Wayfaring Stranger, Bill Monroe

[AlanN]

Not much to say, really

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI92o...eature=related

[Gary Hedrick]

When I saw this it brought back many memories. In 1973 my father had died as a result of a fall from a tower and Bill came to the funeral and sang this in just the same way.

Gut wrenching.....

[Brian Aldridge]

Thanks Alan. Gary, what an honor it was to have Bill Monroe sing at your father's funeral. That speaks volumes about the kind of person your father was.

[AlanN]

That is a warming story. Funny how a song, a phrase, a fragrance can bring back long-ago memories.

There have been loads of versions of this tune, but this one is so stark and mountain-like that it begged to be seen again. Plus you get to hear the Loar up front and personal!

[Gary Hedrick]

Yes Brian it was an honor to have him come....he made the trip from Nashville to Nashville and I was truly surprised he came. My father always had the greatest of respect for him and viewed him as a musical genius. He was always such an ignomatic man (Bill)...hard to understand him sometimes...very taciturn at times yet other times very kind and giving. A complex person as some of the books written about him discuss. I never realized how hard it was for him to come until Neil Rosenberg told me and then I saw it written in one of the books by Neil.....


Listening to him always makes me think of my Grandmother who was a country farmer's wife. Never had any money but always was kind and always would sing hymms when she worked. Her phrasing and tonality were a female version of Bill....that same dirt farmer....hard times ....voice so haunting and lonesome in its tone. I have tried to describe what that life was like to my children and it doesn't seem to penetrate.....the outhouse at the end of the chicken coop....the wood stove...bathing in a tub....sleeping in a room so cold that the chamber pot would freeze.
Worrying about the egg money and whether it would be enough to pay the bills until harvest.

These plantive (sp?) voices of early bluegrass had reasons for the tones...ah but I digress...

Bill was a force of nature and when he stands there with his beloved mandolin and sings you can feel the power and the conviction of the man. He was truly the real deal from what I saw over all those years.

[sgarrity]

Now that is authentic mountain music at its best.

[Gary Hedrick]

When my brother and I sing this song as a duet. We used the really old music way of playing it in E minor and going only to A minor.....then to E major during chorus part and then back to the E minor ......a more primative and haunting form of the song...

[Spruce]

When my brother and I sing this song as a duet. We used the really old music way of playing it in E minor and going only to A minor.....then to E major during chorus part and then back to the E minor ......a more primative and haunting form of the song...

THE way the tune should be played....

Think of the the 100's of sanitized recorded versions--and the thousands of versions played at festivals ever year--and then try to think of one that tries to pay homage to Monroe's...

It doesn't happen very often.....

[Gary Hedrick]

There was a time when that was the only way Bill would play it. Part of our late Sunday, backstage before the last show education. He would tell you the way to play it but always very cryptically......

[evanreilly]

There is the really chill-factor break to a Monroe recording, I think on one of the live Smithsonian CDs where Monroe just does the brushing over the strings. Like the angel harps!

[Michael Gowell]

Fabulous. One of the best Monroe performances I've ever seen. God bless videotape.