Mark Hembree’s On the Bus with Bill Monroe: My Five-Year Ride with the Father of Blue Grass tells what life was like as a member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. Hembree served as the Blue Grass Boys’ bass player from 1979 to 1984. Through Hembree’s eyes we view the daily living of members of the band, particularly Mark and the bandleader, bluegrass icon Bill Monroe.
There is great interest in Bill Monroe because he is viewed by many as a brilliant innovator. Bill Monroe’s greatest musical achievement was weaving together several strands of southern United States tradition into a musical form recognized by others to be “different” from other forms being played in the 1940s. Monroe called his group the Blue Grass Boys, and, in time, the country music industry and fans called the music of Monroe and Monroe’s imitators, “bluegrass music.” From the beginning, the style featured sung duets, instrumental virtuosity, two or three soloists, fast tempos, high keys, and blues tonalities running through all of the playing. The Blue Grass Boys first played in 1938, became a member of the Grand Old Opry in 1939, and existed till the death of Bill Monroe in 1996.
Bluegrass music is not only a music style but a musical culture. The culture of bluegrass music is both local and international. It reflects the personalities and events of particular locations, but also has themes that resonate whenever and wherever members of the culture get together, for example, at concerts, multi-day bluegrass festivals, informal social gatherings, and chance encounters.
When bluegrass participants get together, they might talk about the subjects anyone in a locale might talk about. However, conversation usually turns to bluegrass-related subjects. They might talk about musicians and bands whose work they have experienced. They might talk and tell stories about the characters of players, or reflect on the evolution of the musical style of bluegrass, for example. As Bill Monroe is known as the Father of Bluegrass Music, to members of the culture of bluegrass, details of the lives of Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys are of interest to fans.
Members of traveling bands share a cultural niche. Rehearsing, performing, and traveling, band members spend a lot of time together. Like other groups of workers, through conversation and storytelling, each band creates a system of shared reference points. Among these are the personalities and actions of the band leader for whom they work, other figures in the music industry, as well as such things as the bus that gets the band from place to place, the lodgings in which they sleep, and restaurants where they eat. On the Bus with Bill Monroe provides colorful accounts of what Blue Grass Boys do and say when they are away from the stage, which is most of the time when they traveled together. Fans will also enjoy Hembree’s depictions of music-performing scenes, as well as the reportage on goings-on far from any stage lights. Hembree’s accounts of Monroe and life as a Blue Grass Boy may turn up in conversations of bluegrass fans.
Some Blue Grass Boys performed just a few times with the group. Others, such as author Mark Hembree, spent years with the Blue Grass Boys. Once a player leaves the band, the player might find it appealing to maintain some of the personal ties formed during the tenure with Monroe. Former Blue Grass Boys might visit each other, or run into each other at events such as bluegrass festivals, and when they do, they might joke and talk about their experiences as Blue Grass Boys, particularly about what it was like to work with Bill Monroe.
On the Bus with Bill Monroe tells much about actions and attitudes of Monroe that might be considered quirks and foibles, but it is no tell-all book. To Hembree and many other former Blue Grass Boys, Monroe’s musical achievements are so vast that he is viewed with affection, regardless of actions and attitudes that for others might be considered questionable. For example, on pages 57-59, there is a section called “The Beer Taboo.” According to Hembree, Monroe was not a big drinker of alcohol, but had a special aversion to beer which he termed “that old slop.” The story Hembree tells involves an airplane trip with the Blue Grass Boys where someone bought Hembree a beer. Later, Hembree decided to return the favor and slipped by Monroe, presumed to be sleeping on the plane, to get the beers. On the way back to his seat, Hembree encountered an awake Monroe who said, “Why you got to drink ‘em two at a time?” Hembree also recounts that the encounter began a three-week period where Monroe would not speak to him, and adds that fiddle player Kenny Baker endured a two-week treatment for a similar crime involving beer. The silent treatment seemed extreme to members of the Blue Grass Boys, and that is why Hembree included it. However, because of their respect for Monroe, Hembree and Baker accepted it as part of being a Blue Grass Boy, and also, enjoyed talking about it later.
The book sheds light on the musical culture of bluegrass. If you seek a regional basis for a definition of bluegrass culture, you would think it southern, or more specifically, Appalachian. However, if you seek a behavioral basis for the definition of bluegrass, you would note that bluegrass is international, and that participants self-elect to participate. Author Mark Hembree is from Wisconsin. When he became a Blue Grass Boy, to a greater extent than his previous career in bluegrass music, he became immersed in southern culture. Pages 29-31 contain Hembree’s personal glossary of southern expressions with translations into English as spoken in the north. These depictions are often funny. Beginning with page 31 is a section called “The Crucible of Chatom,” within which Hembree describes his “deep dive into extreme culture shock” (31) deriving from a lack of understanding of what was going on around him.
Bluegrass music may represent an international community today, but when a bluegrass participant is placed in an unfamiliar geographic/cultural setting, the bluegrass culture participant can experience both cultural connection and disconnection.
Those who follow bluegrass music will enjoy On the Bus with Bill Monroe. The book provides authoritative details and entertaining commentaries about the person known as the father of bluegrass music, and also about members of the Blue Grass Boys. Depictions of life on the road are often ironic, such as performing for President Jimmy Carter and mixing with many other celebrities (47), and a short time later, staying, of necessity, in a fleabag hotel (50). On the Bus with Bill Monroe: My Five-Year Ride with the Father of Blue Grass is an enjoyable read and deserves its spot on a shelf, right next to a previous outstanding book about the experience of playing in the Blue Grass Boys, Bob Black’s Come Hither to Go Yonder.
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[Review length: 1153 words • Review posted on October 6, 2023]