Bill Monroe - All The Classic Releases 1937-1949

Bill Monroe was the father of bluegrass. He invented the style, invented the name and, for much of the 20th Century, embodied the genre. The music took its name from his Blue Grass Boys whose recordings and performances emphasised instrumental vituosity, close vocal harmonies and a driving tempo, forever defining the sound of classical bluegrass: a 5-piece acoustic string band, playing precisely and rapidly, switching solos and singing with plaintive, high lonesome voices. This 4-CD box set features 112 of the band's recordings, from the late 1930s sides that began to establish Monroe's reputation to their mid-to late '40s heyday, when the Blue Grass Boys included their most famous members, vocalist/guitarist Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs, supporting Monroe (vocals,mandolin) with Chubby Wise (fiddle) and Howard Watts (bass).