- Birth of Bluegrass, Vol. 1 · 1959
- Foggy Mountain Banjo · 1949
- Town and Country · 1965
- Foggy Mountain Jamboree (Expanded Edition) [Bonus Tracks] · 1949
- Birth of Bluegrass, Vol. 1 · 1963
- 16 Biggest Hits · 1962
- Foggy Mountain Jamboree (Expanded Edition) [Bonus Tracks] · 1949
- The Essential · 1951
- Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs · 1965
- Bluegrass Gospel · 1996
- Foggy Mountain Jamboree (Expanded Edition) [Bonus Tracks] · 1949
- Foggy Mountain Jamboree (Expanded Edition) [Bonus Tracks] · 1957
- The Essential · 1949
Essential Albums
- There’s little you need to know about bluegrass that can’t be gleaned from digging into this album. Guitar god Lester Flatt and banjo hero Earl Scruggs earned their stripes in bluegrass originator Bill Monroe’s band, but this 1964 outing shows why they made history on their own. They don’t need breakneck tempos to show off their chops; whether they’re tackling a folk-flavored Carter Family classic (“Hello Stranger”) or a self-penned country gospel hymn (“I’m Walking With Him”), their unhurried instrumental mastery flows from every track.
- By the time Flatt & Scruggs released Foggy Mountain Banjo in 1961, the band had already been at it for over a decade, shepherding hillbilly music—or bluegrass, as it had come to be called—into something like the mainstream, guesting regularly on nationally syndicated media and joining folk festivals aimed at audiences looking to recover something “real.” Decades later, the music here retains an intensity more germane to punk than anything else, driven by thumping bass, searing fiddle, and the breathless picking of banjo player Earl Scruggs, who seems to have been given more fingers than most. Down-home as they were, there are times—“Cumberland Gap,” “Lonesome Road Blues,” “Bugle Call Rag”—when the band appears to wheel up and leave the ground.
- 1970
About Flatt & Scruggs
Guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's band in the mid-'40s, and helped create Monroe's signature sound, emphasizing a blend of down-home roots and breathtaking technical facility. Such was the pair's virtuosity that each had a banjo or guitar technique named after them. Flatt & Scruggs left Monroe's band in 1948 and started their own group, which proved to be a huge success, and did as much as Monroe's group to put bluegrass on the map outside the traditional country audience. The pair went their separate ways in 1969, after having spawned a whole new generation of disciples via the '60s folk boom. Flatt died in 1979, but Scruggs continued performing to much acclaim into the 21st century.
- FROM
- United States of America
- FORMED
- 1948
- GENRE
- Country