Free Bill Monroe Tribute Opens Bluegrass Week

This September marks the centennial anniversary of Bill Monroe’s birth, and will be commemorated as the IBMA informally kicks off its World of Bluegrass Week in Nashville with a free outdoor bluegrass concert featuring The Del McCoury Band with special guests.

The concert will be hosted by the non-profit Foundation for Bluegrass Music on the grounds of the Ryman Auditorium Tuesday (9/27) from noon until 2pm as part of the week-long (9/26–10/2) bluegrass conference.

Additionally, The Del McCoury Band will be digitally releasing their Bill Monroe tribute album, Old Memories: The Songs Of Bill Monroe on the day of the concert (9/27).

Monroe is widely known as the “Father of Bluegrass Music” when, in December 1945 in Nashville, a unique combination of Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys debuted with  Earl Scruggs on banjo and his three-finger style of playing electrified the audience of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. The new style of music they performed would be so widely emulated by other groups that it would become known as “bluegrass” music, in respect to the band’s name. A Tennessee state historical marker is placed in 2006 at the northwest corner of the Ryman to celebrate this event.