While Bill Monroe stood as the father of bluegrass in the 1960s (though often eclipsed during that time by Flatt & Scruggs), older brother Charlie — half of the legendary pre-bluegrass duo the Monroe Brothers — worked two jobs, one as a fry cook at a Howard Johnson’s in Martinsville, Indiana.
It was a profound reversal of fortune. Eight years Bill’s senior, Charlie originally had the edge. After the duo’s strained 1938 split, Charlie recovered with a new band that did well on radio and records and planned to audition for the Grand Ole Opry in 1939. When Bill and his original Blue Grass Boys got there two weeks sooner, the die was cast.
Charlie and his band, the Kentucky Pardners, worked in Bill’s shadow thereafter, the brothers’ relationship uneasy. In the ’50s, Charlie was semi-retired in comfort to his Kentucky farm, but failed business deals and his wife’s terminal cancer diagnosis left him virtually destitute.
This definitive four-disc collection assembles all of Charlie’s primary material for the first time. His 1938-39 Bluebird sessions, 1946-1951 RCA material and 1950s Decca sessions cover three discs. A fourth showcases Monroe and the Pardners onstage at Maryland’s legendary New River Ranch in the mid-’50s, recorded by folklorist Mike Seeger. High-quality remastering restores the vitality of the prewar material, and even the live disc sounds clear and crisp. The booklet features a fine, anecdote-rich biographical essay by Dick Spottswood, including comments excerpted from Doug Green’s 1972 interview with Charlie.
“Bluegrass,” Spottswood rightly concludes, “remained foreign to Charlie’s style.” Indeed it did. While Bill emphasized dignity, complex vocal harmonies, fiery instrumental breaks and a propulsive backbeat, Charlie’s vocals were warmer, his sound looser and more flexible. He was solidly traditional on his ’30s material and early postwar fare such as 1946′s “Bringing In The Georgia Mail”. Since he tilted toward the mainstream by adding amplified lead and steel guitar, it’s no shock hearing his 1950 session with Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys.
It would be Jimmy Martin, not Bill Monroe, who in 1972 brought Charlie back to the stage. Three years before, after Charlie’s remarriage — to a woman Bill had dated — the brothers had a final, irrevocable split. Still living hand-to-mouth and despite suffering from leukemia, Charlie returned to performing in 1974 and died a year later. Given the quality of the music, it all seems unfair.
