When Bill Monroe ran out of ideas, and his music began to sound all the same, "everydayness," he returned again and again to Negro music and these raw,primitive, primordial sources brought him back to life. When Monroe is unguarded, he'll start talking about early records of spirituals by the Tuskeegee Choir, Golden Gate 4tet, the Two Poor Boys, and many others. Even the comparatively raunchy-sounding Mississippi Sheiks. Once, in a completely spontaneous excitement, trance or aura, he said with great effect, to a friend while Lightning Hopkins was on stage: "You wanna be a great Bluegrass musician...listen to that man and study everything he does."
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