Producers include: Harold Bradley, Owen Bradley, Walter Haynes, Harry Silverstein.
Compilation producer: Mary Katherine Aldin.
Recorded between 1954 & 1981. Includes liner notes by Mary Katherine Aldin.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: Bill Monroe (vocals, mandolin); Jimmy Martin , Roland White (vocals, guitar); Charlie Cline (vocals, fiddle); Del McCoury, Ernie Newton, Peter Rowan (vocals); Grady Martin, Edd Mayfield (guitar); Curtis McPeake, Don Stover, Lamar Grier, Rudy Lyle, Sonny Osborne (banjo); Dale Potter, Red Taylor, Gordon Terry, Joe Stuart, Kenny Baker , Richard Greene , Tommy Jackson, Vassar Clements, Bobby Hicks , Buddy Spicher (fiddle).
Liner Note Author: Mary Katherine Aldin.
Recording information: 03/29/1951-04/17/1981.
Photographer: Les Leverett.
Bill Monroe's recorded legacy resides in the vaults of three major labels. His RCA Victor recordings are controlled by BMG, his Columbia sides are in the possession of Sony, and his Decca/MCA tracks are claimed by Universal. Monroe signed to Decca in November 1949 at the age of 38 and remained with it and its successor, MCA, until his death in 1996. His catalog with the label is vast, but uneven. In its strategy of putting into the marketplace compilations at different price points, MCA issued a four-disc box set, The Music of Bill Monroe, in 1994 and a discount-priced collection, 20th Century Masters -- The Millennium Collection: The Best of Bill Monroe, in 1999. The Very Best of Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys supersedes the label's now out-of-print 1991 album Country Music Hall of Fame as a single-disc, full-priced examination of his Decca/MCA years. It chooses 22 tracks at a running time of less than an hour, ranging from Monroe's first recording session for Decca in 1950 to a 1981 MCA session. Since Monroe didn't really score hits in this period (his two country chart entries, "Scotland" and "Gotta Travel On," are included), the compiler must make many subjective choices to augment certain obvious favorites such as "Uncle Pen," and Mary Katherine Aldin has leaned toward familiar songs from the pens of such well-known figures as Hank Williams ("I Saw the Light") and Jimmie Rodgers ("New Mule Skinner Blues"). She has also included four re-recordings of songs that were successful for Monroe on Columbia in the 1940s. And she has avoided chronological sequencing in favor of a mixed approach. The result is more a sampler than a real best-of, only emphasizing the necessity for the Monroe fan to obtain collections from each of the labels for which Monroe recorded. ~ William Ruhlmann
Bill Monroe's recorded legacy resides in the vaults of two major labels. His RCA Victor and Columbia recordings are in the possession of Sony BMG, and his Decca/MCA tracks are claimed by Universal. Monroe signed to Decca in November 1949 at the age of 38 and remained with it and its successor, MCA, until his death in 1996. His catalog with the label is vast, but uneven. In its strategy of putting into the marketplace compilations at different price points, MCA issued a four-disc box set, The Music of Bill Monroe, in 1994 and a discount-priced collection, 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Bill Monroe, in 1999. The Definitive Collection is a retitled but otherwise identical reissue of the 2002 album The Very Best of Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, which superseded the label's out of print 1991 album Country Music Hall of Fame as a single-disc, full-priced examination of his Decca/MCA years. It chooses 22 tracks at a running time of less than an hour, ranging from Monroe's first recording session for Decca in 1950 to a 1981 MCA session. Since Monroe didn't really score hits in this period (his two country chart entries, "Scotland" and "Gotta Travel On," are included), the compiler must make many subjective choices to augment certain obvious favorites such as "Uncle Pen," and Mary Katherine Aldin has leaned toward familiar songs from the pens of such well-known figures as Hank Williams ("I Saw the Light") and Jimmie Rodgers ("New Mule Skinner Blues"). She has also included four re-recordings of songs that were successful for Monroe on Columbia in the 1940s. And she has avoided chronological sequencing in favor of a mixed approach. The result is more a sampler than a real best-of, only emphasizing the necessity for the Monroe fan to obtain collections from all of the labels for which Monroe recorded. ~ William Ruhlmann
Although it's not a complete introduction to Bill Monroe's extensive career, THE VERY BEST OF BILL MONROE & HIS BLUEGRASS BOYS is an admirably thorough 22-track sampling of Monroe's finest recordings for Decca and MCA. Spanning more than 30 years, this collection covers the period from Monroe's signing with Decca in late 1949 to 1981's haunted "My Last Days on Earth" (a ballad that highlights bluegrass's connection to traditional English folk music). THE VERY BEST hits all of the high points from Monroe's less-frenetic later period, leaving out nothing that's essential and including absolutely no filler. There are more comprehensive Bill Monroe anthologies covering the Decca/MCA years, but this single-disc compilation takes the prize for concision. minimize