Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. My Long Journey Home
2. What Is Home Without Love
3. What Would You Give in Exchange
4. Little Red Shoes
5. Nine Pound Hammer
6. On Some Foggy Mountain Top
7. Drifting Too Far from the Shore
8. In My Dear Old Southern Home
9. New River Train
10. This World Is Not My Home
11. Watermelon Hanging on the Vine
12. On the Banks of the Ohio
13. Do You Call That Religion?
14. God Holds the Future in His Hands
15. You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley
16. Six Months Ain't Long
17. Just a Song of Old Kentucky
18. Don't Forget Me
19. I'm Going
20. Darling Corey
21. My Savior's Train
22. I Am Thinking Tonight of the Old Folks
23. Dreamed I Searched Heaven for You
24. Old Cross Road
25. Forgotton Soldier Boy
26. We Read of a Place That's Called Heaven
27. Will the Circle Be Unbroken
28. Saints Go Marching In
29. Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms
30. Where Is My Sailor Boy?

Disc 2:

1. Am I Ready to Go
2. What Would the Profit Be
3. Some Glad Day
4. I Have Found the Way
5. I Am Going That Way
6. Kate Cline
7. Roll on Buddy, Roll On
8. Weeping Willow Tree
9. I'll Live On
10. Oh, Hide You in the Blood
11. What Would You Give in Exchange, Pt. 2
12. On That Gospel Ship
13. What Would You Give in Exchange, Pt. 3
14. Let Us Be Lovers Again
15. All the Good Times Are Passed and Gone
16. What Would You Give in Exchange, Pt. 4
17. On My Way to Glory
18. My Last Moving Day
19. He Will Set Your Fields on Fire
20. Sinner You Better Get Ready
21. Have a Feast Here Tonight
22. Goodbye Maggie
23. Rollin' On
24. Old Man's Story
25. I've Still Got Ninety-Nine
26. Little Joe
27. Beautiful Life
28. Pearly Gates
29. On My Way Back Home
30. When Our Lord Shall Come Again

Disc 3:

1. Mule Skinner Blues
2. No Letter in the Mail
3. Cryin' Holy Unto the Lord
4. Six White Horses
5. Dog House Blues
6. I Wonder If You Feel the Way I Do
7. Katy Hill
8. Tennessee Blues
9. Shake My Mother's Hand for Me
10. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord
11. Anniversary Blue Yodel [Blue Yodel No. 7]
12. Coupon Song
13. Orange Blossom Special
14. Honky Tonk Swing
15. In the Pines
16. Back Up and Push
17. Rocky Road Blues
18. Kentucky Waltz
19. True Life Blues
20. Goodbye Old Pal
21. Footprints in the Snow
22. Blue Grass Special
23. Heavy Traffic Ahead
24. Blue Moon of Kentucky
25. Toy Heart

Disc 4:

1. Summertime Is Past and Gone
2. Mansions for Me
3. Mother's Only Sleeping
4. California Blues [Blue Yodel No. 4]
5. Will You Be Loving Another Man?
6. How Will I Explain About You?
7. Wicked Path of Sin
8. I'm Going Back to Old Kentucky
9. It's Mighty Dark to Travel
10. I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling
11. Little Cabin on the Hill
12. My Rose of Old Kentucky
13. Bluegrass Breakdown
14. Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong
15. Old Cross Road
16. That Home Above
17. Remember the Cross
18. Little Community Church
19. Along About Daybreak
20. When You Are Lonely
21. Molly and Tenbrooks
22. Shine Hallelujah, Shine
23. I'm Travelin' on and On
24. Can't You Hear Me Callin'
25. Travelin' This Lonesome Road
26. Blue Grass Stomp
27. Girl in the Blue Velvet Band

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107471 in Music
• Released on: 2003-06-10
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

Excellent collection
Very nice collection for a very good price. It's chronologically ordered, disc A is Bill & Charlie Monroe 1936; disc B is Bill & Charlie 1937-38; disc C is 1940-46; disc D is 1946-49. So from second half of disc C it's really Bluegrass with the Bluegrass Boys (including Flatt & Scruggs until the split after 1946).

I give this set 5 stars, although it's not 100% complete. I'm sure the Bear Family box set (Blue Moon of Kentucky 1936-1949 - 6 CDs; I don't have it) is more complete with probably more accurate liner notes, but it's also 5 times more expensive. So part of the stars are for getting so much for so little money.

If you want to have a nice collection of early Bill Monroe, get this set!

Good Collection Of Monroe's Early Years
The first two discs are from 1936 to 1938, when it was just Bill on mandolin and his older brother Charlie on guitar. Personally I enjoy the sparse instrumentation. But the recording quality is poor on a couple of sessions and Bill's singing and playing is still a work in progress. The song choice is good, though mostly covers drawn from the public domain. If you especially like gospel songs you'll be heaven as there are a whole bunch of them here.

After 1938 the brothers went there separate ways. But by 1940 Bill was back in the studio with a fiddle, guitar and bass ensemble he named the Blue Grass Boys in tribute to his home state of Kentucky. In their version of Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues" you can hear the uptempo sound and hot picking that would come to characterize Monroe's style of bluegrass. By 1946 Bill had added Lester Flatt on guitar and Earl Scruggs on banjo. This group is considered by many to be the Blue Grass Boys at their musical peak. Monroe had also come into his own as a songwriter and classic tracks from the final two discs include "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" and "Rocky Road Blues" along with many other excellent songs.

This is a near complete collection of Monroe's early recordings and 112 songs at this price is a bargain. So what are you waiting for? It's a worthwhile purchase.