The Rosine Project

Bluegrass is the only form of music with origins that can be so directly traced to one country, one state, one town, one farm, one house, and one family...the Monroes. The unique and beautiful place where bluegrass music was born, Rosine, Kentucky, is assured to attract tourists to Kentucky far into the future. Its history and its genuine small-town charm will make its pull for tourists seeking to escape urban lifestyles even stronger as time moves on. We also think that, through The Monroe Brothers Foundation and The Rosine Project, the people who live in and around Rosine will feel a renewed sense of pride and a fellowship with this great Kentuckian and the part their home town played in nurturing his musical upbringing.

My name is Dr. Campbell Mercer and I am proud to tell you that I have been named the Executive Director of what is now being called The Rosine Project. I was recruited and appointed by the Ohio County Industrial Foundation. This is certainly a dream come true for me as Charlie, Bill and Birch Monroe were my heroes growing up. They had such an impact on my life that 19 years ago, when I graduated from college, they was an important factor in my decision to return to Kentucky. They influence me even today, as I produce Kentucky's national TV show, The Cumberland Highlander's Show, America's only regular Bluegrass Music TV show.

The Rosine project is an ambitious effort to spotlight the role that Monroe brothers and their home town have had in establishing this pure American art form. I will be supervising the restoration of Monroe's childhood home and farm, and Uncle Pen's cabin all in their original locations. I will take a leading role in the creation of The Monroe Brothers Museum, and the establishment of The Jerusalem Ridge Festival & Bluegrass Celebration as among the premier traditional bluegrass music festival in the U.S.

We plan to make a living history tour of the path they took to their Uncle Pen's home as they met to go play square dances, allowing bluegrass pilgrims to retrace their steps through the woods. Likewise, walking the path over Jerusalem Ridge, the way Bill and his dad did as they fox-hunted "high in the hills of old Kentucky," lets the visitor FEEL why the Monroe brothers were so urged to create this music that has painted so many mental landscapes of our beautiful state for so many years. ("Jerusalem Ridge" is now one of our most cherished musical works by Bill Monroe). Standing on the actual ridge twelve months ago created a memory and a rush of emotion in me that will be multiplied thousands of times in coming years as we share this magical place with the world.

Rebuilding the barn, replanting the corn field behind the Monroe home place, and providing wagon rides from the The Monroe Brothers Museum to the farm are just three of the ways a visit to Rosine would make this music come back to life and ignite personal memories in visitors' hearts. They'll love it for that alone.