ROAD TO COLUMBUS
KENNY BAKER.
SONGWRITER: BILL MONROE
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: KENNY BAKER PLAYS BILL MONROE
LABEL: COUNTY RECORDS
GENRE: COUNTRY/INSTRUMENTAL
YEAR: 1976
Kenneth Clayton Baker (June 26, 1926 – July
8, 2011) was an American fiddle player
best known for his 25-year tenure with Bill
Monroe and his group The Blue Grass
Boys.
Baker
served more years in Monroe's band than any other musician and was selected by
Monroe to record the fiddle tunes passed down from Uncle Pen Vandiver. After
leaving the Blue Grass Boys in 1984, Baker played with a group of friends, Bob
Black, Alan Murphy, and Aleta Murphy. Bob Black and Alan Murphy
recorded an album with Baker in 1973, Dry & Dusty. After the one summer
with Black and the Murphy's, Baker teamed with Josh
Graves, who had played resonator guitar for Lester
Flatt & Earl Scruggs as a Foggy
Mountain Boy. Baker teamed with Graves until Graves' death in 2006.
William Smith Monroe (/mənˈroʊ/;
September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer,
and songwriter, who created the bluegrass
music genre. Because of this, he is often
called the "Father of Bluegrass".
The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue
Grass Boys, who named their group for the bluegrass of Monroe's home state of Kentucky.
Monroe's performing
career spanned 69 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader.
In a long and distinguished career, Kenny
Baker made 12 consistently good albums for the County label: this gem is as
good as any of them. Baker
showed up at a Nashville studio with a group of top Bluegrass musicians (Joe
Stuart, Randy Davis, and banjo pickers Bob Black and Vic Jordan), plus a couple
of new tunes from the master, Bill Monroe, who encouraged Baker to record them.
Though Kenny had asked Monroe to join them for the session, Bill was
non-commital and even Baker felt that there was a less than 50/50 chance that
Monroe would stop by to offer some advice and give his approval. Bill not only showed
up, but brought his mandolin and picked enthusiastically on every tune, taking
breaks on most of them. His energy inspired everyone present, and Baker ended
up with one of his finest albums. The album marked the first recording of
Monroe's now classic ROAD TO COLUMBUS, along with two other new pieces,
MISSISSIPPI WALTZ and FIDDLER'S PASTIME, plus a dynamite version of JERUSALEM
RIDGE, a piece that Monroe played often but that was not issued on any Monroe
album at the time. A wonderful fiddle album that should be in the collection of
every Bluegrass fiddle fan and every fan of Bill Monroe & his music
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