00:00Bill Monroe is among the most important figures in the history of country music,
00:06and it was Monroe who almost single-handedly invented bluegrass music.
00:11He is known as the father of bluegrass, and the music bears the nickname of his home state,
00:18Kentucky, the Bluegrass State. Monroe was born in Rosene, Kentucky, in 1913.
00:24Bill Monroe was one of the finest mandolin players in country music,
00:28and it was his mastery of this instrument that has made the mandolin a mandatory part of every bluegrass band.
00:38Monroe's love of the blues and gospel music, and his high-pitched singing,
00:43became signature elements of the bluegrass genre, and would later become a requirement of that genre.
00:50Bill Monroe and his longtime backing band, the Bluegrass Boys,
00:55recorded songs that are now bluegrass and country music standards.
01:01Tunes such as New Mule Skinner Blues, Heavy Traffic Ahead, Uncle Penn, In the Pines,
01:10Working on a Building, and I Saw the Light.
01:14Monroe wrote, and was the first to record, the classic song, Blue Moon of Kentucky,
01:19a song which would later become one of Elvis Presley's first hits with Sun Records during the emergence of rock and roll.
01:28In recognition of his influence on early rockers, Monroe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
01:37Monroe died in Springfield, Kentucky in 1996.
01:41Monroe's best recordings include the albums Knee Deep in Bluegrass, from 1958,
01:50Bean Blossom, from 1973,
01:53The Essential Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, 1945-1949, from 1992,
02:00and The Music of Bill Monroe, from 1936-1994, from 1994.
02:08Monroe's best recordings of the album from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
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