While there seems to be a genetic background that is able to trace back the musical contents of bluegrass such as the fiddle and banjo styles, as well as a societal background that places folk music and later country and bluegrass music with the audience and baggage it consists of today, there is still the question of how and why these two disparate phenomenon combined to make a genre such as bluegrass that treads the thin imaginary line between folk and pop music as it does. To combine these musical and societal forces there needed to be a man who was both knowledgeable of past traditional styles yet desired to make something knew in order to succeed in the innovation driven world of the popular music industry. It also needed to be someone who was so personally connected to these past traditional styles that they had a self-proclaimed duty to preserve and protect them. The man who fit this mark to the fullest was Bill Monroe.
Bill Monroe began his musical career in Rosine, Kentucky following and accompanying two different musicians. One, his uncle Pendleton Vandiver, would later become the inspiration for Monroe’s song “Uncle Pen” and was a fiddler that played the local square dances as well as other social events. After both of Monroe’s parents died while Monroe was sixteen, Vandiver became Monroe’s guardian and Monroe would spend his time backing Vandiver up on his mandolin. Not only did this give him immense practice time on what would soon be his main instrument, but it also gave Monroe an incredible repertoire of old-time songs derived from a tradition going back to the old world of Scotland, Ireland and England.
Monroe also spent much time backing up the legendary multi-instrumentalist Arnold Schultz at these same social events. Monroe’s influences from Schultz would have been different and possibly focused more on the instrumental style rather than the repertoire. While playing similar events, Schultz was able to play fiddle along with banjo and guitar. For bluegrass’s purposes, one of the most innovative
things Monroe learned from Schultz was the guitar rhythm previously mentioned when discussing the minstrel banjo tradition. A technique that emphasized a low tonic and low dominant on the first and third beats allowed for much more interplay between the instruments. It also forced the banjo into a melodic accompaniment role which would soon become the standard bluegrass banjo backup. This fiddle, banjo, and guitar dynamic which can be heard on Monroe’s first recording of Mule Skinner Blues in 1940, before the “invention” of bluegrass, became the building blocks which Monroe would add onto with his down beat rhythmic accents and syncopated mandolin breaks. Along with a bass doubling down on the tonics and dominants like the guitar, this was the rhythmic formula for bluegrass that is still around today. A three-part structure with a lead vocal or instrumental melody, another instrument obliged to bring harmonic accompaniment, and the other three instruments laying down an often high-paced 4/4 rhythm.
Vocally, Monroe’s songs derive from Scottish and Irish folk melodies, with harmonic accompaniment derived from Shape note singing. Black influences merge in as well thanks to a preference that both they and Monroe share to leave the pre-dominant section of melody for the chorus and focus on solely tonic and dominant in the verses. This can be heard in Monroe’s small melodic change from “Rose of Old Kentucky” to “Little Georgia Rose” where the high pre-dominant melody note in the latter is missing until the chorus.
Monroe’s reputation in the 1930s thanks to his brother duet work with Charlie Monroe is partly responsible for him being allowed to ponder and construct a music out of all of these separate factors. Not only was he honing in his mandolin style and harmonic arrangements during this time, but he was also receiving income and prestige in the record industry allowing him to become a main stay for both radio shows including later the Grand Ol’ Opry as well as record labels such as RCA Victor which carried him during these formative years. Not only was Monroe playing the music he grew up romanticizing and honing as a kid, he was gaining unprecedented monetary success from it.
