Hard Travelin' featuring The Ballad of Jed Clampett captures Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys at an unexpected commercial crossroads. The title track, the theme song for the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies, became one of the best-selling bluegrass records of the era when it reached the country charts in late 1962, exposing the band to millions of viewers who had never encountered the genre. The album surrounds that novelty hit with characteristic Foggy Mountain fare, including a hard-charging take on the disaster ballad "Wreck of the Old 97." Scruggs's three-finger banjo work and Flatt's relaxed, authoritative lead vocals remain the musical core throughout. The record illustrates both the popular reach bluegrass could achieve at its commercial peak and the ease with which Flatt and Scruggs moved between mainstream visibility and the traditional material at the heart of their catalog.
Tracklist
- 1 Hard Travelin' (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 2:41
- 2 Dixie Home (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 2:26
- 3 Wreck of the Old 97 Source Recording 2:30
- 4 Over the Hill to the Poor House (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 3:19
- 5 Drowned in the Deep Blue Sea (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 2:21
- 6 Coal Miner’s Blues alt version 2:31
- 7 Pastures of Plenty alt version 2:37
- 8 The Ballad of Jed Clampett Source Recording 2:03
- 9 My Native Home (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 2:14
- 10 When I Left East Virginia (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 3:48
- 11 99 Years Is Almost for Life (with The Foggy Mountain Boys) 3:26
- 12 Bound to Ride alt version 1:45
- 13 Bound to Ride alt version
