Editing Bill Monroe (section)

== Legacy and influence ==

According to [[Ralph Rinzler]], Monroe impacted music in the following five ways:<ref>{{Cite AV media notes |title=Live Recordings 1963-1980: Off the Record Volume 2 |title-link= |last=Rinzler |first=Ralph |author-link=Ralph Rinzler |first2= |last2= |author-link2= |others= |url=https://folkways-media.si.edu/docs/folkways/artwork/SFW40064.pdf#page=6 |date=1993 |access-date= |chapter= |page=7 |pages= |at= |type= |publisher=[[Smithsonian Folkways]] |id= |location= }}</ref>

# When others were going electric, Monroe created a space for an acoustic string band tradition to continue to grow and develop within country music.
# He developed a distinct vocal tradition - the "high lonesome" sound.
# He established the mandolin as a virtuoso string band instrument
# He composed a diverse repertoire of songs and instrumental tunes which have become standard fare among bluegrass, country, and some pop musicians.
# More than any other musician of his time, he skillfully infused country music with archaic tonal subtlety, including Anglo-Scots-Irish and Blues influences.

Monroe was made an honorary [[Kentucky Colonel]] in 1966.<ref name="Rosenberg">{{Cite book |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Neil V. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jj.13944080 |title=The music of Bill Monroe |last2=Wolfe |first2=Charles K. |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-252-05623-9 |series=Music in American life |location=Urbana, IL |publication-date=2007 |jstor=10.5406/jj.13944080 |oclc=1431193963 |access-date=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=148}} He was inducted into the [[Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum|Country Music Hall of Fame]] in 1970,<ref name="LarkinGE" /> the [[Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame]] in 1971,<ref name="LarkinGE" /> and the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] (as an "early influence") in 1997. [[Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]], [[Bob Wills]], [[Hank Williams|Hank Williams Sr.]], and [[Johnny Cash]] are the only other performers honored in all three. As the "father of bluegrass", he was also an inaugural inductee into the [[International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame|International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor]] in 1991. Monroe was a recipient of a 1982 [[National Heritage Fellowship]] awarded by the [[National Endowment for the Arts]], which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1982|title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1982 |author=<!--Not stated-->  |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=November 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929133224/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1982 |archive-date=September 29, 2020 |url-status=dead}}</ref> That year's fellowships were the first bestowed by the NEA. In 1993, he received the [[Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award]], and he was awarded the [[List of recipients of the National Medal of Arts|National Medal of Arts]] in 1995. His well-known song "[[Blue Moon of Kentucky]]" has been covered not only by bluegrass but also rock and country artists, most notably Elvis Presley, [[Paul McCartney]], and [[Patsy Cline]]. In 2003, [[CMT (American TV channel)|CMT]] had Monroe ranked No.&nbsp;16 on ''CMT 40 Greatest Men of Country Music''.

Artists that claimed to be influenced by or to be playing the bluegrass genre were often bullied by Monroe. He always considered himself the father and caretaker of bluegrass. He would often say of new bands that did not perform to his standards, "That ain't no part of nothin'." Even those who question the scope of bluegrass refer to Monroe as a "musical giant" and recognize that "there would be no bluegrass without Bill Monroe."<ref>{{cite news|author=Teachout, Terry|title=Kentucky Troubadour: A biography of Bill Monroe and the bluegrass music he invented.|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 17, 2001|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/17/reviews/000917.17teachot.html|access-date=January 20, 2018}}</ref>

More than 150 musicians played in the Blue Grass Boys over the nearly 60 years of Monroe's performing career. Monroe tended to recruit promising young musicians who served an apprenticeship with him before becoming accomplished artists in their own right. Some of Monroe's band members who went on to greater prominence include singer/guitarists [[Clyde Moody]], [[Lester Flatt]], [[Vernon Crawford "Jack" Cooke|Jack Cooke]], [[Mac Wiseman]], [[Jimmy Martin]], [[Carter Stanley]], [[Del McCoury]], [[Peter Rowan]], [[Roland White]], Roland Dunn and [[Riders in the Sky (band)|Doug Green]]; banjo players [[Earl Scruggs]], Bob Black, [[Butch Robins]], [[Don Reno]], [[David "Stringbean" Akeman|Stringbean]], [[Sonny Osborne]], and [[Bill Keith (musician)|Bill Keith]]; and fiddlers Tommy Magness, [[Chubby Wise]], [[Vassar Clements]], [[Byron Berline]], [[Kenny Baker (fiddler)|Kenny Baker]], [[Bobby Hicks]], [[Gordon Terry]], [[Randall Franks]] and Glen Duncan. Monroe also regularly performed with flat-picking guitar virtuoso [[Doc Watson]].

Modern bluegrass singer and mandolin player [[Ricky Skaggs]] was influenced by Monroe. Skaggs was only six years old, in 1960, when he first got to perform on stage with Monroe and his band at the high school in Martha, Kentucky. He stated, "I think Bill Monroe's importance to American music is as important as someone like Robert Johnson was to blues, or Louis Armstrong. He was so influential: I think he's probably the only musician that had a whole style of music named after his band."<ref name="Music">{{cite book
| first= Paul
| last= Du Noyer
| year= 2003
| title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music
| edition= 1st
| publisher= Flame Tree Publishing
| location= Fulham, London
| isbn= 1-904041-96-5
| page= 196}}</ref>

In 1999, the portion of [[Indiana State Road 135]] running from [[Morgantown, Indiana|Morgantown]] through to [[Nashville, Indiana]] was dedicated to Monroe and is known as the Bill Monroe Memorial Highway.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.browncounty.com/bill-monroe-memorial-highway |title=Brown County Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site, 2018.08.28 |access-date=August 28, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828170130/http://www.browncounty.com/bill-monroe-memorial-highway |archive-date=August 28, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>