Bill Monroe cowrote “Cheap Love Affair” with Chuck Carson, and recorded it during the fertile Decca sessions of April 1962. The track includes Bill Monroe (vocals, mandolin), Horace "Benny" Williams, Harold "Red" Stanley (fiddle), Frank Buchanan (guitar), Tony Ellis (banjo), and Bessie Lee Mauldin (bass). In the key of B, Monroe’s brief solo covers just half of a verse, and starts with a series of staccato 1/8th-note triplets accentuating downbeats played over the chord changes, an approach reminiscent of black country-blues stylings. These lines are played primarily with downstrokes. In the second half of his break, Monroe incorporates tremolo and uses phrases that more closely resemble the vocal.
