For devotees of Bill Monroe’s music, the CD box sets issued by BEAR FAMILY beginning in 1989 were the answer to a listener’s dream: having the bluegrass originator’s complete recordings tastefully collected in boxes, with informative books included. What we now have is something even more dreamlike: all the familiar Monroe recordings for DECCA in 1950-51, featuring lead singers Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, and Edd Mayfield, presented next to unbelievably all the outtakes (none previously issued) of all the tracks.
