Flatt & Scruggs

Also known as Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys
Band · Active 1948–1969 · Nashville, Tennessee
Traditional Bluegrass

Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys were the most commercially successful bluegrass act of the post-war era, the band that took the music beyond the bluegrass circuit and onto national television, Hollywood soundtracks, and the country charts. Lester Flatt's relaxed lead vocals and Earl Scruggs's three-finger banjo style defined the modern sound of the genre.

  • Formed in February 1948, weeks after Flatt and Scruggs left Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys; their early radio work was anchored at WCYB in Bristol, Tennessee, and on stations across the Carolinas and Virginia.
  • Recorded "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in December 1949, an instrumental that became the band's signature and, after its 1967 use in Bonnie and Clyde, the most widely heard banjo tune in American popular culture.
  • Joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 after WSM relented to pressure from Martha White Mills, the band's longtime sponsor.
  • "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," recorded for the 1962 premiere of The Beverly Hillbillies, became a #1 country hit and the only television theme song ever to top the country charts.
  • Signed with Mercury Records in 1948 and Columbia Records in 1950; their Columbia run produced classics including "Cabin on the Hill," "Crying Holy Unto the Lord," "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," and "I'll Go Stepping Too."
  • The classic Foggy Mountain Boys lineup included Curly Seckler on mandolin, Paul Warren on fiddle, and Josh Graves on Dobro — Graves's 1955 arrival made the resonator guitar a standard bluegrass voice.
  • Split in 1969 over musical direction — Flatt favored traditional material, Scruggs wanted to explore folk-rock and crossover. The pair went on to lead separate groups (Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass; the Earl Scruggs Revue) but never reunited as a band.
  • Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1985) and the IBMA Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class (1991); "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" won Grammy Awards in 1969 and 2002.

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