“Dear Old Dixie” is a Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs co-composition, written and recorded by Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys at WNOX in Knoxville. The tune was recorded on November 2, 1952, and released as a single on Mercury Records on June 16, 1953, paired with “If I Should Wander Back Tonight.”
“Dear Old Dixie” is one of the early Foggy Mountain Boys instrumental signatures — a banjo showcase that demonstrates the three-finger Scruggs technique at full force. The Mercury-era recordings of 1952–1953 captured the band in particularly sharp form, with Flatt’s confident rhythm guitar, Scruggs’s banjo work in full command of his rolling style, and the ensemble locked into the tight sound that would carry the band’s reputation through the next decade.
Like most of the Foggy Mountain Boys’ early instrumentals, “Dear Old Dixie” became a standard in the bluegrass repertoire and a regular feature at jam sessions. The tune sits alongside “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” “Earl’s Breakdown,” and “Flint Hill Special” as part of the small set of Scruggs-era banjo instrumentals that effectively defined what bluegrass banjo playing meant for the next generation. It has been covered by virtually every bluegrass act with a banjo player since.