Track Listing

1. Mansions For Me
2. Shining Path
3. Mother�s Only Sleeping
4. Wicked Path Of Sin
5. The Old Cross Road
6. I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling
7. Remember The Cross
8. Little Community Church
9. Shine Hallelujah
10. That Home Above

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #298307 in Music
• Released on: 2001-11-19
• Number of discs: 1

About the Artist
Bill Monroe is “The Father of Bluegrass.” That’s just the way it is. He didn’t start out wanting to establish a whole new genre of music. He was just trying to survive. William Smith Monroe was born in the hills of Kentucky, the eighth child in a house full of musicians. By 1921, Bill had lost both parents. His mother’s brother, Pendleton Vandiver took him in. While living with his Uncle Pen, Bill picked up the mandolin as an 11-year old. He chose it because no one else in the family was playing it.

In the late 1920’s, Bill joined two of his older brothers, Charlie and Birch, to find work in the Chicago area. The trio worked together until 1934 when Birch dropped out. Bill and Charlie continued as the Monroe Brothers. The duo worked together playing live gigs and recording over 60 titles for RCA Victor’s Bluebird label.

The Monroe Brothers parted musical ways in 1938. Bill bounced from the Chicago/Northern Indiana region to Arkansas then Atlanta. The next year, Bill, with his new group The Blue Grass Boys, became a member of WSM radio’s Grand Ole Opry. His first appearance reportedly garnered the hallowed show’s first-ever encore demand.

Soon thereafter came a 5-year contract to record for RCA Victor as a solo act. After World War II, things exploded for Bill Monroe. 1946 was the year that everything came together. It was the year that Bill Monroe became a father – The Father of Bluegrass music.

After signing with Columbia the year prior, Bill assembled the latest version of the Bluegrass Boys. He hired Lester Flatt to play guitar, Earl Scruggs to play five-string banjo, Chubby Wise to play fiddle and Cedric Rainwater to play bass. As a chemist might, Bill Monroe stirred all of the elements of this band together with the unique, yet undefined sound he created several years prior. What resulted was the First Bluegrass band to ever play. Starting in 1946, Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys established the bedrock foundation upon which all Bluegrass music was built.

This foundation, like that of the nation that birthed the music, included a healthy amount of Gospel roots. The love of Jesus Christ and the want of freedom to worship Him run deep into American culture and history. That fact is very evident when one listens to these classic recordings of a purely American musical genre. Music Mill Entertainment is proud to make available this ten-song Gospel collection. These songs were originally recorded for Columbia in 1946 and 1947. We call it Mansions for Me.

Customer Reviews

The King
Can't go wrong with " Big Mon"
Not a bad track to be found. He was simply the Greatest.