Kentucky - Day 10 - Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass Music

Bill Monroe Museum, Rosine

Thursday, 10 October 2019

route on Thursday the 10th to Rosine

I love Bluegrass music and have been known to travel several hours to go to Bluegrass festivals when I lived in western Washington.  I have a CD of Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys that I think my brother David gave me.  I’m not much of a fan of old Bill’s singing voice but I love the music.  I think “Old and In the Way” do it better, though – not really too surprising when you consider the group includes Jerry Garcia.

Anyway, my internet connection in this campground is intermittent, making it hard for me to catch up on my blog.  So instead of sitting here fuming because I’m not getting my heater fixed, I decided to go down the road about 10 miles to Rosine, Bill Monroe’s hometown.  They opened a museum for Bill a couple of years ago, so that’s where I went.

As I was driving in to Rosine (Main Street about 2 or 3 blocks long), I passed what looked like an old general store that advertised “award-winning BBQ.”  Of course I decided that’s what I wanted for lunch.  The folks inside told me the item most ordered was pulled pork, so that’s what I bought.  The meat had a pretty good flavor; the rest of it was okay.  They call their beans “pit beans” but they tasted to me a lot like Campbell’s Pork N Beans that’ve been smoked.  I’m willing to believe, though, that they made their own beans.

There are several places in the Rosine area connected with Bill, and the area is doing its best to make the most of them.  Besides the museum, there’s what they call Bill’s “Homeplace” and there’s “Uncle Pen’s Cabin,” and there’s the Rosine Barn where they have Bluegrass music every Friday night.  I'd've liked the music but it wasn't a Friday night so I stuck with the museum.

this is Bill

the museum

As you can see, the building is pretty basic, and what’s inside is just about as basic.  They charged me $5 to go in, and I’m sure they’ll be using it to improve the collection, which could use some improving.  It looked like a lot of local folks and Bill’s friends have contributed what they had of his to the museum, with the result that much of what’s there is what you might call personal memorabilia.  And they had several items displayed – a couple of mandolins, for instance – that they want “sponsors” for.  I think “sponsor” means that the item is currently loaned to the museum, and they want you to buy it and donate it to them.

I wasn’t wildly impressed with what they have, but it's a new place and what they have is interesting.  I learned that Bill started out playing with his brothers and friends and changed around the instruments he’d have people play to produce the sound he wanted, as explained in this item below.

2 of Bill's mandolins

info re: the mandolins

What Bill played was the mandolin, and both of these (at left) belonged to him. I thought the explanation for how they were made (at right) was interesting.

info re: banjo (at right)

The banjo at right is shown in the photo of Bill with his Bluegrass Boys (at left) and is a last of its kind.

I liked this old phonograph that belonged to Bill.  The museum received it with this record still on the turntable, so they left it there to show what Bill listened to.

close-up of paragraph marked at left

Somehow, Rosine made it onto the New York Times’ list of places people should visit in 2016.  Sorry my photo is fuzzy - I was leaning over a railing to get a view that didn’t have glare from the lights on it.

Bill’s first big hit was called “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and it was named Kentucky’s official state bluegrass song in 1988.  What’s more, the road through Rosine has been designated Blue Moon of Kentucky Highway.

Bill never drank or smoked, and his band was the first to wear white shirts and ties on The Grand Ole Opry.  He's said to have turned down an offer to sing on the 1972 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" because some of the members were, in his view, hippies (gasp!).  The museum calls him clean-cut; but he sounds a little judgmental to me.  Still, who he sings with is his choice.  Or was.  What you might call a character.

I found this interesting blurb about that album, in case you don't remember it any more than I did.   www.allmusic.com/will-the-circle-be-unbroken

In all, I guess I’m glad I went and I know more than I did when I woke up this morning, so you can’t ask much more out of a day than that.  And I got decent BBQ as a bonus.