Bill Monroe – My Last Days On Earth: 1981-1994

This four-CD box concludes Bear Family’s encyclopedic six-box exploration of Monroe’s career. The focus here, Monroe’s last thirteen years on MCA, starts in 1981 when, diagnosed with colon cancer, he wrote and recorded the somber, decidedly un-Monroe instrumental peroration “My Last Days On Earth”, strings and voices added with Monroe’s approval. The disease proved life-changing. After he beat it and returned to the stage and studio, Monroe’s stiff, formal public persona gave way to an approachable, even amiable nature. His later MCA years were consistent despite the ever-changing Blue Grass Boys lineup, and the stern legend who curtly refused to participate in the original Will The Circle Be Unbroken sessions recorded an all-star duet album with, among others, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Barbara Mandrell, then did a similar collection teaming with bluegrass progeny Ralph Stanley, Jim & Jesse, the Osbornes and the Country Gentlemen. Ending with a disc of mandolin solo pieces only distributed to radio, the collection reveals a spirit that endured, even as age took a toll, prior to his death in 1996.