# Bluegrass Ramble

Bluegrass Ramble is the fourth studio album by American bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and his band, the Blue Grass Boys. Released on June 11, 1962 by Decca Records, it features 12 songs recorded across four sessions at Bradley Film & Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee during November and December 1961, produced by Owen Bradley. One song from the album was released as a single: the Monroe-written "Toy Heart" on July 2, 1962.

## Background

With the continued momentum of the American folk music revival providing an uplift in popularity for bluegrass music, Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys found their touring schedule "as busy as it had been in the early 1950s" by the spring of 1961. As a result, songs for the upcoming follow-up to Mr. Blue Grass were chosen based on "appealing to folk music fans", with Monroe favoring tracks he'd performed since as early as the 1930s. By the time they came to record in early-November, the lineup of the Blue Grass Boys included returning guitarist Jimmy Maynard and former stand-in Curtis McPeake on banjo, who had recently replaced the outgoing Bobby Smith and Bobby Atkins, respectively. Fiddler Vassar Clements (on his third tenure) and long-time bassist Bessie Lee Mauldin completed the band's lineup.

## Recording

First and second sessions: November 9 and 10, 1961
The first recording session for Bill Monroe's fourth album took place on November 9, 1961 and featured Buddy Spicher joining Clements on fiddle. The first song recorded was the folk standard "Little Maggie", which Monroe had been performing as early as 1946 but had not yet recorded. Many artists had recorded the track since the late-1920s, most notably in bluegrass The Stanley Brothers in 1948. The other two songs recorded at this session were both re-recordings of Monroe tracks originally released in 1949: "I'm Going Back to Old Kentucky", originally issued as a single, and "Toy Heart", originally released as the B-side to "Blue Grass Breakdown". The next session took place the next day and introduced new band member Benny Williams, who was the sole fiddler for the day. Recorded on November 10 were standards "Shady Grove" and "Nine Pound Hammer", followed by "Live and Let Live", originally by Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan.
Third and fourth sessions: November 30 and December 4, 1961
The third session for Bluegrass Ramble took place on November 30, 1961 — the day after Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. Monroe had planned to enlist Tony Ellis to play banjo at the show, but the paperwork was completed before he arrived, listing regular member Curtis McPeake in the lineup; to make it up to Ellis, Monroe asked him and fiddler Bobby Joe Lester (who Ellis had brought with him) to perform at the following day's recording session. The rest of the lineup included Spicher and Mauldin, with Williams switching to guitar to cover for Jimmy Maynard (who was travelling back by car with McPeake).
The first song recorded on November 30 was "Danny Boy", a popular song which had recently been in the Billboard charts on several occasions in the form of recordings by Conway Twitty and Andy Williams. This was followed by "Cotton Fields", which featured additional vocals by Williams and Lester, and finally "Journey's End". Maynard was back in time to perform at the final session on December 4, for which Lester was the sole fiddler. The session saw the group recording three instrumentals to fill out the remaining tracks on the album: standards "John Hardy" and "Old Joe Clark", plus Elmer Schoebel, Billy Meyers and Jack Pettis' "Bugle Call Rag". All three tracks were chosen by Monroe based on hearing Ellis play them on banjo.

## Release

Bluegrass Ramble was released by Decca Records on June 11, 1962. No single was issued prior to the album, however "Toy Heart" (backed with "Danny Boy") was released at the beginning of July. No extended play was released in conjunction with the album, although "John Hardy" was featured on a release with three tracks from Mr. Blue Grass issued in October 1962.

## Reception

Media response to Bluegrass Ramble was positive. Billboard magazine selected it as one of its "Special Merit Albums" in the week of its release, writing that "Bluegrass fans, city or country, will enjoy this sparkling new album from the king of bluegrass ... The songs spotlight exciting instrumental work that makes the Blue Grass Boys outstanding entertainers". A review published in the British magazine New Record Mirror stated that "This new album, more than any other Monroe production, is really illustrative of his talent for country entertainment", praising the band's performance but also noting that "the result is less purist, perhaps less 'authentic', but certainly more enjoyable to a wider and less discerning market of record buyers". Upon its release as a single, Billboard specifically praised "Toy Heart" as a "happy tune" and a "bright side".