Flatt and Scruggs

Leaving Monroe

Lester Raymond Flatt was born on June 19, 1914 at Duncan's Chapel, Overton County, Tennessee, and Earl Eugene Scruggs on June 6, 1924 in Cleveland County, North Carolina. Flatt began a radio career in 1939 and in 1943 sang tenor and played guitar with Charlie Monroe's Kentucky Partners; in 1945 he and Scruggs were both in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. In early 1948 they left Monroe and formed the Foggy Mountain Boys that spring, taking the name from the Carter Family song "Foggy Mountain Top"; by the end of the year they were at WCYB in Bristol, Tennessee and recording for Mercury, though Alan Cackett's biography has them forming in Hickory, North Carolina.

In March 1949 the band moved to WROL in Knoxville, and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was recorded in 1949, released then or in 1950. Their first Columbia session, on November 21, 1950, produced "Come Back Darling", "Head Over Heels in Love with You" and "The Old Hometown", with Everett Lilly on mandolin and Chubby Wise on fiddle. In 1951 "Earl's Breakdown" introduced Scruggs's tuning device, which bends the second and third strings.

The Opry, Jed Clampett and the split

Martha White Flour sponsored their early morning WSM shows from 1953, and they were admitted to the Grand Ole Opry in January 1955. The Foggy Mountain Boys by then included Jake Tullock on bass, Paul Warren on fiddle from 1954 and Josh Graves on Dobro from 1955, who shaped the band's definitive sound. Their first LP, Foggy Mountain Jamboree, came out in October 1957. Scruggs guested at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1959 and the group played it in 1960; they played Carnegie Hall on December 8, 1962, released as Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall!, which reached number seven on the country albums chart, and in 1964 recorded live at Vanderbilt University.

"The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the Beverly Hillbillies theme, reached number one on the country chart in January 1963, their only number one and the only bluegrass record to reach it; the studio singer Jerry Scoggins sang the television vocal. "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was used in Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 and won a Grammy in 1968. They played their last stage concert together in February 1969 and made their final Columbia sessions in August 1969, splitting over musical and business differences: Scruggs wanted a modern sound, including Bob Dylan songs and duets with King Curtis, while Flatt, a traditionalist, objected. Flatt formed the Nashville Grass and Scruggs the Earl Scruggs Revue with his sons Randy and Gary.

Flatt died on May 11, 1979 in Nashville, aged 64, and Scruggs on March 28, 2012, aged 88. Both entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985 and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 1991; the Hall of Fame says they did much to popularize bluegrass, and the genre name was taken from the band's. Scruggs's three-finger style shaped J. D. Crowe, Bill Keith and Bela Fleck. Foggy Mountain Jamboree entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012. Penny Parsons wrote Foggy Mountain Troubadour, and Banjoman (1975) documents a January 1973 tribute concert.