Foggy Mountain Boys

Foggy Mountain Boys
Genres	Bluegrass, Country
Years active	1948–1970
Past members
Lester Flatt Earl Scruggs

The Foggy Mountain Boys were an influential bluegrass band founded by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in 1948, shortly after leaving Bill Monroe’s band. They recorded and performed together up until 1969.

Biography

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs met as members of Bill Monroe's band, the Blue Grass Boys, in 1946. The two left that band early in 1948, and within a few months had formed their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Scruggs' banjo style and Flatt's rhythm guitar style as well as his vocals, gave them a distinctive sound that won them many fans. In 1955, they became members of the Grand Ole Opry. Many of the songs on their albums are credited to "Certain and Stacey". These songs were in fact written by Flatt, Scruggs, and various other members of the Foggy Mountain Boys. Certain and Stacey are the maiden names of the wives of Flatt and Scruggs (Louise Certain, wife of Earl Scruggs, and Gladys Stacey, wife of Lester Flatt).

Scruggs, who had always shown progressive tendencies, experimented on duets with saxophonist King Curtis and added songs by the likes of Bob Dylan to the group's repertoire. Flatt, a traditionalist, did not like these changes, and the group broke up in 1969. Following the breakup, Lester Flatt founded the Nashville Grass and Scruggs lead the Earl Scruggs Revue. Flatt died in 1979 at the age of 64. Scruggs still performs occasionally, as his health permits. Flatt and Scruggs were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985.

In 2003, they ranked #24 on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music, one of only four non-solo artists to make the list (Eagles, Alabama, and Brooks & Dunn are the others).

In the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the band formed by the heroes is called the "Soggy Bottom Boys" as a tribute to the band.

Members

• Lester Flatt (guitar)
• Earl Scruggs (banjo, guitar)
• Paul Warren (fiddle)
• John Ray "Curly" Seckler (mandolin), guitar)
• Burkett "Uncle Josh" Graves (Dobro, bass)
• English P. “Cousin Jake” Tullock (bass)
• Chubby Wise (fiddle)
• Jim Shumate (fiddle)
• Benny Martin (fiddle)
• Benny Sims (fiddle)
• Nate "Diggs" Jones (Scatman)
• Howdy Forrester (fiddle)
• Art Wooten (fiddle)
• Howard Watts aka "Cedric Rainwater" (bass)
• Charles Johnson aka "Little Jody Rainwater" (bass)
• Frank "Hylo" Brown (bass, guitar)
• Charles “Little Darlin’” Elza (bass)
• Joe Stuart (bass)
• Ernie Newton (bass)
• Bob Moore (bass)
• Everette Lilly (mandolin)
• Jim Eanes (guitar)
• Mac Wiseman (guitar)
• Billy E. Powers (guitar)
• Johnny Johnson (guitar)
• Earl Taylor (mandolin and harmonica)

Notable songs

• "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" - an instrumental originally released in 1949 and used in many rural car chase movie sequences, notably in Bonnie and Clyde. It has won two Grammy awards. Parts of the song can be heard in the Monty Python's Flying Circus "Killer Sheep" sketch in the episode entitled "The Attila The Hun Show."
• "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" (listen) - used as the theme for the Beverly Hillbillies television series. The song reached #42 on the record charts during the series' debut season of 1962. It was #1 on the country charts in January 1963, their only one of their career, and one of only two TV theme songs to ever do that on the country charts (Waylon Jennings' "The Good Ol' Boys" theme from The Dukes of Hazzard in the late 1970s was the other.).
• Martha White jingle (still used in advertising today).

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions		Label
		US Country	US
1957	Foggy Mountain Jamboree			Columbia
1958	Country Music			Mercury
1959	Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs
1960	Songs of Glory			Columbia
1961	Foggy Mountain Banjo
	Songs of the Famous Carter Family
1962	Folk Songs of Our Land
1963	Hard Travelin' (The Ballad of Jed Clampett)		115
	The Original Sound			Mercury
	Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall	7	134	Columbia
1964	Recorded Live at Vanderbilt University	10
	The Fabulous Sound of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs	2
1965	The Versatile Flatt & Scruggs
	Great Original Recordings
1966	Town and Country	15
	When the Saints Go Marching In
	Flatt & Scruggs' Greatest Hits	34
	Sacred Songs
1967	Strictly Instrumental (w/ Doc Watson)
	Hear the Whistles Blow	37
1968	Changin' Times featuring Foggy Mountain Breakdown	7
	Songs of Cherish
	Original Theme From Bonnie & Clyde	26
	The Story of Bonnie & Clyde	23	187
	Nashville Airplane	35
1970	Final Fling	45
	Breaking Out	35

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions		Album
		US Country	US
1947	Foggy Mountain Breakdown	9		singles only
1952	"'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered"	9			singles only
1959	"Cabin in the Hills"	9
1960	"Crying My Heart Out Over You"	21
1961	"Polka on a Banjo"	12
	"Go Home"	10
1962	"Just Ain't"	16
	"The Legend of the Johnson Boys"	27		Folk Songs of Our Land
	"The Ballad of Jed Clampett"	1	44	Hard Travelin' (The Ballad of Jed Clampett)
1963	"Pearl Pearl Pearl"	8	113	singles only
	"New York Town"	26
1964	"You Are My Flower"	12		Recorded Live at Vanderbilt University
	"My Sara Jane"	40		singles only
	"Petticoat Junction"	14
	"Workin' It Out"	21
1965	"I Still Miss Someone"	43		The Versatile Flatt & Scruggs
1967	"Nashville Cats"	54		singles only
	"California Up Tight Band"	20
1968	"Down in the Flood"	45		Changing Times featuring Foggy Mountain Breakdown
	"Foggy Mountain Breakdown"A	58	55
	"Like a Rolling Stone"	58	125	Nashville Airplane

• ^A"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" also peaked at #90 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada.

References

• Rosenburg, Neil V. (1998). "Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 173–4.