This is a story of love and struggle in 1876 America about a family nearly penniless traveling west on the Oregon trail in search of a better life like countless thousands of families who went before them. This is a story about the Leland family and how they interact with their fellow travelers and how they deal with and overcome the harsh realities of the Trail. The arguments and violent tempers within their group, the violence they are subjected to by others, and the insecurity they must live with after the massacre of the 7th Cavalry.

Elvis Presley chose one of his songs, "Blue Moon of Kentucky," for his first single. A young Jerry Garcia traveled cross-country to audition for his band. Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, and even Frank Sinatra were fans. Considering the range of stars and styles that claim him as an influence, no single artist has had as broad an impact on American popular music as Bill Monroe.

Born in 1911 in rural Kentucky, Monroe melded the fiddle tunes, ballads, and blues of his youth into the "high lonesome" sound known today as bluegrass, making him perhaps the only performer to create an entire musical genre. His distinctive bluegrass style profoundly influenced country, early rock 'n' roll, and the folk revival of the 1960s. A Grand Ole Opry star for more than sixty years, Monroe was a searing mandolinist who redefined the instrument, a haunting high-range vocalist, and a god-like figure to generations of admirers who became famous in their own right.

When Monroe died in 1996, he was universally acclaimed as "the Father of Bluegrass," but the personal life of this taciturn figure remained largely unknown. His childhood feelings of isolation and abandonment - "lonesomeness" he called it - fueled his reckless womanizing in adulthood and inspired his most powerful compositions. From his professional breakthrough in the Monroe Brothers duet act to his bitter rivalry with former sidemen Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to his final days as a revered elder statesman of bluegrass, Monroe's career was filled with trials and triumphs. Now, veteran bluegrass journalist Richard D. Smith has interviewed a multitude of Monroe's surviving friends, lovers, colleagues, and contemporaries to create a three-dimensional portrait of this brilliant, complex, and contradictory man. Compellingly narrated and thoroughly researched, Can't You Hear Me Callin' is the definitive biography of a true giant of American music.

This is a story of love and struggle in 1876 America about a family nearly penniless traveling west on the Oregon trail in search of a better life like countless thousands of families who went before them. This is a story about the Leland family and how they interact with their fellow travelers and how they deal with and overcome the harsh realities of the Trail. The arguments and violent tempers within their group, the violence they are subjected to by others, and the insecurity they must live with after the massacre of the 7th Cavalry.