The Monroe Brothers (Charlie and Bill) began playing radio stations around the Carolinas and Georgia in '34 where they were heard by A&R man Eli Oberstein, who then signed them to Victor. After recording sixty songs, including "What Would You Give In Exchange," and enduring about the same number of fist fights, the Brothers broke up in '38.

Bill convened the first Blue Grass Boys in '39, which recorded with Frank Walker for Victor's Bluebird imprint, including classics "Mule Skinner Blues" and Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel No. 7." After the war, Monroe and a new Blue Grass Boys were signed to Columbia by Art Satherley.

"Uncle Art" Satherley (1889-1986) was, with Ralph Peer and Frank Walker, among the pioneers of the country music industry. Born in Bristol, England, Satherley came to the U.S. in '13 and worked for the Wisconsin Chair Company making Edison phonograph cabinets. The same company owned the Paramount race label in Chicago, where Satherley moved into promotion behind Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, and other blues greats.

By the late-20s he was with the ARC label where he produced Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Roy Acuff, Hank Penny, Hoosier Hot Shots, Floyd Tillman, and many others, moving to Columbia in '38 when it merged with ARC. In '45 he signed Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys.

After recording "Blue Grass Special" in '45, the first version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in '46, the band hit their rip-roaring peak with "Blue Grass Breakdown" in '47, the most important instrumental in bluegrass history.

Flatt and Scruggs' more-famous "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was clearly derived from this: Flatt with his signature bass-G runs at the end of each "verse," Scruggs rolling his magical three-finger banjo style, while Monroe busted out tasty licks on the mandolin, all at a careening pace that cornered on two wheels threatening to tip at any moment. It never tipped and it's never been topped.