Bill Monroe & The "Original Bluegrass Band"

A big development occurred in Bill Monroe'sBlue Grass Boys band in 1945 with the addition of Earl Scruggs to play banjo. Scruggs played the banjo with a distinctive three-finger picking style that caused an immediate sensation among Opry audiences. At this time, the band also featuerd singer/guitarist Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts on bass. Watts was also known as "Cedric Rainwater".

These characterized all the elements of bluegrass music today with the breakneck tempos, vocal harmony arrangements that were sophisticated, and impressived instrument proficiency demonstrated in "breaks" or solos on the banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. At this time in his career, Bill Monroehad purchased the 1923 Gibson F5 "Lloyd Loar" mandolin that became his trademark instrument.

The 28 songs that the original bluegrass band recorded became classics. Some of them were: Blue Grass Breakdown, Toy Heart, Little Cabin Home on the Hill, and Monroe's most famous: Blue Moon of Kentucky. Several gospel songs were credited to the "Blue Grass Quartet" which featured four-part vocal arrangements accompanied by mandolin and guitar.

Both Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left the band in 1948 to form their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys, and Monroe regrouped with Rudy Lyle on banjo and Jimmy Martin on guitar. This group is what most consider to be the "high lonesome" version of the Blue Grass Boys. Other great fiddlers of this era were "Red" Taylor, Vassar Clements, and Bobby Hicks.

Bill Monroe