Some context: Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan "Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Bill was of Scottish heritage. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill Monroe was resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin.
In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work at an oil refinery with his brothers Birch and Charlie, and childhood friend and guitarist William "Old Hickory" Hardin. Together with a friend Larry Moore, they formed the "Monroe Brothers", to play at local dances and house parties. Birch Monroe and Larry Moore soon left the group, and Bill and Charlie carried on as a duo, eventually winning spots performing live on radio stations-- first in Indiana and then, sponsored by Texas Crystals, on several radio broadcasts in Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and North Carolina from 1934 to 1936. RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a recording contract in 1936. They scored an immediate hit single with the gospel song "What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul?" and ultimately recorded 60 tracks for Victor's Bluebird label between 1936 and 1938. After the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill Monroe formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the group only lasted for three months. Monroe then left Little Rock for Atlanta, Georgia, to form the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys with singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, fiddler Art Wooten, and bassist Amos Garren. Bill had wanted "Old Hickory" to become one of the original members of his "Blue Grass Boys", however William Hardin had to decline. In October 1939, Monroe successfully auditioned for a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry, impressing Opry founder George D. Hay with his energetic performance of Jimmie Rodgers's "Mule Skinner Blues". Monroe recorded that song, along with seven others, at his first solo recording session for RCA Victor in 1940; by this time, the Blue Grass Boys consisted of singer/guitarist Clyde Moody, fiddler Tommy Magness, and bassist Bill Wesbrooks. While the fast tempos and instrumental virtuosity characteristic of bluegrass music are apparent even on these early tracks, Monroe was still experimenting with the sound of his group. He seldom sang lead vocals on his Victor recordings, often preferring to contribute high tenor harmonies as he had in the Monroe Brothers. A 1945 session for Columbia Records featured an accordion, soon dropped from the band. Most importantly, while Monroe added banjo player David "'Stringbean" Akeman to the Blue Grass Boys in 1942, Akeman played the instrument in a relatively primitive style and was rarely featured in instrumental solos. Monroe's pre-1946 recordings represent a transitional style between the string-band tradition from which he came and the musical innovation to follow.
What type of music did Monroe originally play?
A: gospel song "What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul?"
Some context: Ted Arnbjorn Gardestad (Swedish pronunciation: [ted 2jae:de,sta:d]) (18 February 1956 - 22 June 1997) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and actor known internationally as Ted. Gardestad began his acting career in 1966 and began playing music in 1971, signing with Polar Music. Assigned with in-house producers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, Gardestad released his first single, "Hela varlden runt," in late 1971 and worked closely with the four members of ABBA to create his debut album Undringar (1972). As Polar Music's best-selling solo artist (aside from ABBA), he continued to work with the group members throughout the 1970s, releasing three more albums Ted (1973), Upptag (1974) and Franska Kort (1976), which were moderately successful.
Shortly after Gardestad's return to Sweden in 1986, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, was murdered. Gardestad was wrongly mentioned in the Swedish media as "the 33-year-old", a suspect in the investigation of the assassination, which severely affected him although Gardestad was on vacation in Greece at the time of the murder, and although he was never questioned by the Swedish police nor was under suspicion by the authorities, the speculations and rumours followed him and his family for the rest of the 1980s. A few years later, he was again the subject of rumours accusing him of being Lasermannen, a bank robber and serial killer. The rumours affected the sensitive and already unstable former star, and Gardestad withdrew and fell into a deep depression. In the early 1990s, Gardestad was briefly coaxed out of retirement by his friend and fellow Swedish pop singer Harpo. He joined Harpo on a concert tour and made guest appearances. In 1992, they released the duet "Lycka" ("Happiness") as a single; it garnered little attention but marked Gardestad's return to music. Early that year he embarked on his first tour since 1978 and played a series of dates with Plura Jonsson, Tove Naess, Totta Naslund and Dan Hylander, and received overall positive reviews from the press. In 1993, a compilation album titled Kalendarium 1972-93 was promoted by a tour in the Swedish folkparks; the album and tour were successful, as was his first composition in twelve years, "For karlekens skull" ("For Love's Sake"), which topped the Svensktoppen chart. The Kalendarium collection included a Swedish-language re-recording of the title track from Blue Virgin Isles, "Himlen ar oskyldigt bla" ("The Sky is Innocently Blue"), which fifteen years after its original release became another Svensktoppen hit, and became one of his best-known songs. In early 1994, Kalendarium 1972-93 was awarded a platinum disc. All of Gardestad's albums from the 1970s and early 1980s, with the exception of Blue Virgin Isles, were re-released on CD by Polar, and a generation of Swedes who grew up listening to his music now re-discovered and re-evaluated his back catalogue as adults. His body of work has since come to be regarded as a national treasure as important as those of Evert Taube, Carl Michael Bellman and Cornelis Vreeswijk both by fans and Swedish music critics.
How was the duet received?
A:
it garnered little attention but marked Gardestad's return to music.