What if Bill Monroe had never been born? Would the foundation of bluegrass music have been created, as we know it, with Bill, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the other bluegrass boys back in the 1940’s? And the big question that affects us in the here and now is, “Would we have bluegrass festivals all over the world?”
People who study probability say that if something is going to happen, it will happen. Eventually. So relating that to bluegrass music begs the question, “Was bluegrass music destined to happen?” And if the answer to that is “yes,” then who really was responsible for the creation of bluegrass music? Did it really start with Adam and Eve, and then was passed on genetically to Bill Monroe? Or if you take the view of evolution, that from a single cell organism at the bottom of the ocean that gradually, gradually, gradually, really gradually made its way genetically to Kentucky and gave birth to Bill Monroe, was there something that predetermined bluegrass music?
If you take the creationist’s stand you have to say that God created music, and then bluegrass music (in the long run). And if you accept that, you have to agree that God really created bluegrass music, not Bill Monroe. Bill was just the vessel, the vehicle by which bluegrass music made its way to us. And then Bill shouldn’t really have taken credit for it. And Bill Monroe should rightly be called, “The Earthly Father of Bluegrass,” because he wasn’t really the “Heavenly Father of Bluegrass,” the actual creator of it.
If you take the evolutionist’s stand you have to say, “Okay, Bill is the Father of Bluegrass Music,” because a single cell living organism divided, divided, divided, then divided some more and eventually became Bill Monroe, and Bill could really take the credit. Unless that single cell millions of years ago already had bluegrass music programmed into it.
But still, going back to probability, if Bill hadn’t created bluegrass music, would someone other than Mr. Monroe have come along and created it? Many of you know that often when somebody wins a Nobel Prize for creating something new and significant that there are at least one, or two, or three or more people in different parts of the world working on the same creation at the same time. But the Nobel Prize winner(s) just got there and did it first. I mean what if Bill had only taken up the guitar and stuck with traditional country music, would we still eventually have what we have today that we recognize as “bluegrass?” (think of big tent, medium size tent, pup tent here).
So let’s say for some strange, magical, mystical reason that bluegrass music bypassed Bill Monroe, and we bluegrass folks had to wait until more recent times to enjoy all things bluegrass that we have today. If the folks who study probability are correct, and if Bill hadn’t created it, somebody else would have.
Would it have been Vern (Williams), or Ray (Park), or J.D. Rhynes, or Laurie Lewis, or Kathy Kallick, or one of the other bluegrass boys or gals in California? Or New York? Or Kansas? Or the Ozarks? I get a warm feeling when I think that bluegrass music might have been invented by a group of folks living in California. Wow, what a legacy we could claim! California Bluegrassers could claim original authenticity, with swelling heads that would call for larger sized Stetson hats, riding britches, spiffy shirts, and well- polished boots when performing on stage (just like Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys did way back when).
Not too long ago I posed this, “What if Bill Monroe had never been born,” question to a bunch of bluegrass lovin’ primitive baptist preachers, and they all said, “Well that’s just a mystery that we have to accept.” And 75% of those preachers (all mandolin players) I asked went on to say, “If it would have bypassed Bill, I think it would have landed on me!”
All in all it’s just one of those questions that you should consider, but not dwell on too long, as it’s apt to make you go crazy. And in the end we need to settle on the answer that some great philosopher gave to other perplexing questions about the universe. Which is, “The answer is that there hasn’t been an answer, there isn’t an answer now, and there never will be an answer.” In the meantime, just enjoy the bluegrass music!
But now the question of the day is, “If Rick Cornish hadn’t been born, would you be reading this Welcome Column on the CBA website?”
