William Smith Monroe

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William Smith Monroe

September 13, 1911 -

September 9, 1996

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My Introduction To Blue Grass.

by Evan N. Reilly

I first met Bill Monroe in person in the late 60's. It was after my band spent all our spare time listening to "Blue Grass Time" and were playing the tunes and songs from that album. I went out, with several of my then current band members, to Bill's birthday party out in New Jersey, at Tex Logan's. We got there late in the day. There was the concert down in the basement and afterwards, the Blue Grass Boys spread around the house & there was picking all over. Finally, there was only one other person left in the basement other than myself; Bill Monroe. I had my mandolin with me and asked him if he could show me some tunes, especially 'Turkey in the Straw', which was on his most current album. I had the honor of having Bill sit and play all my requests. Not just once through, but a tour of the tunes, Bill loosening up playing the classic tunes and making the mandolin sound like the old-time fiddling upon which his music is based. I was the only one treated to the attentions of Bill's mandolin. Finally, as if he demanded that I contribute, he asked "Can you play guitar?" and sent me in search of a guitar. I couldn't find one that wasn't in use, so came back to the basement without one. I had the distinct honor of having several more of my requests played, then the magic ended and the nite ended.

Years later, when I was more of a master of Monroe's chosen instrument, I was on the bus with Bill and, again, had my mandolin. But I was playing tunes for him, now. I played "Bill's Dream" and a far way look came into his eyes. He said that he hadn't hear d that tune in years and asked me if he had ever told me the story about that tune. Bill then proceeded to tell me the story behind the writing of the tune; he had had a dream one night that one of his hunting dogs had fallen into an old dry well on the farm. The next day, one of the dogs did fall into a well and Bill wrote the tune to remember the event.

These events are some the highlights of my relationship with Bill Monroe. I have had the opportunity to play with him on stage, as well as off-stage. Several times, he exposed the fierce, driving force of his teaching to me, putting his mandolin in my face and playing a passage until I got it right. It was as if I had been locked in his grip (and his grip is another tale) and held hostage to his musical vision.

Monroe's musical legacy will be felt wherever the fiddle and banjo get together with the guitar and bass, wherever the mandolin beats out the stark, powerful outlines of Monroe's music.

Monroe's music never stayed away from the themes of death and dying; he wrote many of his most powerful songs on these topics. His most moving and powerful singing was devoted to these most elemental forces. "Walls of Time", "With Body and Soul", "What Would You Give in Exchange for your Soul", "Memories of Mother and Dad" all face and discuss the ultimate reality of existence. Monroe, the artist, never left out the confrontation with, and realization of death in his music; it was the dark coloring that tinged the edges of his Blue Grass music. It made it dark and blue, but it made it powerful with its relationship to the basic elements of our existence.

Monroe's music is more than just 'Hillbilly Jazz'; it goes much deeper than the instrumental virtuosity that compares to jazz. It reaches deep inside and stirs up the soul, if, as Bill said, 'You let the Blue Grass Music in your mind.' It is not a light, happy music, but embodies what the ancient Greeks called the sense of tragedy. His songs spoke of the dark places of the soul and his mandolin emphasized the dark side of his musical vision.

He wrote his elegy on the mandolin: "My Last Days on Earth." His time on earth has passed and he has gone up '...to dwell with God above.'

Share his music; share his memory; his soul will live on in his music.

September, 10, 1996