Bill Monroe, the Kentuckian who changed American music forever

ROSINE, Ky. (WBKO) -Deep in the rolling hills of Western Kentucky lies the 95-person town of Rosine. The town might be small, but it was there that a young Bill Monroe first began utilizing the rhythms of old-time country, blues, and gospel music to create something new: bluegrass.

“This is where he grew up at and he runs all these hills,” said Bill Monroe Foundation chairman Dennis Cook. “He fox hunted, the family worked here on the farm, and they cut timber and dug coal. I would say his Uncle Pen was probably the biggest influence on his life. Bill, after his mom and dad passed, Uncle Pen lived here with him for a while. Uncle Pen didn’t like it here, so they moved to Uncle Pen’s cabin, and then Bill wrote the song about him, and that’s where it all started.”

Bluegrass music wasn’t created in a sound studio or concert hall. Instead, it developed at the home of Bill Monroe, where he played the mandolin as a child with his family.

“He was a wonderful person to meet, this right down-to-earth person,” said friend and former Rosine Store co-owner, Eleanor Bratcher. “Rosine meant a lot to him, but he was never shown the love in return that he really should have for the famous person that he was, and brought bluegrass music.”

Monroe’s love of the mandolin led him to initially create music with his brothers as an adult. Other band members came and went throughout the years, with different band names like the Monroe Brothers, the Kentuckians, and the Blue Grass Boys.

It was the last name, the Blue Grass Boys, that stuck, and in 1939 Monroe secured a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry, a country music radio show that would broadcast live from Nashville.

“You’ve got that Appalachian music, you’ve got the mountain music, you’ve got it all kind of joined together, and bluegrass just has that tempo that people just get into. It’s the same feeling that they got when Bill first stepped out on stage and everybody just clapped and went crazy. In 1939, with Mule Skinner Blues. And it continues today, and I think it just draws people in,” said Ohio County Tourism director Jody Flener.

1945 was when all the elements of Bluegrass came together for the first time in the band. Musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs became part of the Blue Grass Boys, adding rhythm guitar and the banjo to the lineup, respectively. Together with fiddlers, Howdy Forrester and Chubby Wise, bassists Joe Forrester and Howard Watts, and Monroe himself on the mandolin, the lineup created fast-paced music with complex vocal harmonies that we now know as bluegrass music.

“He loved us and appreciated us, and we did the same to him,” said Bratcher. “We were sitting in his living room, and I asked. I said. ‘Bill, I want to ask you a question.’ He said ‘OK.’ I said, ‘Well, will you tell me something. Where do you want to be buried?’ He looked at me and looked at me and Aunt Bertha, and Rosetta said that we would love to have you here at Rosine. And he looked around the room again. I thought he was going to tell us, but he wouldn’t tell us. He just smiled. Just looked at us and smiled.

Monroe died in 1996, nearly 6 months after his final performance, and 4 days before his 85th birthday. He now lies at Rosine Cemetery.

In the time since Monroe’s death, his dilapidated childhood home was restored and now serves as a tourist destination. A live bluegrass event called the Jerusalem Ridge Festival is held on the property to honor his memory and celebrate the genre.

The Rosine Store that once belonged to Bratcher and held jamborees every weekend now stands as a restaurant, with the neighboring Rosine Barn still hosting live music to this day.

Rosine has also built a museum near the barn and gravesite, offering bluegrass enthusiasts a glimpse into the life and legacy of Monroe.