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Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the United States Appalachian region. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Unlike mainstream country music, bluegrass is traditionally played on acoustic stringed instruments. Bluegrass has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes and in traditional African-American blues and jazz. Bluegrass was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Monroe characterized the genre as: "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Lester Raymond Flatt was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in The Foggy Mountain Boys.
Earl Eugene Scruggs was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from the traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been played. This new style of playing became popular and elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized the instrument across several genres of music.
"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a bluegrass instrumental, in the common "breakdown" format, written by Earl Scruggs and first recorded on December 11, 1949 by the bluegrass artists Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. It is a standard in the bluegrass repertoire. The 1949 recording features Scruggs playing a five-string banjo.
Benny Edward Martin, was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the eight-string fiddle. Throughout his musical career he performed with artists such as the Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno, the Smoky Mountain Boys and Flatt and Scruggs, and later performed and recorded with the Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown, Jimmy Martin, Johnnie and Jack, and the Stonemans, among others. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
James Henry Martin was an American bluegrass musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".
Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys was an American bluegrass band. The band was founded by guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs and is viewed by music historians as one of the premier bluegrass groups in the history of the genre. The band was originally formed in 1948 by Flatt, who had been a member of Bill Monroe's bluegrass band. Flatt brought Scruggs with him shortly after leaving Monroe.
The Nashville Grass was a bluegrass band founded by Lester Flatt in 1969, after the end of his partnership with Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Flatt hired most of the Foggy Mountain Boys for his new band.
Kenneth Clayton Baker was an American fiddle player best known for his 25-year tenure with Bill Monroe and his group The Blue Grass Boys.
The Great Dobro Sessions is a 1994 country music and bluegrass album featuring an all-star line-up of 10 American resonator guitar players, produced by dobro players Jerry Douglas and Tut Taylor.
Strictly Instrumental is the title of a recording by American folk music artists Doc Watson, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, released in 1967.
Chris Sharp is an American musician, guitarist, singer, and record producer who participated in the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou. He is considered to be an accomplished guitarist and has taken a special interest in advancing Lester Flatt's guitar style. Among other accomplishments, Chris has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award as a guitarist and producer and has won once. Bob Piekiel's seminal banjo instruction book describes Chris as "the cream of the crop." Willie Nelson also considers Chris to be among "the finest bluegrass guitar players in existence today.
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 5 - —Sweet Sunny South is a fifth album by bluegrass supergroup, Bluegrass Album Band, released in 1989. Violinist Vassar Clements is on this album replacing Bobby Hicks, and bass duties are taken over by Mark Schatz (instead of Todd Philips, who otherwise plays on all Bluegrass Album Band albums.
John Ray Sechler, known as Curly Seckler, was an American bluegrass musician. He played with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in their band the Foggy Mountain Boys from 1949 to 1962, among other major bluegrass acts during his lengthy career in music.
Jim Shumate was a fiddler that played with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys from 1943–1945. Shumate's main influences were Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, Curly Fox, and his uncle who played the fiddle while he was growing up. Shumate joined the band after Bill Monroe heard him playing on the radio station WHKY from downtown Hickory, North Carolina, and asked him to join the Blue Grass Boys. Howdy Forrester, who was Bill Monroe's fiddle player at the time, gave his notice and was going into the Navy. At age 20, Shumate became the fiddler for the Blue Grass Boys, and he sang bass on gospel songs. During this time, the Blue Grass Boys were also a baseball team, so they would arrive early to towns they were playing at and challenge the local baseball team. Unfortunately, there were no recordings made while Shumate was in the Blue Grass Boys.
Foggy Mountain Jamboree is an album by Flatt & Scruggs, released by Columbia Records in 1957.
Wilene "Sally Ann" Forrester, also known as Billie Forrester, was an American musician considered to be "the first woman in bluegrass", having been employed by Bill Monroe and his band, the Blue Grass Boys, from 1943 to 1946.
The Earls of Leicester is an American bluegrass group, assembled by Jerry Douglas in 2013 to present the music of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and their band the Foggy Mountain Boys to a contemporary audience. Their eponymous debut album earned a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2015.
The Fabulous Sound of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs is a studio album by bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. It was released in 1964 by Columbia Records.
Songs of the Famous Carter Family is a studio album by bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs featuring Mother Maybelle Carter and the Foggy Mountain Boys. It was released in 1961 by Columbia Records, catalog numbers CL 1664 (mono) and CS 8464 (stereo).
References
- ↑ Cundell, R. Guy S. (July 1, 2019). "Across the South: The origins and development of the steel guitar in western swing" (PDF). b0b.com. Adelaide, Australia: University of Adelaide. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
Discography of Blue Grass Sound Recordings, 1942-, Ibiblio catalog, accessed October 22, 2020, https://www.ibiblio.org/catalog/items/show/3583.
Goldsmith, Thomas. The Bluegrass Reader. 2006. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Graves, J., Bartenstein, F., & Rosenberg, N. (2012). Bluegrass Bluesman: A Memoir (Music in American Life) (1st ed.). University of Illinois Press.
Rosenberg, Neil V. Bluegrass: A History. 2005. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
