Flatt & Scruggs

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left Bill Monroe's band in 1948 and formed one of the best-known acts in bluegrass. Their music reached a wide audience through film and television themes.

History

Flatt and Scruggs both played in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys from 1945 to 1948. Early in 1948 they left, and within a few months had formed their own band, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Members over the years included fiddler Paul Warren, dobro player Josh Graves, bassist Jake Tullock and mandolinist Curly Seckler. They recorded for Mercury and then Columbia, joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1955, and their Martha White jingle is still used in advertising today.

The duo split in 1969: Scruggs wanted to explore newer material, while Flatt was a traditionalist. Flatt went on to lead the Nashville Grass and Scruggs the Earl Scruggs Revue. Flatt died in 1979 and Scruggs in 2012. They were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985.

Songs to know

• "Foggy Mountain Breakdown": the instrumental first released in 1949, later used in the film Bonnie and Clyde, and a two-time Grammy winner
• "The Ballad of Jed Clampett": the theme of The Beverly Hillbillies, their only No. 1 country hit (January 1963)
• "Petticoat Junction": another TV theme

Selected albums

Learn the instrument Scruggs made famous with our banjo guide.