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Flatt & Scruggs

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FLATT & SCRUGGS (LESTER FLATT, EARL SCRUGGS AND THE FOGGY MOUNTAIN BOYS)

  • From Nashville.
  • Considered by many to be the most important bluegrass band in the history of the music, primarily because they perfected the Monroe sound and exposed it to bigger audiences than ever before. They brought bluegrass from the country schoolhouse to the big city—Carnegie Hall in New York City and San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium, to name a few.
  • Flatt and Scruggs were both members of the “original bluegrass band,” Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys (1945-1948).
  • They were members of the Grand Ole Opry for 20 years.
  • They worked together for roughly twenty-one years (1948-1969).
  • Their early work on Mercury and Columbia during the late 40’s and the 50’s are the considered the “essential bluegrass recordings”—the body of work upon which the entire genre is based. Their songs are classics and continue to be recorded and re-recorded by almost every bluegrass band.
  • 1953, began doing early morning radio shows on WSM (Nashville) sponsored by Marth White Flour, and remained as promoters of the company throughout their career. The Martha White Theme as performed by Flatt and Scruggs is heard on Grand Old Opry broadcasts to this day.
  • Rose to popular fame during the urban folk music revival of the early sixties. They performed at folk festivals and college campuses, helping to convert an entire new generation to bluegrass music.
  • Recorded the theme to the CBS-TV show “The Beverly Hillbillies” and made frequent guest appearances on the show.
  • 1966, their recording of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was used in the soundtrack for the movie “Bonnie and Clyde” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
  • The Foggy Mountain Boys took its name from the song that Flatt and Scruggs used as their theme—a Carter Family song called “Foggy Mountain Top.”
  • Broke up in 1969 due to disagreements regarding musical direction. Scruggs left to play progressive music with his sons in “The Earl Scruggs Revue,” and Flatt left to play traditional bluegrass with “The Nashville Grass.”
  • 1981, they were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
  • 1991, they were inducted individually into the IBMA’s Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, along with Bill Monroe. Several of their band members (the Foggy Mountain Boys) have also been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Curly Seckler, Josh Graves, Benny Martin, Chubby Wise and Paul Warren.
  • 2007, inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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