This is my submission for the Bill Monroe Centennial Art Exhibit at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. It measures 16 x 20 inches. My paper cutting was based upon the lyrics to Monroe’s song “The First Whippoorwill.”
From the museums website: “As a means of organically celebrating art-with-art, we are inviting visual artists to create a special Monroe Centennial Exhibit that will remain on display in this museum from June 23, 2010 through September 11, 2012 — a year before and after the 100th anniversary of Monroe’s birthday on September 13, 2011. Each artist will create a work of art based on and inspired by an original Monroe song. The exhibit will include song lyrics on a plaque beside each work of art. Recordings of Bill Monroe playing these songs will emanate throughout the Exhibit.”
Here are the lyrics to “The First Whippoorwill” by Bill Monroe:
Springtime is near, my darling
You say, that you are going away
My heart will be with you my darling
And I’m counting now the days
I know that soon I’ll have to travel
I know I’m over the hill
I feel so all alone, my darling said she’d be gone
When I heard that first whippoorwill
The flowers are blooming, little darling
With the budding of the trees
I hear the night birds a’crying
I know that they are warning me
I know that soon I’ll have to travel
I know I’m over the hill
I feel so all alone, my darling said she’d be gone
When I heard that first whippoorwill
Our love was planted, little darling
Just like the farmer plants his grain
But there will never be a harvest
On the hills the whippoorwill now sing
I know that soon I’ll have to travel
I know I’m over the hill
I feel so all alone, my darling said, she’d be gone
When I heard that first whippoorwill