Hi folks, long time forum-lurker but first-time poster, I have a question about the origins of the tune "Big Mon". I'm a pretty hardcore Monroe fan so I'm aiming this at the community of Monroe illuminati in this forum!
The way I've heard it told, Bobby Hicks and Gordon Terry (or was it Charlie Cline?) were the fiddlers in the Blue Grass Boys when Bill was playing at a square dance in South Dakota sometime in the late fifties. The pair of them essentially improvised the tune on stage and gradually the band worked it up into an instrumental which they recorded in around 1958/9 (with Bill playing an F4 mandolin). The title came from Bobby Hicks' nickname for Monroe at the time.
I'm a mandolin player from London, UK and I'm shortly going to be participating in an online project related to Monroe-style mandolin, a part of which will be the story and history behind particular tunes and songs or Monroe's interpretation of them. Having browsed these forums for a while I know there are a load of folks who have an incredible amount of knowledge of Mr. Monroe and his music, often from first-hand experiences with the man himself so I'm opening it out to you guys to see if there are any little-known details or misconceptions I should be aware of before I commit anything to paper (so to speak). Thanks so much for any responses!
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