Uncle Pen’s Cabin Replicated and Open To The Public

Uncle Pen’s Cabin –Just opened to the public this week and already it is listed on the Kentucky tourism webpage.  That’s how popular anything connected to Bill Monroe is in Kentucky.

This rustic mini-museum will take you back to the roots of Bluegrass Music. Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass Music,lived and played music here with his Uncle Pendleton Vandiver. Uncle Pen was one of Kentucky's finest fiddle players.

Well it is rustic, but it won’t quite be a mini-museum until this coming summer according to James Monroe, son Bill Monroe and grand nephew of the cabin’s original owner James Pendleton Vandivir.

Vandivir was Bill Monroe’s  uncle immortalized in the song “Uncle Pen.”  Monroe used to hear his uncle playing fiddle on the hilltop where he lived, while Monroe put away his mules at night.  He later said that Vandiver was "the fellow that I learned how to play from."  Vandiver played fiddle at local square dances and social events, and his nephew backed him up, playing mandolin.