Flatt & Scruggs - Biography
By J Poet
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs with their band The Foggy Mountain Boys did more to make bluegrass popular than any other act in the genre, due in part to three tremendously lucky breaks – performing the theme song of The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), appearing as themselves on Petticoat Junction (1963) and providing music for the soundtrack of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) –that exposed bluegrass to the mainstream pop market. “Ballad of Jed Clampett” became the first bluegrass song to hit #1 on the country charts, crossed over to pop and was nominated for a Best Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy. “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” from the Bonnie and Clyde Soundtrack won the Best Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy in 1967. During the folk revival of the 1960s, they also played Carnegie Hall and countless college concerts in the Northeastern and Western United Stares, the first bluegrass band to do so; they were also the first bluegrass band to tour Asia. The college concerts created a huge new market for bluegrass music and spawned generations of city bred pickers. During the folk boom of the 60s, they added studio musicians on drums, harmonica and other instruments to their recordings outraging purists, but further expanding their fan base. In 1968, Scrugg’s book Earl Scruggs and the Five String Banjo, a how-to play-banjo manual was published and sold over a million copies in the next five years. Scruggs, intent on pursuing a more progressive style of music, broke up the band in 1969 to perform with his sons Randy, Gary, and Steve in The Earl Scruggs Revue. He still does select dates and performs regularly on the Grand Ole Opry. After the split, Flatt formed The Nashville Grass with the rest of the Foggy Mountain Boys and played with them until his death in 1979. Flatt and Scruggs were inducted into SPBGMA’s Preservation Hall of Fame in 1985, the same year they became members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991, they were the first inductees into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor, along with Bill Monroe. Earl Scruggs received the 1992 Medal of the Arts from President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Scruggs won a Lifetime Achievement Gammy in 2008.
With the possible exception of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs did more than anyone to create the sound of bluegrass. His style of banjo picking, using three fingers, had been around before he came along, but he perfected it with his lightening fast runs and smooth, syncopated counter melodies. Scruggs was born in 1924 into a musical family. His brothers and sister played guitar, Autoharp, banjo and fiddle. He picked up the guitar when he was five, playing in the style of Mother Maybelle Carter, but his sister’s musical partner Smith Hammett got him interested in banjo. By the time he was a teenager he was picking banjo at local dances in a duo with his brother Horace. In 1939 he joined The Morris Brothers - Zeke on mandolin, Wiley and George on guitar. He left them to help take care of his widowed mother. In 1945 he joined Lost John Miller and the Allied Kentuckians, who had a radio show on WSM, home of the Grand Ole Opry. In December of 1945, Bill Monroe came calling, looking for a banjo player to replace Dave “Stringbean” Akeman. Lester Flatt was already in the band playing guitar and singing high harmonies with Monroe.
Before starting the Foggy Mountain Boys, Lester Flatt’s rhythm guitar playing and bass runs formed the rhythmic backbone of Bill Monoe’s Bluegrass Boys. Lester Flatt was born in 1914 into a family of pickers. His father tried to teach him banjo, but he preferred guitar and by seven was playing and singing in church. He married early and sang in a duo with his wife Gladys, while working days in various textile mills. In 1940, Clyde Moody, who had a show on WBBB in Burlington, hired him. In 1943, he was playing mandolin and singing high harmonies with Bill Monroe’s brother Charlie in Charlie Monroe’s Kentucky Pardners. In early 1945 Bill Monroe hired Flatt for his Bluegrass Boys as lead singer and rhythm guitarist. Right after Scruggs joined the Bluegrass Boys in December they played the Grand Ole Opry and immediately became crowd favorites.
Both Flatt and Scruggs disliked touring, and despite being part of one of the hottest bands in country music, they quit the Bluegrass Boys in early 1948. Still, the reality of going back to work in the mills didn’t appeal to either man. In late 1948 Flatt spent his life savings on a PA system and new car and within three weeks they were back on the road with The Foggy Mountain Boys, named after the Carter Family song “Foggy Mountain Top.” In April of 1948 they got a limited run show on station WCYB in Bristol, VA. They were so popular the station extended the show for almost two years. In 1948 they also signed with Mercury records. Their sessions there were later put on 12 inch LPs as Country Music (1958 Mercury) and Flatt & Scruggs with The Foggy Mountain Boys (1960 Mercury.)
In 1948 Scruggs married Louise Certain, who became the band’s business manager and booking agent. In the early 50s the Foggy Mountain Boys had radio shows on various stations throughout the south including WVLK in Versailles, KY; WOAY in Oak Hill, WV; WPTF in Raleigh, NC, WSVS in Crew, VA and WNOX in Knoxville, KY. In 1953 Martha White Flour sponsored an early morning show with Flatt & Scruggs on WSM, Nashville. The show continued until their breakup; when they were on the road or working at other radio stations the band sent in the shows in on audio tape. In 55 Flatt and Scruggs started their own syndicated TV show and joined the Grand Ole Opry.
The Foggy Mountain Boys moved to Columbia Records in 1950. As LPs overtook 78 RPM records as the format of choice, they recorded one of the first country albums Foggy Mountain Jamboree (1957 Columbia.) In 1959 they appeared at the first Newport Folk Festival and became stars on the folk music circuit; they were also the first bluegrass band to book dates outside the south. They did their first college “folk music” concerts in 1961 to capitalize on Foggy Mountain Banjo (1961 Columbia) and Songs of the Famous Carter Family (1961 Columbia.) In 1962 they became the first bluegrass band to play Carnegie Hall. Later that year the “Ballad of Jed Clampett” became the first (and so far, only) bluegrass tune to top the country charts; the tune was nominated for a Grammy. They celebrated with Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall (1963 Columbia) and Hard Travelin’ (1963 Columbia.)
In 1967 the Bonnie and Clyde Soundtrack (1967 Warners) included the original version of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” recorded for Mercury in 1950. The song won Flatt and Scruggs their only Grammy. Between 67 and 69 the band continued touring and recorded Strictly Instrumental (1967 Columbia) with Doc Watson, Changing Times (1968 Columbia) which included material by Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Story of Bonnie and Clyde (1968 Columbia) and Nashville Airplane (1968 Columbia) another folky/singer/songwriter collection. In early 1969 they decided to go their separate ways; Columbia gave them a substantial bonus to cut one last album, Final Fling (1969 Columbia.)
Scruggs went on to create The Earl Scruggs Revue with his sons Randy, Gary, and Steve. In 1973, he wrote the bluegrass score for Where the Lilies Bloom, a movie about life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Flatt formed The Nashville Grass with the rest of the Foggy Mountain Boys and played with them until his death in 1979. Dozens of anthologies of the band’s best recordings are available including: Complete Mercury Sessions (1993 Mercury), On Foggy Mountain (1993 Columbia), and a double CD set The Essential Flatt and Scruggs: ‘Tis Sweet to Be Remembered (1997 Columbia.)
