Editing Earl Scruggs (section)

==Flatt and Scruggs==
In 1948, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs formed the duo [[Flatt and Scruggs]] and chose the name "the Foggy Mountain Boys" for their backing band. The name came from a song by the [[Carter Family]] called "Foggy Mountain Top" that the band used as a theme song at the time.<ref name="nytimes" /><ref name="fellowship" /> Flatt later acknowledged that they consciously tried to make their sound different from Monroe's group. In the spring of 1949, their second Mercury recording session yielded the classic "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", released on 78 RPM [[phonograph record]]s that were in use at the time.<ref name="78rpmyale">{{cite web |title=The History of 78 RPM Recordings |url=https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/music/historyof78rpms |website=web.library.yale.edu |publisher=Yale University Library: Irving S. Gilmore Music Library |access-date=January 11, 2024 |date=2001}}</ref>{{listen |filename=Foggy Mountain Breakdown Earl Scruggs.ogg |title=Foggy Mountain Breakdown |description=}} In the mid-1950s, they dropped the mandolin and added a [[Dobro]], played by [[Josh Graves|Buck "Uncle Josh" Graves]].  Previously, Scruggs had performed something similar, called "Bluegrass Breakdown" with Bill Monroe, but Monroe had denied him songwriting credit for it. Later, Scruggs changed the song, adding a minor chord, thus creating "Foggy Mountain Breakdown".<ref name="new-yorker">{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Steve |title=The Master From Flint Hill: Earl Scruggs |url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-master-from-flint-hill-earl-scruggs |website=newyorker.com |publisher=Condé Nast |access-date=February 24, 2017 |date=January 13, 2012}}</ref> The song contains a musical oddity: Flatt plays an E major chord against Scruggs's E minor. When asked about the dissonance years later, Scruggs said he had tried to get Flatt to consistently play a minor there to no avail; he said he eventually became used to the sound and even fond of it.<ref name="e-minor">{{cite web |last1=Goldsmith |first1=Thomas |title="Foggy Mountain Breakdown"—Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (1949) |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/FoggyMtBreakdown.pdf |website=loc.com |publisher=US Government Library of Congress |access-date=March 6, 2017}}</ref> The song won a Grammy and became an anthem for many banjo players to attempt to master.<ref name="brown-paul"/> The band routinely tuned its instruments a half-step higher than standard tuning in those days to get more brightness or pop to the sound, returning to standard pitch in the 1960s.<ref name="semitone-two">{{cite book |last1=Trischka |first1=Tony |last2=Warwick |first2=Pete |title=Masters of the Five-String Banjo/Earl Scruggs |date=November 2000 |publisher=Mel-Bay |isbn=0786659394 |url=http://www.drbanjo.com/drbshop/excerpts/masters-of-the-5-string-banjo.php |access-date=March 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318085348/http://www.drbanjo.com/drbshop/excerpts/masters-of-the-5-string-banjo.php |archive-date=March 18, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The popularity of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" resurged years later when it was featured in the 1967 film ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'', which introduced the song to a younger generation of fans.<ref name="cooper"/> Scruggs received a phone call from the show's producer and star, [[Warren Beatty]], first asking Scruggs to write a song for the movie. Soon Beatty called back saying that he wanted to use the existing vintage Mercury recording of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", and rejected the argument that it was recorded 18 years prior at a radio station with no modern enhancements.<ref name="fresh-air" /> The film was a hit, called by the ''Los Angeles Times'' "a landmark film that helped usher in a new era in American filmmaking".<ref name="landmark">{{cite web |last1=McLellan |first1=Dennis |title=Arthur Penn dies at 88; director of landmark film 'Bonnie and Clyde' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-sep-30-la-me-penn-20100930-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=March 12, 2017 |date=September 30, 2010}}</ref> In 2005, the song was selected for the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry of works of unusual merit.<ref name="libofcongress">{{cite web |title=Librarian of Congress Names 50 Recordings to the 2004 National Recording Registry |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-05-087/ |website=loc.com |publisher=Library of Congress, USA |access-date=February 9, 2017 |date=April 5, 2005}}</ref><ref name="assocpress">{{cite web |title=Bluegrass, banjo legend Earl Scruggs dies at 88 |url=http://blog.al.com/wire/2012/03/bluegrass_banjo_legend_earl_sc.html |website=blog.al.com |publisher=Alabama Media Group |access-date=February 9, 2017 |ref=Associated Press |date=March 28, 2012}}</ref>[[File:Flatt_and_Scruggs-Foggy_Mountain_Gold_(record_album).jpg|thumb|left|315x316px|alt=Picture of Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt with names underneath|Earl Scruggs on left]]

In October 1951, the band recorded "Earl's Breakdown" which featured a technique where Scruggs would manually de-tune the second and third strings<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Are D Tuners On A Banjo? – Deering® Banjo Company |url=https://www.deeringbanjos.com/blogs/faqs/10375365-what-are-d-tuners-on-a-banjo |access-date=September 27, 2021 |website=www.deeringbanjos.com |date=March 30, 2013 |language=en}}</ref> of the banjo during a song using a cam device he had made to attach to the instrument, giving the surprise effect of a downward string bend. He and his brother Horace had experimented with it when they were growing up.<ref name="willis" /> Scruggs had drilled some holes in the peghead of his banjo to install the device and chipped the pearl inlay. He covered the holes with a piece of metal, which can be seen on the album cover of ''Foggy Mountain Jamboree''. The technique became popular and led to improvement of the design (without drilling holes) by Bill Keith who then manufactured [[Beacon Banjo Company|Scruggs-Keith Tuners]].<ref name="keith-tuners">{{cite web |last1=Ford |first1=Frank |title=Keith Banjo Tuners |url=http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Banjo/KeithTuners/keithtuners.html |website=frets.com |publisher=Frank Ford |access-date=February 22, 2017 |date=March 1, 2001}}</ref><ref name="beacon">{{cite web |last1=Keith |first1=Bill |title=Beacon Banjo Company/The Story |url=http://www.beaconbanjo.com/story/ |website=beaconbanjo.com |publisher=Beacon Banjo Company |access-date=February 23, 2017 |date=July 19, 2000}}</ref> The original tuners Scruggs made and used are now in a museum display at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, North Carolina.<ref name="goad-john">{{cite web |last1=Goad |first1=John C. |title=Earl Scruggs Center opens in a deluge |url=https://bluegrasstoday.com/earl-scruggs-center-opens-in-a-deluge/ |website=bluegrasstoday.com |publisher=Bluegrass Today |access-date=February 25, 2017 |date=January 13, 2014}}</ref>

In 1953, [[Martha White|Martha White Foods]] sponsored the band's regular early morning radio shows on [[WSM (AM)|WSM]] in Nashville, where the duo sang the company's catchy bluegrass jingle written by Pat Twitty.<ref name="pat-twitty">{{cite web |title=Pat Twitty/Writing and Arrangement/Credits |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/2251274-Pat-Twitty?filter_anv=0&subtype=Writing-Arrangement&type=Credits |website=discogs.com |publisher=Discogs |access-date=February 22, 2017}}</ref> About this time, country music television shows, on which Flatt and Scruggs appeared regularly, went into syndication, vastly increasing the group's exposure.<ref name="television">{{cite web |last1=Erlwine |first1=Stephen T. |last2=Vinopal |first2=David |title=CMT Artists/About Flatt and Scruggs |url=http://www.cmt.com/artists/flatt-scruggs/biography/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120231340/http://www.cmt.com/artists/flatt-scruggs/biography/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 20, 2013 |website=cut.com |publisher=Viacom International |access-date=February 2, 2017}}</ref> Despite the group's increasing popularity and fan mail, WSM did not allow Flatt and Scruggs to become members of the Grand Ole Opry at first. According to ''Tennessean'' writer Peter Cooper, Bill Monroe was in opposition and worked behind the scenes to keep Flatt and Scruggs off the Opry to the extent of having petitions made against their membership.<ref name="cooper" /><ref name="vega-banjo">{{cite book |last1=Castelnero |first1=Gordon |last2=Russell |first2=David |title=Earl Scruggs:banjo icon |date=2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham |isbn=9781442268654 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uIM1DgAAQBAJ&q=vega}}</ref> In 1955 Martha White Foods' CEO Cohen E. Williams intervened by threatening to pull all of his advertising from WSM unless the band appeared on the Opry in the segment sponsored by his company.<ref name="willis" /><ref name="cooper" /><ref name="revue" /> As years went by, the band became synonymous with Martha White to the extent that the advertising jingle became a hit, and the band rarely played a concert without it.<ref name="revue" /> Fans shouted requests for them to play it, even at Carnegie Hall.<ref name="linda-dale">{{cite web |last1=Dale |first1=Linda Williams |title=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture/Martha White Foods |url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1555 |website=tennesseeencyclopedia.net |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |access-date=February 2, 2017}}</ref>

On September 24, 1962, the duo recorded "[[The Ballad of Jed Clampett]]" for the TV show ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]''. Sung by [[Jerry Scoggins]], the theme song became an immediate country music hit and was played at the beginning and end of each episode of the series. The song went to #1 on the Billboard country chart, a first for any bluegrass recording.<ref name="billboard">{{cite web |last1=Vinopal |first1=David |title=Artists/Earl Scruggs/Biography |url=http://www.billboard.com/artist/276045/earl-scruggs/biography |website=billboard.com |publisher=Billboard |access-date=February 10, 2017}}</ref> The song spent 20 weeks on that chart; it also reached #44 on Billboard's pop chart.<ref name="jed-clampett">{{cite web |last1=Thompson |first1=Richard |title=On this Day/Ballad of Jed Clampett |url=http://bluegrasstoday.com/on-this-day-8-ballad-of-jed-clampett/ |website=bluegrasstoday.com |publisher=Bluegrass Today |access-date=February 10, 2017 |date=January 19, 2013}}</ref> The television show was also a huge hit, broadcast in 76 countries around the world.<ref name="fresh-air" /> In Queens, New York a five-year-old boy named [[Béla Fleck]] heard the Jed Clampett theme on television.<ref name="tippett">{{cite web |last1=Tippett |first1=Krista |title=Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn: Truth, Beauty, Banjo |url=https://onbeing.org/programs/bela-fleck-abigail-washburn-truth-beauty-banjo/ |website=onbeing.org |publisher=Krista Tippett Public Productions |access-date=July 7, 2017 |date=November 24, 2016}}</ref> Fleck said, "I couldn't breathe or think; I was completely mesmerized." He said it awakened a deeply embedded predisposition that "was just in there" to learn how to play the banjo.<ref name="vega-banjo"/> Flatt and Scruggs appeared in several episodes as family friends of the fictional Clampetts. In their first appearance (season 1, episode 20), they portray themselves in the show and perform both the theme song and "Pearl, Pearl, Pearl". That song went to #8 on the country chart in 1963.<ref name="willis" /> Scruggs published an instruction book entitled "Earl Scruggs and the Five String Banjo" in 1968. It received a Gold Book Award by the publisher, Peer-Southern Corporation when it sold over a million copies.<ref name="willis" /> Over their 20-year association, Flatt and Scruggs recorded over 50 albums and 75 single records and featured over 20 different musicians as "Foggy Mountain Boys"—[[Session musician|side men]] backing the duo.<ref name="rosenberg">{{cite book |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Neil V. |title=Bluegrass: a history |date=1993 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=0-252-06304-X |edition=rev. paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hp1Sm81MYboC}}</ref><ref name="fifty-albums">{{cite web |title=Flatt and Scruggs/Discography |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/flatt-scruggs-mn0000227527/discography/all |website=allmusic.com |publisher=AllMusic, member of the RhythmOne group |access-date=March 3, 2017}}</ref>

By the end of the 1960s, Scruggs was getting bored with repetition of the classic bluegrass fare.<ref name="rosenberg" /> By now, his sons were professional musicians, and he was caught up in their enthusiasm for more contemporary music. He said, "I love bluegrass music, and still like to play it, but I do like to mix in some other music for my own personal satisfaction, because if I don't, I can get a little bogged down and a little depressed".<ref name="associated" /> Scruggs also wanted to play concerts in venues that normally featured rock and roll acts.<ref name="billboard" /> Columbia Records executives told Flatt and Scruggs that they intended to try a new producer, [[Bob Johnston]], instead of their long-time producer [[Don Law]].<ref name="rosenberg" /> Johnston had produced [[Bob Dylan]]'s records. This new association produced ''Changin' Times'', ''[[Nashville Airplane]]'', and ''The Story of Bonnie and Clyde'' albums.<ref name="rosenberg" /> Flatt was not happy with some of this material—he didn't like singing Bob Dylan songs and refused to perform them, saying "I can't sing Bob Dylan stuff, I mean. Columbia has got Bob Dylan, why did they want me?".<ref name="rosenberg" /><ref name="liner notes">{{cite web |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Neil V. |title=Liner notes for "Flatt and Scruggs"-Time-Life Records |url=http://www.bobdylanroots.com/scruggs.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020425155601/http://www.bobdylanroots.com/scruggs.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=April 25, 2002 |website=bobdylanroots |publisher=Time-Life Records TLCW-04 |access-date=February 1, 2017}}</ref> Even the success of the ''Bonnie and Clyde'' album was not enough to prevent their breakup in 1969. After the split, Flatt formed a traditional bluegrass group with [[Curly Seckler]] and [[Marty Stuart]] called [[Nashville Grass|The Nashville Grass]], and Scruggs formed the [[#Earl Scruggs Revue|Earl Scruggs Revue]] with his sons.<ref name="television" /><ref name="marty stuart">{{cite book |last1=Parsons |first1=Penny |last2=Stubbs |first2=Eddie |title=The Nashville Grass: 1973–1994." Foggy Mountain Troubadour: The Life and Music of Curly Seckler |date=2016 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Chicago |pages=157–184 |jstor=10.5406/j.ctt18j8xtz}}</ref>

Neither Flatt nor Scruggs spoke to each other for the next ten years—until 1979 when Flatt was in the hospital. Scruggs made an unannounced visit to his bedside. The two men talked for more than an hour. Even though Flatt's voice was barely above a whisper, he spoke of a reunion. Scruggs answered yes, but told Flatt they would talk when he was better. Flatt said, "It came as quite a surprise and made me feel good."<ref name="washington-post">{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Barbara |title=Lester Flatt, 64, Leader in Bluegrass Revival, Dies |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/05/12/lester-flatt-64-leader-in-bluegrass-revival-dies/8a60bf32-9d23-44e3-925d-5ff6ba4c8239/ |access-date=February 27, 2017 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 12, 1979}}</ref> However, Flatt never recovered and died May 11, 1979. Historian Barry Willis, speaking of the meeting, said "Earl gave Lester his flowers while he was still living."<ref name="willis" /> (He was referring to a 1957 Flatt and Scruggs recording of "Give Me My Flowers While I'm Still Living".)<ref name="flowers-living">{{cite news |last1=Thanki |first1=Juli |title=Bluegrass great Curly Seckler dead at 98 |url=http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/12/27/bluegrass-great-curly-seckler-dead/930007001/ |access-date=December 28, 2017 |newspaper=Tennessean |date=December 28, 2017 |page=11-A |quote=Photo caption: Banjo master Earl Scruggs, mandolin magician Curly Seckler and guitarist Lester Flatt blend some sweet spiritual harmony on "Give Me My Flowers While I'm Livin' " on July 28, 1957.}}</ref>