“Will the Roses Bloom (Where She Lies Sleeping)” is credited to the Bevins Brothers on the Flatt & Scruggs record, and later releases name them as I. Bevins and J. Bevins. Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys recorded it on 20 October 1950 at radio station WDAE in Tampa, Florida. Flatt sang lead and played guitar, and Curly Seckler sang tenor and played mandolin. Scruggs played banjo, Benny Sims fiddle and Jody Rainwater bass. Mercury issued it nearly two years later, on 13 October 1952, as the B-side of “Preachin’, Prayin’, Singin’” (Mercury 70016). It later appeared on the 1959 Mercury album Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs with the Foggy Mountain Boys.
The song is a lament at a grave. The singer wonders whether roses will bloom, petals fall and dew settle where his darling lies buried. He recalls her lips, her eyes and her dark curly hair, and promises to love her for the rest of his life, knowing they have said their last goodbye.
Later bluegrass bands kept the Flatt & Scruggs side in circulation. Cliff Waldron recorded it on 28 May 1973 in Clinton, Maryland, with Dave Auldridge singing tenor, for Bluegrass Time (Rebel, 1973). Walter Hensley and the Dukes of Bluegrass included it on 3 Days from Home (Revonah, 1974). Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice recorded it as a duet, with Rice on guitar and Skaggs on mandolin, at Arch Street Studios in Berkeley for Skaggs & Rice (Sugar Hill, 1980). Paul Adkins (1986), the Ware Brothers (1992) and the Crowe Brothers (1999) recorded it later.
