Bluegrass Sunday featuring Flatt & Scruggs
We kicked off the first Bluegrass Sunday with Bill Monroe, so it is only fitting that we follow that feature up with Flatt & Scruggs. Bill Monroe described the music of the Appalachia mountains as “Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin’. It’s Methodist and holiness and Baptist. It’s blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound.” With the additions of Lester Flatt playing guitar and Earl Scruggs on banjo to his Blue Grass Boys, Monroe found that high lonesome sound which has set the standard for Bluegrass music.
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left the Blue Grass Boys in 1948 to form the Foggy Mountain Boys. Together they found the freedom to explore and expand mountain music into a more complex sound. Although Earl Scruggs is mostly known for his three-finger banjo-picking style, he was also a master finger-picking guitarist, and, when combined with the forces of Lester Flatt’s tenor vocals and rhythm guitar, the Foggy Mountain Boys are credited as pioneers of Bluegrass music.
The Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs Grand Ole Opry Show brought their music into living rooms across the country and exposed generations to bluegrass music. Sponsored by Martha White, the show featured original songs as well as old-time classics and, of course, a gospel song or two. The lineup included fiddler and breakdown master Paul Warren, Uncle Josh Graves on dobro, mandolinist Curly Seckler, and Cousin Jake Tullock on stand-up bass.
Happy Sunday, y’all, and for goodness sake go get your buttermilk, bacon-grease drippings, and Martha White Self-Rising Cornmeal mix and whip up some cornbread while you enjoy the classic video from Flatt and Scruggs appearing on the Grand Ole Opry.