Favorite Monroe instrumental..(and why?)

[Rex Hart]

Thought it would be fun for everyone to share what their fave Monroe instrumental to play (or listen to) is.

My favorite to play currently is "Come Hither To Go Yonder".
My fave to listen to is "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz".

*Note The above could change without notice

[Phil Goodson]

Southern Flavor- to play
LMWaltz to play or listen to.

[raulb]

At the moment, it is Jerusalem Ridge, because my girlfriend wants to play it on her (forgive me) banjo.

[mugbucket]

Get Up John - I seem to have an affinity for listening to alternative tunings.

Blue Grass Stomp - Just enjoy it...

Ski

[Spruce]

I saw Bill just rip "Right, Right On" one night, and it became one of my favorite tunes right then and there...
What a happy little melody...
Turns out it's the only time that I can find that he ever played the tune live, which makes it all that more special...

As far as playing goes, I really like "Kentucky Mandolin"....

[re simmers]

Good ol "Wheel Hoss" makes me perk up!

Some Herschel fans might not include Ky Mandolin/aka Bluegrass Minor as a Monroe tune.

Bob

[mrkrgr]

Santa Clause not overly played but Monroe all the way.

[eightmoremiles]

Standard tuning: Tanyards
Non-standard tuning: My Last Days on Earth
Harmonica based: Evening Prayer Blues

[Mike Bunting]

Monroe's Farewell to Long Hollow

[GRW3]

Scotland strikes my fancy right now. Bill always had a way with adding fiddles in and this one is tops for me.

[Mike Snyder]

Monroes' Hornpipe
The Farewell to Longhollow is pretty fine,too.
Southern Flavor, to play.

[Mandolin Mick]

"My Last Days on Earth". I heard it on a Bluegrass Gospel show on KXEL Waterloo, Iowa back in the mid-`80s. It sounded like he was bending strings, but then I learned it was an alternate tuning.

Still my favorite song of all time and I learned how to play it note-for-note!

Why? Because that song is what got me into the mandolin!

[Aran]

I can play "Big Mon" so that's up there.... Love the weird way of doing it second time round...

Another vote for "Southern Flavour"

And most of the stuff from his last album "Last days on Earth" (edit because of that album name)

[ralph johansson]

This is a General Mandolin Discussion so I'd like to emphasize such tunes that you can interpret freely and improvise on and take outside the genre. I like to play the Moonlight Waltz, the Watson Blues and Crossing the Cumberlands. Crossing is a banjo tune and I play an apporximation of the banjo part on my mandolin, in the key of g minor. I also do an instrumental version of The One I Love Is Gone, also in g minor. It has some unusual harmonic twists.

[Ivan Kelsall]

"Stoney Lonesome" or "Wheel Hoss" would swing it for me because of the sound of the twin fiddles. I can play WH on Mandolin pretty well,but i've not tackled SL yet,although it's one i've played for years on Banjo,
Ivan

[carleshicks]

Ebeneezer scrooge, and Old Dangerfield.

[JimRichter]

I'm with Spruce with Right Right On -- great tune

My favorite, though, is My Father's Footsteps.

[Rex Hart]

"My Last Days On Earth" is truly haunting. I love the discordant alternate tuning. A couple of my friends thinks that it sounds out of tune and can't understand it. To me it gives it a "hardscrabble" feel to the song....I know Mr. Monroe was fighting the big C at the time and you can almost feel his despair. Gotta say ....have never heard Right, Right On. Is there no recorded copy of this anywhere?

[evanreilly]

"Right, Right On" is a neat little F tune Bill recorded on the Master of Blue Grass album.
As for my faves, I play a real lot of them and listen to them all!!!
Maybe a few very faves are "Heel & Toe Polka", "McKinley's March", "Turkey in the Straw"..... full throttle in-your-face mandolin!
For more soulful, maybe "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz" and "Mississippi Waltz".....
Just plain neat: "Galley Nipper" & "Smokey Mountain Schottische".....

[farmerjones]

The album Baker Plays Monroe, Bill pretty much played on every one of those cuts.
I think the studio situation, and those two fellows placed outside the Bluegrass Boys band situation pushed the playing level in that session. That version of J. Ridge. Brown County, Road to Columbus all top notch.
That being said My Last Days, is awful special too.
Fiddler's Pastime, Stoney Lonesome, and Road to Col. are my favs to play right now but i can't choose a top favorite amoung even them.

[Byrdmando]

My Last days on Earth... That song has got soul.

[AlanN]

Lately I've been digging Bluegrass Part 1, has all those typical Monroevian moves that we all know and love. Butch would do stuff like this, the slide from Bb to B on the second string, and that little hook where Bill would use his pinky on the low string to slide down, then end on the G note on D string. Makes a lot of sense.

And as someone said, Stoney Point. Also Methodist Preacher (another one Butch was fond of.)

[Pete Martin]

Ashland Breakdown, speaking of Baker Plays Monroe.

[mandopete]

I like to play Tombstone Junction. I like to listen to Monroe's version of Dusty Miller

[Amandalyn]

So many great ones.... all time fav would be "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz", because it's hauntingly beautiful. A great blues is the "Watson's".. Lately been playing "Farewell to Longhollow"