Fast -- Real Fast!

“Let’s play it fast – real fast,” Tex Logan says in reply to Bill Monroe’s invitation to “Play it however you wanna play it”. Though many brilliant fiddlers passed through the Blue Grass Boys, not many could have matched this tempo. Logan was more than up to the task.

Logan, who was also an engineer at Bell Labs, doesn’t cheat a single note; every one rings out fat, rich, and full. Monroe proves to be the fiddler’s equal, working stunning improvisations on the melody that rival Logan’s excursions.

Between the two of ‘em, a friendly musical get-together could come out sounding like pitched battle, as it does here, on the traditional instrumental, “Katy Hill”.

“Aw, git it!”

Fiddlers Five

Sometimes, you just have to shut up and get out of the way. So, let me move aside and share what the uploader has to say about this extraordinary video:

“Five fiddlers – all Blue Grass Boys – play a medley of "Fire on the Mountain” and “Old Joe Clark” at Bill Monroe’s 71st birthday celebration, onstage at the Kentucky Fried Chicken Bluegrass Festival, September, 1982.  This videotape was preserved over the past three decades by former Blue Grass Boy Doug Hutchens.  The fiddlers are Gordon Terry, Red Taylor, Tex Logan, Byron Berline, and Kenny Baker."
 
If you know the history of those fiddlers and the man who brought them together, enjoy marinating in it. If not, look them up on this long and lovingly-maintained page all about Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys.