ON THE ROAD WITH BILL and SUE-ON HILLMAN
A 50-Year Musical Journey

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These hundreds of  photos were collated to illustrate the anecdotes in the
GIG NOTES Chapters of our 50-Year Musical Odyssey book.

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Celebrating the birth day of the Father of Bluegrass Music:
BILL MONROE
Sep 13, 1911 – Sep 9, 1996
***A visit to Bill Monroe's Kentucky home
http://www.erbzine.com/mag45/4541.html
Bill Monroe was born on this day back in 1911. Recognized as "The Father of Bluegrass," he joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1939 and entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970

On our way to the Everly Brothers Museum in Central City, Kentucky, we visited the birthplace of Bill Monroe - the Father of Bluegrass. Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" was Elvis' first recording at Sun Records in Memphis.

We followed the directions, across the train tracks, up a very winding road, through a farmer's field, and came upon the homestead. It was very rustic, and in the "hollows" were various stages strung with lights, ready for any festival. This brought back many memories of Manitoba's Boggy Creek Mountain Music Festival, where we were performers as well as organizers with Lewis Kaselitz, who was originally from Tennessee. I just had to get on stage to absorb the spirit of Bill Monroe and the whole bluegrass vibe.

We found our way back down the hills only to see this sign which took us onto another "jog" in our journey to Louisville. Uncle Pen was Bill Monroe's uncle, whom he wrote and sang about. Unfortunately, the "curator" of Uncle Pen's cabin decided it was a slow day and he went back to town.

Our GPS, Carmen the Garmin, said that if we followed Uncle Pen Lane, we would meet up with the main road. The gravel road gave way to a narrow dirt road. But Carmen insisted and we've always trusted her! Just another .7 miles to the main road, Carmen said. Only now, the dirt road had deteriorated into deep ruts, some filled with water, others with rocks.

At .5 miles, we finally found a space wide enough for us to turn around. "Keep left! Over to the right! Stay straight! Gun the engine! Watch that rock! Don't slow down!" The car was a bit of a mess, as you can see ;)

This is actually a picture of Don Everly's first sports car. He bought it with his first royalty cheque, and has since donated it to the Everly Brothers museum in Central City - which was the next stop along our way.
www.ERBzine.com/mag45/4541.html
www.hillmanweb.com/everly
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