haunting tunes I've ever heard. I picked this one up on a lark having never heard a Bill Monroe song. There isn't one bad track on this CD. Bill Monroe is the king of what Bob Wills called `the biggest little instrument in the world.' Not only are his rousing antique tunes like Uncle Pen and Blue Moon Of Kentucky a hoot, his gospel tracks (especially Walkin' In Jerusalem) are just as lively, and you can't beat his instrumentals. Scotland is a flavorful romp through the heather and Lee Weddin' Tune is a whirl of the petticoats across a plank dance floor. When Bill wants you happy, as in You're My Sweet Blue Eyed Darlin,' you are grinning ear to ear...and when he wants you sad, as in Midnight On The Stormy Deep and Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine, by gosh, you are at his mercy.

But again, the real standout is My Last Days On Earth, which sounds like something from one of Ennio Morricone's night terrors. Great CD.