Editing Lester Flatt (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt.jpg|thumb|left|Lester Flatt (right) with [[Earl Scruggs]] (left) as part of [[Flatt and Scruggs]] in 1949]]
Flatt was born in Duncan's Chapel, [[Overton County, Tennessee]], United States,<ref name=browne>{{cite book |editor1-last=Browne |editor1-first=Ray B. |editor2-last=Browne |editor2-first=Pat |url={{Google books|U3rJxPYT32MC|page=284|plainurl=yes}} |chapter=Flatt and Scruggs |title=The Guide to United States Popular Culture |publisher=[[Popular Press]] |year=2001 |page=284 |isbn=978-0879728212}}</ref> to Nannie Mae Haney and Isaac Columbus Flatt. In 1943, he played [[mandolin]] and sang [[tenor]] in The Kentucky Pardners, the band of [[Bill Monroe]]'s older brother [[Charlie Monroe|Charlie]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flatt-and-scruggs.com/lesterbio.html |title=Biography: Lester Flatt |website=Flatt-and-scruggs.com |access-date=June 6, 2020}}</ref> He first came to prominence as a member of [[Bill Monroe]]'s Blue Grass Boys in 1945 and played a thumb-and-index guitar style that was in part derived from the playing of Charlie Monroe and Clyde Moody. In 1948, he started a band with fellow Monroe alumnus [[Earl Scruggs]], and for the next 20 years, [[Flatt and Scruggs]] and the Foggy Mountain Boys were one of the most successful bands in bluegrass.<ref name=ecm>{{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Neil V. |year=1998 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLZz02EzmBYC&pg=PT504 |chapter=Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys |title=The Encyclopedia of Country Music |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=173–4 |isbn=978-0195395631}}</ref> When they parted ways in 1969, Flatt formed a new group, the [[Nashville Grass]], hiring many of the Foggy Mountain Boys. He continued to record and perform with that group until his death in 1979.<ref name=ecm2>{{cite book |last=Samuelson |first=Dave |year=1998 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLZz02EzmBYC&pg=PT504 |chapter=Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass |title= The Encyclopedia of Country Music |editor-first=Paul |editor-last=Kingsbury |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=173 |isbn=978-0195395631}}</ref> His role as rhythm guitarist and vocalist in each of these seminal ensembles helped define the sound of traditional bluegrass music. His solid guitar playing and rich lead voice are unmistakable in hundreds of bluegrass standards. He is also remembered for his library of compositions.