Knee Deep in Blue Grass was the first studio album for Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, released under the Decca label in 1958. Bill Monroe is known as the "Father of Bluegrass" and was born in Rosine, Kentucky. This re-imagining of the album cover was done for Thirty Three and a Third and a Third, 333: the Half Mark of the Beast, a curated show at Gallery 1988.
I featured the text from the original, including the track listing, album number, and Decca logo.
Original cover, 1958
I utilized the fence and horse element from the original cover, adding hand-designed text for the album title. Here you can see my photoshop sketch of the text. I took this into Illustrator for finishing.
Bill Monroe's Gibson mandolin plays a prominent role and I painstakingly labored to add relevant aging and even the rawhide strap.
The colors for this piece were taken, of all places, from an episode of Ghost Adventures in the ghost mining town of Bannack in Montana. I loved the worn denim blue and mossy greens.
