Despite early reports teasing something far more contentious, most sources paint the March 11, 1969, split of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs Foggy Mountain Boys as a case of creative differences. And while it’s hard to spin the breakup of a legendary act as a completely positive development, there are certainly reasons to be thankful that Flatt and Scruggs parted ways.
Throughout their 20-plus-year partnership, Flatt and Scruggs took former boss Bill Monroe’s creation, bluegrass music, to a global audience. Flatt’s guitar-picking and vocal delivery and Scruggs’ innovative banjo skills won over a broad radio and television following through their longstanding relationship with their sponsor, Martha White Flour. Their widespread fan base grew even larger thanks to The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the
Fifty-two years ago today (March 11, 1969) was a sad day for Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs: It was on that date that the men, together known as the bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs, split up, ending a musical partnership that spanned 25 years.
Flatt and Scruggs first began playing together in 1945, as part of another band, but in 1948, they launched out on their own, along with their band, known as the Foggy Mountain Boys. The duo remained a mainstay on the charts for the next several years, with hits such as Tis Sweet to Be Remembered and The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the latter of which was the theme song for the TV show
Back in the Day: Granny ordered photos of Grand Ole Opry stars
Janie Mae Jones McKinley
Imagine living in a time when a battery-operated radio was considered to be high-tech in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Music, news, and comedy could be transmitted through the air to my grandparents’ living room on secluded Bear Mountain. They eagerly listened to local stations, and to those powerful enough to be heard at night.
Even with a clothesline-type antenna wire stretched to a post in the cornfield, radios primarily picked up local, daytime frequencies. Most people didn’t understand the effects of the ionosphere’s reflection of radio waves back to earth after the sun went down. So, mountain folks considered nighttime banjo music from distant states to be an added bonus of owning a radio.
Twenty years ago today (Feb. 9, 2001), the soundtrack for
O Brother, Where Art Thou? earned gold certification, for sales of 500,000 units. The album, which was produced by T Bone Burnett, includes songs by Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley, the Fairfield Four and others.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on the story of three men who escaped from a chain gang while imprisoned during the Great Depression in 1937, and music is prominently featured, and plays an important role, throughout the movie. The blockbuster film, which was released in 2000, boasts an all-star cast, including George Clooney, John Goodman, Holly Hunter and John Turturro; its 19-song soundtrack, filled with bluegrass, country, gospel and folk tunes, was released in the United States two weeks before the movie hit theaters.
Merle Haggard Played a Musician in a 1976 Episode of The Waltons
Acting gigs for
Merle Haggard, a country music legend and key cog in the Bakersfield Sound, range from an appearance alongside then-wife
Killers Three (1968) to a role in
Wag the Dog (1997). Yet those big screen appearances probably impress country folks less than Haggard s trip to
Haggard plays country singer Red Turner in
The Waltons season five episode The Comeback, which debuted on October 7, 1976. The Turner character first appeared in season two s The Gift and was originally portrayed by Ken Swofford. In The Comeback, Turner s still reeling from the death of his son, who d been played in The Gift by another favorite of classic country fans,