Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers
The Cabin in the Hills of Caroline
Pickin’ and Singin’ (1975) Bluegrass Discography
“My Cabin in Caroline” was written by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and recorded by Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys in November 1948, just months after the duo had departed Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys to start their own band. The recording was released on April 10, 1949, on Mercury Records, paired with “We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart” as the B-side.
The song is one of the foundational documents of the Foggy Mountain Boys catalog — cut during the same Mercury Records relationship that produced “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and other early Flatt & Scruggs classics. Its homesick lyrical premise (a lover left behind in a cabin in Carolina, the singer making his way back) sits in the same mountain-home tradition that runs through “Blue Ridge Cabin Home” and the broader bluegrass repertoire.
“My Cabin in Caroline” became a Foggy Mountain Boys signature and remains a regular feature in bluegrass-vocal sets, particularly at sets that lean toward the early Flatt & Scruggs idiom. It has been recorded by the Osborne Brothers and many others since, and the Mercury-era arrangement remains the canonical reference.
