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Rare & Fine: Uncommon Tunes Of Bill Monroe
Mike Compton, likely the most dedicated student of Bill Monroe’s music over the past 50 years, was uniquely qualified to animate a set of rarely heard and unreleased instrumentals by the Father of Bluegrass. That’s the story behind Compton’s new album Rare & Fine - Uncommon Tunes of Bill Monroe, set for release March 4.

These thirteen tracks, all but one composed by Monroe himself, were culled from the large collection of hand traded CDRs, cassette tapes and videos that Compton has built over his career. The songs are brought to life by a star band of Nashville’s finest acoustic musicians. Stunning triple fiddles come from Michael Cleveland, Laura Orshaw and Shad Cobb. Jeremy Stephens plays guitar. Russ Carson plays banjo. And Mike Bub plays bass.

The musicians gathered at the famed Cowboy Arms Hotel & Recordings Spa in Nashville, itself a symbol of renewal now that it’s been rebuilt atop the house where the great producer and songwriter Cowboy Jack Clement made it a hang for superstars before it burned in a 2011 fire. There, working with recording engineers Mark Howard and Cameron Davidson, the musicians worked up fresh arrangements to tunes Compton curated from across Monroe’s career.

Compton’s passion for Monroe was kindled as a teenager growing up in Mississippi. He heard a lot of classic country and blues as a young person, but Monroe’s “primal sound” opened new vistas for the musician. “As the time went by, seeking out that sound and trying to understand it and reproduce it became my all-consuming obsession,” he writes in the project’s liner notes. “The late 70s found me living in Nashville, TN surrounded by musicians who shared my obsession and who were collectors of Monroe’s music long before I came on the scene.” And his acquisition of Monroe source material accelerated. Eventually, he and his partner Heidi Herzog were entrusted with running the Monroe Mandolin Camp in Nashville, where the legacy is passed on to new acolytes of all ages.

Meanwhile, Compton refined his own voice on the instrument and emerged as a national master of traditional mandolin. He was a cofounder of the iconic Nashville Bluegrass Band, one of the most visible purveyors of the music in the 1980s and 90s. He was a member of the John Hartford String Band toward the end of the great fiddler and entertainer’s life. And when T Bone Burnett came to Music City to produce the music for the Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Compton became an anchoring sound of that platinum-selling, Grammy Album of the Year. All along, he’s been an in-demand session and stage musician, playing across the musical spectrum with legendary musicians, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Sting, and Elvis Costello.

Compton is releasing two tracks ahead of the album’s March 4 release, “Orange Blossom Breakdown” and “Trail of Tears.” The first one was sourced on a rough-sounding tape likely made by a fan off the radio of Monroe playing the Grand Ole Opry in the 1940s. “I was drawn to it because I’ve never heard him do anything quite like it, and I’ve never heard it since,” Compton says. “It’s a very unusual arrangement for Monroe. It had to be on the project.”

“Trail of Tears” comes from a rehearsal tape, probably of 1990s vintage, gifted to Compton by a former Blue Grass Boy. Compton was able to discern the complete tune from Billie Joe Foster’s fiddle playing and Monroe’s coaching about the right notes. “The flavor of this song is so lonesome and has characteristics and shades of what Monroe used to call ‘Indian Timing.’ I think it’s one of his most beautiful instrumentals,” Compton says.

This project is the work of a detective, a historian, and a master musician, working with trusted colleagues who love Monroe’s music as much as the leader. “I hope that you enjoy the sounds included within these covers,” Compton writes. “I will keep looking for more tunes.”