The Early Life of Bill Monroe

William Smith “Bill” Monroe was born on September 13, 1911, near Rosine, Kentucky on his family’s farm. He was the youngest of eight children born to James Buchanan “Buck” Monroe and Malissa Vandiver Monroe. Malissa and her brother, Pendleton “Pen” Vandiver were both musically inclined, so therefore, Bill Monroe grew up playing music at home. His older brothers Charlie and Birch played the guitar and fiddle so that left Monroe to play the smaller and less desirable mandolin.

Monroe’s mother died when he was only ten years old and his father passed six years later. Because his siblings had moved out of Rosine, Bill Monroe lived for two years with his uncle Pen Vandiver. He would often accompany his uncle to the local dances where Pen would play fiddle. This experience would later inspire Monroe to write one of his most famous compositions, “Uncle Pen”. Vandiver has been credited for giving Monroe “a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill’s aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones.”

In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work in an oil refinery with his two brothers. The three of them, along with a friend Larry Moore, formed a musical group, the Monroe Brothers. Birch and Larry soon left the group so Bill and Charlie carried on as a duo. They eventually won spots playing live on radio stations in Indiana and later in Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Carolina from 1934 to 1936. RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a recording contract in 1936. They would score an immediate hit single with the gospel song “What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul?” and recorded 60 more tracks from 1936 to 1938.

When the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the group lasted just three months. Bill Monroe left Little Rock and headed for Atlanta, Georgia to form his first edition of the Blue Grass Boys with bassist Amos Green, singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, and fiddler Art Wooten. In 1939, he successfully auditioned for a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry with a performance of Jimmie Rodgers’ Mule Skinner Blues. Monroe recorded that song along with seven others at his first recording session for RCA Victor in 1940. By this time, the Blue Grass Boys consisted of bassist Bill Wesbrooks, fiddler Tommy Magness, and singer/guitarist Clyde Moody.

At this point, Bill Monroe was still experimenting with the sound of his band. He seldom sang lead vocals and usually only sang high tenor harmonies as he had with the Monroe Brothers. In 1945, a recording session featured an accordion which was soon dropped. More important was that in 1942, Bill Monroe added David Akeman a.k.a. “Stringbean” to the Blue Grass Boys. “Stringbean” would play the banjo in mainly a primitive style and was rarely featured on instrumental solos.

Bill Monroe’s pre-1946 recordings represent the transitional phase between the string-band tradition and the innovation that would follow.