Birch Monroe Interview — 25 September 1977
In the Ticket Booth at the Brown County Jamboree, at Bean Blossom, Ind. 
Tom Adler, interviewer

TA: Birch, what I really wanted to ask you about, since we’ve been measuring the buildings and all today, is just about the buildings and grounds.  Can you tell me about the history of this place?

BM: Well, Mr. Francis Rund used to--  Uh, Bill bought this from Francis Rund, and Mr. Rund brought this Jamboree in here back I guess, about the late 30’s or early 40s. 

And he had Bill up here for a show one night, and Bill had a big crowd you know, he was from the Grand Ole Opry, and these people around here hadn’t seen too many Opry stars at that time, I guess.  And Bill had a big crowd, and Mr. Rund wanted to get rid of this Jamboree, he was an old man then, you know.  Wanted to get rid of it.  So he told Bill, he should buy it, so Bill bought it from Mr. Rund.   That was back in ’51.

TA: ’51! 

BM: Yes.

TA: I’ve seen in the concrete over there in the [barn] foundation, it says—   One place it says, ’45, and in the other place it says 1946. 

BM: Yeah, uh, that’s--   Probably that concrete was poured before Bill come here, you see.

TA: So Bill bought it in ’51.

BM: Yeah, he bought it in ’51. 

TA: What all was here then, when he bought it?  Was the ticket booth here?

BM: No, wasn’t no ticket booth.  There was a ticket booth inside there, you know.  [TA: The one up in front?]  Yeah, the window there, where they sold tickets, and, uh-- There wasn't no concrete, it wasn’t a concrete floor then, you know.  It was just cinders, a gravel and cinder floor.  And regular old church benches, you know, sittin’ in them cinders.  

TA: Is that what it was?  Church benches?

BM: Church chairs.  [TA: Something that Mr. Rund had gotten?]  Yeah, he’d bought these chairs from old churches that had closed, and old schools.  Places like that, you know.  And Bill come here, and thought we’d better concrete the floor, and put new chairs in, you see.  Saved a lot of cleaning up, you know, or---   You could clean it up then, you couldn’t hardly clean it up with them cinders there, you know.  

So it’s been a--   Been a lot of people played here, first and last, been a lot of people come here to see the shows, first and last.  Some of the biggest stars got their start here, you know.  Johnny Cash played here when he only had about--   Well, I guess he played for about 75 or 80 dollars, maybe a hundred.  Now you couldn’t--   He wouldn’t talk to you for less than 50 thousand, I don’t guess!

Loretta Lynn, she played the first show date out of the Grand Ole Opry, when she started there, played her first show date here.  [TA: When she got on the Opry staff, then, her first show was here?]  Her first show was here.

TA: Tell me a little bit more about the building itself.  Was it pretty much like it is now, I mean, except for the floor?  When you first got it?

BM:    Yes.  Yeah, we haven’t changed the building any.  We did put a new roof on it.

TA: Was that after the fire?

BM: Well, that--   Yeah, that was after the fire.  [TA: When did that fire happen?  I’ve seen where there are still some blackened places up in there. . . ?] I don’t remember, but it was along in about--  I guess ’55, or something like that.  ’56.   [Ed: actually in April, 1958]

TA: When Bill first bought it, in ’51, did you start running it then?  Managing it?

BM: I come up here pretty soon after he bought it.   That was a-- I was in Carolina till the World War II started, you know, and when I was down there with my brother Charlie, you know.  When it---   World War II started, with Charlie quit the road for  a while, and I come back to the farm there at home, in Kentucky, where we was born and raised.  And then Bill bought this in ’51, and wanted me to come up here and see after it. 

TA: Is that when you moved to Martinsville then?

BM: I come here.  We lived over here in these cabins.  [TA: Oh, really, right here?  Right by the little lake here?]  Yeah, right here on the grounds.  [TA: I bet that was a pretty place to live!]  It was, and a good place to live.  That was when Pete Pyle was with Bill, working for Bill, and had worked for Bill some, and Bill sent him up here, and we formed a band, you know:  Pete Pyle, and Shorty Sheehan, and uh--   Played here at the barn on Sundays, and played out a little through the week, you know, different places.

TA: Where did you play at, from around here?  What were some of the places?

BM: Oh, schools, and places like that, like Plainfield, a couple places over in--   Around Terre Haute.  I guess we played Terre Haute a time or two.  And, uh--  We had Carlton Haney up here, and Carlton done some booking around here, at drive-in theaters and places like that.  Played a few drive-ins.

TA: Did you ever play over in Bloomington?

BM: I guess we played over there, I’m not sure.  We had a program up in Indianapolis, WIBC, we played there some, we played at---   That other station, I’ve forgotten now what it was. . .

TA: And this was you and Pete Pyle and Shorty Sheehan? 

BM: Yeah, Shorty Sheehan,  and--  And Edd Mayfield, I believe, was up here some.

TA: What name did you go by then? 

BM: Brown County Boys.

TA: I see, that’s the first Brown County Boys?

BM: I guess that was the first.  And we--   I guess we broadcast up there,  uh, played up there for a year or so, and some of the boys would come down here and be with us on Sunday, like from WIBC, some of them fellows would come down and emcee the program.  We’d broadcast an hour from here every Sunday.

TA: Right from down here?  [BM:  Yes.]  Is that what you’d use that sound room for?  Is that when that was used?

BM: Yeah, we, uh---  They used it, and--   They’d send an engineer down here every Sunday from the radio station in Indianapolis.   We had big crowds then, but---  We, for some reason, I don’t remember now, we didn’t broadcast the next year when we come in.  Give the broadcast up, and went to puttin’ out cards all over the country, you know. 

And we’d give passes then.  With puttin’ out the cards, we’d give a pass, wherever we put out a card.  But then we discontinued the passes, and--  It’s changed a lot since we first come here, you know.  It’s been a good place to play.  People really appreciate music here.

TA: I think so.  I’m sure of it.  I know it’s been like a home away from home for me, you know, to come over here, and to get to see old friends again, even just on the weekend.  Seems like a lot of people keep comin’ back.

BM: People--  Strangers, or people that’s come in for the first time, they remark what a friendly atmosphere we have around here.  Makes ‘em feel at home, you know.  Feel like they’ve known us for a long time.

TA: Let me get back to the building here a minute.  Did you say you know what year that fire was?

BM: I don’t remember what year, but it must have been around ’55 or ’56.

TA: Oh, that’s right, you said that.  Were all these  –  the chimneys and everything – here?  Is that the way Mr. Rund built it?

BM: Yeah, they built these chimneys here.

TA: And was the stage just the way he built it?

BM: Just about.  [TA: He put in that log cabin look to it?]  Yeah, that--  He designed that stage, and put them slabs up there, log slabs, you know, to make it look more like the country, I guess. 

TA: Were there other stages before that, that were made like that? Or was he the first one to make a stage that looked like a cabin?

BM: I guess that’s the first one that I remember seein’.   By callin’ it the Jamboree Barn, well, it makes it look more like a barn I guess.

TA: It was never used as barn though, was it? It was always the Jamboree?

BM: Well, after it was brought here, it wasn’t used for anything, only the Jamboree.  But this barn was a dairy barn, when he bought it and brought it.  He bought the barn from somewhere here in the neighborhood, in this part of the country.  And moved it in here.  I believe they had a tent here at first, you know.

TA: And Bill was probably using his tent show back then…

BM: Yeah, Bill had a tent show back there.  But, um--  I guess they thought a barn would be better than a tent, you know, would be more economical, and be a little safer in case of a storm or a rain, hard rain….

TA: Has there ever been a regular dance held at the Barn?

BM: Yeah, we used to have dances here, uh, every Saturday night.  We had dances here for about two years, I guess.  We built a dance platform out here in the field, had the dance out there.  Yeah, that was before we put the concrete in the building. 

TA: When did you put in the concrete?

BM: That was along about ’55 or 6 or 7, along there.

TA: Oh, after the fire?

BM: Yeah.

TA: And there was a platform out there right on the field, huh?

BM: Yeah, just a good place to dance, but then moved back in the barn here after they put the concrete in the barn, you know, and danced in there.

TA: When did all the other buildings on the grounds here get built?  Like—How about the outdoor--   The bandstand down in the park.. . .

BM: Well, back about--  I guess about 12 years ago, when they first started the festival, you know, we built that outdoor stage over there.

TA: Who built that?  Did you build that yourself, or did Bill - -

BM: No, we had a carpenter here to kindly outline it for us, and of course we built the seats, put the seats in, and cleaned out the park over there.

TA: One of the things that Betsy’s been doing this afternoon is walking around trying to draw a sketch of the whole place, all the festival grounds.  How far does it go?  I know you sometimes during the festival use this near field here. . .  [south of the barn]

BM: We have this field back down the road towards the old Lavender House, where the restaurant used to be.  It runs over to the cemetery and turns northeast there and goes back about three-quarters of a mile, I guess, and then turns due north for about three-quarters of a mile, then kind of back to the west to this subdivision over here, and then back up the road here, back up 135.

TA: Do you know how much acreage it is in all?

BM: I believe it’s about 85 acres, or--  85 or 90 acres, something like that.

TA: Well, it’s sure a beautiful place.  It was the first outdoor festival that I ever came to, this one right here.

BM: This has been a good festival, it’s the best place that I’ve ever been for a festival.

TA: I think so.  I like it better—Not to say anthing, but I like it better than down in Rosine, than the festival grounds down there.

BM: Yeah, it’s handier, and--   Well, it’s not handier, but it’s more shade.  The shade amounts to a lot, you know, in real hot weather.  The best shade in the world is right here, where this festival’s held.  But you go to festivals in different states; we’ve just got back from one down in Alabama, Chatham, Alabama.  It’s a good place, but not as good as this one.  And not as big as this one.

TA: I think this is a hard place to beat.  How many people can you fit in that barn?

BM: I believe about 950 can be taken care of in the barn.  About 800 seats, 850 seats, and then--  About 850 chairs, and then got them board seats in there.  [TA: Oh, up in the back?]  Yeah.  Bleachers.  We put ‘em in.   But all in all, it’s just an ideal place for a big crowd. 

TA: Was that little room that’s stuck on the end, was that always there?

BM: Yes, that was there.  He--  Mr. Rund had that put on, to tune up in, you know, dress in.

TA: Rund built all this…  The kitchen in the corner,  did you put that in, or was there a kitchen there.

BM: It was there. 

TA: So you had the kitchen, and the little ticket booth…

BM: And the stand across the aisle.  But we expanded the kitchen a little bit, it wasn’t as big as ‘tis now.  And we put water in, you know, wasn’t no water here then.  We put the water in, and put the restrooms all over the place, you know.  Put the showers in over at the park.

TA: Yeah, it must have been a big job, all the changes, with the size of the festival, as it’s gotten bigger.

BM: We had to go according to the state law, you know.  They tell you what to do and how to do it!  They’ve been good to us, and we’ve tried to be good to them, you know.  But it’s awful hard to do everything they want you to do, just like they want you to do it, though.  You can think you’ve got something all set, and some man that says he’s gonna work for you and do a certain thing will change his mind, and not do it, you know, or do it different, and the state people think , “Well, it ought to have been done anyway.”  But they’ve been good to us, and we’ve tried to be good to them.

The main thing about this place here, is Bill Monroe’s at the back of it, you know, and he’s able to do what he tries to do.

TA: I know this is Bill’s place, and of course I think the world of Bill, but I see you here a lot more than I see Bill, and it seems like you’d be the one that would know more about it than he would, more about the Brown County Jamboree, at any rate.

BM: Well, I’ve done a lot of work here.  He stays pretty close to it.  [TA: Has he done a lot of work around here too?]  Quite a bit. We--   Naturally I’ve done a lot of work, cleaning up, and cleaning fields off, and cleaning thickets out, but he’s done a lot here too.  We never can get it all done, hardly, it seems like, you know.  You get one job done, well, you see something else that needs to be done too.  So--   What our idea is, is to make the people feel at home and to please the people.  With shows, and with our way of doing things, you know.

TA: It’s like a homecoming atmosphere here.

BM: That’s right! People come from a long ways here, you know.  Somebody told me during the festival here, they said they drove from the state of Washington, and I don’t know how long they had been on the road, but they drove all the way.  And last year [1976] we had people here at the festival from ten different foreign countries, the last count I had of it.  France, and England, Japan, Germany, Holland--   So many of them countries.  There was some people here from Alaska!  They didn’t mind travelin’, did they?

TA: Not a bit.  Which is your favorite, do you like the festival better, or the Sunday shows?

BM: Naturally, the festivals are more interesting.   There’s so many people here, you know, and friends try to come for big shows like that, you know.  People from around down in Kentucky and Tennessee, where we’ve been so much, you know.  People that’s knowed us for a long time.

TA: One last thing: did you ever really use that sound booth, or uh--  I mean, I know there’s a PA in it now, but did you ever run that with a--   Was it used for radio shows, or was there a sound man in there?

BM: It was used for radio shows, but they had a sound man come with ‘em, you know, take care of the microphones and the sound.  I wish we could get ‘em back down here, to--   Not this year, but when it opens again next spring, to have ‘em--   Somebody like that with us, to help us advertise.   It would mean a lot.

TA: I would think radio stations would jump at the chance.

BM: Well, they, I’m sure, would go with us, but they’ve got a lot of expense, you know, and you know what them--  Their engineers cost ‘em.   The people that come here to put on a program, to pipe it on back through their station, you know.  

TA: I guess it would be very expensive.  When is the closing for the season?

BM: The closing is the first weekend in November.  I’m gonna have three days of it, that last weekend, and the weekend before, the last Sunday in October is the Old Fiddler’s Contest, you know.  And next weekend’ll be the closing.  And Bill and his boys, and James and his boys, and three or four more big acts, you know.  And Bill says he’s going to have something new here this time, that he hasn’t had before.  So I don’t know what it’ll be.  He’s gonna have some new entertainment.

TA: Bill’s really tried a lot of different things for entertainment through the years.  He used to have a baseball team?

BM: Yeah, when I used to book for him, book his shows, he had a baseball team.  I booked that baseball team a lot of places.

TA: What was the name of the team?

BM: Uh, Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Baseball Team.  We used to book ‘em in Virginia, Carolina, and Kentucky.  [Who’d they play?]  They’d play the team of their town, you know.  And some of them ball teams was pretty good,  you know.  Bill had a good team, though, he had Stringbeans, and--  He had some regular baseball players, you know, some boys that could play baseball.  [Did Bill play ball himself, a lot?]  He liked to play it, but he didn’t play on the team.  [How about you?]  I used to play, but I never played on that team, that was past my peak, you know.  Baseball is for young people!  I could [play baseball] too, but it wouldn’t be what I used to could do.

I booked Bill in Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, booked him in all them states.  But he had his tent show then, you know, Grand Ole Opry tent show.  [Who would set up that tent?]  Well he had a regular tent crew, yeah, had a regular crew. 

TA: I sure would like to have seen a Bill Monroe tent show some time. . .

BM: They had big crowds, wonderful crowds, you know.  But they didn’t charge  like people do now, you know.  Admission wasn’t so much, and the average country person, man or woman, could afford it, you know.  Now, a lot of them shows has got an awful high price.  I know I wouldn’t want to pay ten or fifteen dollars for a ticket, to see a show.   You can see a good show here for just a small part of what you’d have to pay down there [at the Little Nashville Opry, in Nashville, Ind.].

TA: And to tell the truth, I really like coming out to the old barn, you know.  Like I said, it’s like coming home again. 

BM: We’re going to try to have some good shows the rest of the season.  Next Sunday it’s Joe Edwards and Kirk McGee, you know.  And then the next Sunday, we’ve got to book that show.  And then the fiddler’s contest will be coming up the last Sunday…   Got about two shows we have to book, and we’ll try to get real good talent.

TA: One other thing--  I keep thinking of things about the barn-- I know it’s got electricity in it, and electric lights and everything.  Did Mr. Rund put that in?

BM: Yeah, electricity was here when we come.  [But no water?]  Well, they had a well out back, you know, that well back there by the barn.  But we put city water in, you know.

TA: Well, that’s the main things I wanted to find out--  When it was built, and how it has changed.

BM: Well, it’s really been built--  We’ve had it 26 years, you know, or 27--  And it had been here 10 or 12 years when we got it, I guess. 

TA: It’s really a landmark now…

[end]