Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(7 customer reviews) 26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Essential,
July 18, 2003 James E. Bagley "Jim Bagley" (Sanatoga, PA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Anthology (Audio CD)
Combining hillbilly, blues, gospel and folk ballads, Bill Monroe made his lightning mandolin a lead instrument within his tightly syncopated acoustic stringband style. In the process, he singlehandedly create his own genre of music. Well annotated and remastered, Anthology starts chronologically with "New Mule Skinner Blues" from his debut 1950 Decca session and ends with 1981's eerie "My Last Days On Earth" (inspired by a bout with colon cancer). Monroe redid for Decca some songs he'd done on Columbia before angrily leaving that label after it signed the rival Stanley Brothers. The 1954 version of his signature "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" - recorded right after Elvis' did it for Sun - picks up speed compared to his 1946 original on Columbia. One surprise is a 1951 rendition of his standard "Kentucky Waltz" with drums and organ. Some songs are autobiographical: "Uncle Pen" honors the uncle who took him in as a cross-eyed teen-aged orphan while "My Little Georgia Rose" refers to...Read more
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
A compact, satisfying overview of Monroe's Decca/MCA years,
June 12, 2003 DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Anthology (Audio CD)
Quite possibly the ideal Bill Monroe set... This 2-CD retrospective is probably the perfect middleground between the humongous, ultimo-collector's box sets put out by Bear Family (or MCA's previous "Music Of Bill Monroe" collection, which clocked in at four whole CDs) and the more demure cheapo single-disc "best-ofs" that lie at the other extreme. Fifty songs on two CDs is probably just about right for most eager, twang-loving record buyers: maybe not every great, classic song is on here, but chances are you'll actually listen to this collection more than once. Nice sound quality and great song selection: the 1940s and 1970s are both skipped in their entirety, but one disc covering the 'Fifties and a second one covering the 'Sixties is still pretty sweet. The friendly, generous liner notes also provide all the info on recording personnel, which is particularly useful when tracking the efforts of young'uns such as Peter Rowan, Richard Greene and Bill Keith, who...Read more
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Good Buy,
November 19, 2008 moje (Illinois) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Anthology (Audio CD)
I purchased this set of CDs to replace the ones that were stolen. Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass music, will always be one of my favorite singers/instrumentalist of bluegrass and gospel. Having listened to his singing at the Grand Old Opry, on an old Victrola radio, during the 40s then watching him perform on TV has been very satisfying to me. This CD is definitely a good buy if you like Bluegrass music.
