Mark Hembree on Bill Monroe: book now published

Since last autumn, the BIB has mentioned a few times the coming publication of On the bus with Bill Monroe: my five-year ride with the Father of Blue Grass, the book on his personal experience of Bill Monroe by Mark Hembree, who played bass as a Blue Grass Boy from July 1979 to June 1984. The book has now been published (26 Apr.) by the University of Illinois Press at $110 in hardback, $19.95 in paperback, and $14.95 as an e-book. It is on Amazon.co.uk for £16.92 (plus postage) in paperback and £12.93 in Kindle; and from Book Depository at €17.81 (paperback; postage free).

Following Richard Thompson's recent feature on the book in Bluegrass Today, Henry Carrigan has contributed to the 'Reading Room' department of No Depression a useful review of it, including reflections from Hembree's own perspective on the factors affecting the writing of a memoir of this kind.

© Richard Hawkins