BILL MONROE STAYS TRUE TO HIS ROOTS

Lots of new generation country musicians talk about their cultural roots, but not pioneering songwriter-singer-mandolinist Bill Monroe. Nearly a half century after being dubbed “the Father of Bluegrass” for his inestimable role in defining and popularizing that strain of country music, Monroe doesn’t have to reminisce about his roots: He’s still living them.

“I’m sorry I had to call collect, but I’m broke,” Monroe, 75, said unapologetically at the outset of a telephone interview earlier this week from Santa Cruz, where he was performing during a West Coast tour that includes a Southland stop Sunday at Pacific Amphitheatre in Irvine.

“I have a big farm up near Sumner County (in northern Tennessee) and I raise horses, cattle and dogs. That’s the reason I had to call collect: I spent all my money on feed,” Monroe said.

From his unflinchingly polite tone--every observation is preceded or followed by a respectful “Yes, sir,” or “No, sir”--it’s clear that Monroe has never gotten caught up in his status as a “living legend.”

In fact, he seemed equally interested in talking about moving his livestock for pasturing in the fall up to Beaver Dam, Ky., just five miles from where he was born in Rosine, Ky., into a farming family, as he was in discussing his considerable musical accomplishments.

Other songwriters might boast that one of their songs will be replacing American musical giant Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home” as the Bluegrass State’s official song in 1988. (Monroe’s frequently recorded “Blue Moon of Kentucky” will be the new anthem of his native state.)

But Monroe’s only comment was: “That makes me feel real good.”

Other songwriters might brag that one of their oldest songs still had life enough to be a No. 1 country record in the ‘80s, as Monroe’s autobiographical “Uncle Pen” was for Ricky Skaggs in 1986.

But Monroe humbly turns the tables and salutes one of his musical offspring: “That was fine. He did a good job with that. Ricky is a very talented young man.”

In recent years, Monroe has battled health problems that have caused him to curtail touring and cancel dates because of hospital stints. But now, he’s says he’s “feeling pretty good” and has resumed a remarkably heavy schedule of 150 to 200 concerts per year.

“I like to get out and travel, see my friends and fans all over the world. When I get to talk to them, it helps me a lot,” he said.

For several dates on his current tour, Monroe is part of a “Legends of Bluegrass” lineup with performers he’s collaborated with over the years including Mac Wiseman, Jim & Jesse and Ralph Stanley.

Those musicians, he said, are among the few who continue to play bluegrass “the way it should be played . . . the way I’ve kept mine. It’s good, clean, pure music; decent music. It belongs to America.”

Monroe is clearly delighted that bluegrass music still exists much the same as when it was born in the 1930s as a more rhythmically forceful and melodically inventive offshoot of country, emphasizing the instrumental interplay of mandolin, fiddle and banjo. But Monroe is less pleased about about the status of country music in general.

“It looks to me like the old time good country music is just about gone. The radio stations, they won’t play it any more. This other music they got coming along is really not country. No, sir, I really don’t know what to say on it any more. I wish the radio stations all over the United States would still play some gospel music. I think it’s a business thing . . . Some (musicians) are still singing the gospel, but it just seems like the record companies don’t want to share it and the radio stations don’t want to play it.”