Often, as I return from playing my favorite Bluegrass tunes throughout Door County, Wisconsin, I stretch out in my comfortable old easy chair and let my mind wander. It's amazing how fast the years have passed by. It seems like only yesterday that Jerry was calling me to twist my arm so that I would play at his first festival at Manitowish Waters.

He didn't have to twist very hard!

Now our 12th annual festival is just months away. I think back to the 6th Annual Bluegrass in the Northwoods Bluegrass Festival and I still can feel that nervous shiver that went through me when I heard Bill Monroe call "Bill Jorgenson, where's Bill? Come on up and sing with me."

Like most performers I had made the pilgrimage to Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Festival several times. I have pictures of Bill with me and my daughter Jenny. I had talked to Bill a number of times but I had never actually sung with him. I wasn't in his league.

Cozy Cove was buzzing with excitement as Bill Monroe's bus arrived at the festival. Jerry, the festival owner, had a special place in amongst the tall pine trees for the bus to park. My job was to chauffeur Bill from the bus to the stage and see to his wishes. The stage at Manitowish Waters is outside, nestled among the fragrant pine trees that ring the Cozy Cove property. One side affect of my job was that I got a chance to see Bill's Gibson F-5 mandolin up close. I didn't really touch it mind you, just kind of looked at this beautiful instrument and found the Lloyd Lohr inspection stamp. My friend Frank Wakefield has an F-5 that is made out of the same exact log. I believe there were three made from that log, all created by Lloyd, all beauties.

After I had made sure Bill had everything he needed I moved out into the audience and found my favorite tree stump to sit on and leaned back to enjoy the performance. Part way through the show a voice rang out. "Where's Bill Jorgenson? Where are you Bill? At first I didn't even move. "But Bill Monroe persisted, "Come on up and sing a song Bill", he called.

Well, my mouth went dry as two of my friends pulled me off the stump and pushed me to get on up on the stage. I didn't even have my guitar, it was back in the cabin. As I walked up on the stage one of the boys in the band offered me his guitar but I didn't feel right taking it. There I was about to sing with the Biggest star in Bluegrass Music! "What you going to sing?" asked Bill. I quickly named off a couple of songs, "Nope" he said. "My mind was going blank and I just blurted out Silver Haired Daddy of Mine.

"Let's do it," he said, so we did.
Bill Monroe 2nd from right, Bill Jorgensen extreme right

While my friends say it sounded good, to this day, I can't tell you how it really went. As I left the stage Bill called out "There goes the Father of Wisconsin Bluegrass, Bill Jorgenson". Mighty nice of him, he didn't have to say that.

A month later Bobbie Smith called me up and asked me to come down and do a few songs on his show and he told me Bill Monroe wanted me to sing with him on his. I had committed to play at a 50th wedding anniversary so I had to turn it down. I thought we would reschedule but time and fate are strange bedfellows. Within a year Bill had passed on and we never got to put those tunes on tape. The next year at Manitowish Waters Dallas Smith gave Bill Monroe's hat to Jerry. Dallas used to get called over to Bill house to help with walking the fences or some other odd job. Usually Bill just wanted to talk. One hot day as they were looking for a break in the fence where the cows had gotten out Bill offered Dallas his hat to keep the sun off. Dallas said that later as he was leaving Bill said, "You keep that hat!" It was too large for Dallas so he didn't wear it just kept it safe.

As we were leaving the festival that year, Jerry said, "Here Bill you should have this hat. I think Bill Monroe would want you to have it." So I have Bill Monroe's hat. The inscription inside reads "Custom made for Bill Monroe by the Bluegrass Boys".

I have pictures of the hat up on my web site at http://www.bjorgensonbluegrass.com if you'd like to see it. Or if you're ever in Door County stop by. Jerry is talking about starting a Bluegrass Museum up at Cozy Cove in Manitowish Waters, and if he does I think I'll let that be the resting-place of Bill Monroe's Hat.

Click to hear Bill Jorgenson's CD's

This was part two of a three part series on Bill Jorgenson, The Father of Wisconsin Bluegrass.

The first part entitled Bill Jorgenson a Wisconsin Treasure is available for re-publication by contacting Rob Billings at rbillings@new.rr.com.

The third part called Amberlee tells the story of how Kenny Baker made up this original song (Amberlee). Kenny, Frank Wakefield, Josh Graves and Bill Jorgenson played it live right on stage, at Manitowish Waters. The article will be available in March 2001.

5th April 2001