Flatt+scruggs

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Flatt & Scruggs 1959-1963 (1992) {5CD Set, Bear Family BCD15559EI}
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© 1959-63, 1992 Columbia / Bear Family Records | BCD 15559 EI
Country / Bluegrass / Traditional Bluegrass / Country-Pop

While the first Flatt & Scruggs box on Bear Family documented the band's development over its first 11 years – 1948-1959 – this set captures the band at the height of its meteoric rise to fame into the stuff of legend. First and foremost, Flatt & Scruggs eclipsed the fame of their mentor, Bill Monroe by having six charting singles in Billboard between the mid-'50s and 1960. They also got reviewed in Playboy and Downbeat magazines and began to play the Newport Folk Festival and appear on stages with Joan Baez, Cisco Houston, the Kingston Trio, New Christy Minstrels, Woody Guthrie, John Jacob Niles, and many others.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Flatt & Scruggs 1964-1969, plus (1995) {6CD Set, Bear Family BCD15879FI}
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© 1964-69, 1995 Bear Family Records | BCD 15879 FI
Country / Bluegrass / Traditional Bluegrass / Country-Pop

Here's the conclusion of our complete Flatt & Scruggs retrospective. It takes us through the period of their greatest success in the 1960s, leading to the break-up. They were taking bluegrass music into places it had never been, and cutting some brilliant and innovative music along the way. The core of this set is 12 albums including the 'Strictly Instrumental' set with Doc Watson, the live Vanderbilt Concert, and 'The Story Of Bonnie & Clyde.' This set is rounded out with a Gordon Terry square-dance album on which Flatt & Scruggs are the back-up musicians, and on which the calls have been omitted.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Flatt & Scruggs 1948-1959 (1991) {4CD Set, Bear Family BCD15472DH}
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© 1948-59, 1991 Columbia / Bear Family Records | BCD 15472 DH
Country / Bluegrass / Traditional Bluegrass / Country-Pop

The first of four box sets documenting the complete recordings of Flatt & Scruggs as a working band, this one detailing the group's first 11 years is generally considered the most essential. These 113 tracks represent the duo's complete Mercury recordings on disc one and the beginning of their Columbia sides on discs two through four. There is one completely unissued cut, and the entire package has been remastered and contains copious liner notes.

The Earl Scruggs Revue - Four Original Columbia Albums (2018) {2CD Set BGO Records BGOCD1295 rec 1972-1976}
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© 1972-76, 2018 Columbia / Sony Music / BGO Records | BGOCD1295
Country / Folk / Bluegrass / Banjo

Four albums by the legendary Earl Scruggs – all recorded in the years after he'd split with famous partner Lester Flatt, and moved on to work with a younger array of partners in the Earl Scruggs Revue! Given the way that Scruggs revolutionized the sound of American banjo in the postwar years, he'd always found strong interest from a younger audience – but with these records, he almost seems to give back directly to that group – by working with sons Randy and Gary, the younger of whol sings a lot of lead vocals – and almost brings a roots rock approach to the music.

The Earl Scruggs Revue - Anniversary Special Volume One / Volume Two (1975-1976) {BGO Records BGOCD830 rel 2008}
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© 1975-76, 2008 Columbia / Sony BMG Music / BGO Records | BGOCD830
Bluegrass / Country / Folk / Banjo

One-half of the legendary banjo duo Flatt & Scruggs, Earl Scruggs formed his eponymous Revue upon the demise of his longtime partnership with Lester Flatt in early 1969, and promptly began unleashing a stream of excellent albums. Anniversary Special arrived in 1975, marking the banjo man's 25th anniversary of signing with Columbia/CBS Records. It was a guest star-laden affair, with Scruggs and his two sons, the core of the Revue, joined in the studio by a host of country, folk, and other far-flung luminaries.

Various Artists - Bluegrass Bonanza (2001) {4CD Set, Proper Records PROPERBOX29 rec 1920'-1950'}
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© 1920'-50', 2001 Proper Records | PROPERBOX29
Country / Folk / Bluegrass / Hillbilly / North American Traditions / Old-Timey

The 109 cuts in this box set document the evolution of bluegrass from its roots in early 20th-Century mountain string bands. Before the set ends in 1950, Bill Monroe, followed shortly thereafter by the Stanley Brothers and Flatt & Scruggs, has formalized a genre – it had yet to be called "bluegrass" – from which formula, more than half a century later, performers within the genre depart at their peril. The songs (and occasional instrumentals) are well chosen, and the sound quality is cleaner and sharper than one would expect from vintage recordings, some going back to the late 1920s.

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and The Nashville Cats - A New Music City (2015) {2CD Set Legacy 88875066552}
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© 2015 Legacy / Sony Music | 88875066552
Country / Country-Rock / Folk Rock / Blues Rock / Progressive Country

A companion to the 2015-2016 Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit of the same name, Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City is a double-disc history of the moment when country met rock – or when rock met country, as the case might be. In this particular reading of country-rock history, the movement begins in 1966, when Bob Dylan headed down to Nashville to cut Blonde on Blonde with a crew of the city's renowned studio musicians. Prior to that, country could be heard in rock & roll mainly through rockabilly, a music that functions as prehistory on this collection, present through the presence of Sun veteran Johnny Cash but not much else.

The Stanley Brothers - Ralph & Carter: The Later King Years (1958-1965) {Ace Records CDCHD 1167 rel 2007}
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© 1958-65, 2007 King Records / Ace Records | CDCHD 1167
Bluegrass / Country / Traditional Bluegrass / Bluegrass Gospel

During the final part of their career, the Stanley Brothers did most of their recording for the King label, laying down almost 200 sides for the company between 1958 and 1965. All of those tracks are available in box set form should you want them, but the ordinary fan will be satisfied with more selective samplers such as this one, which has a couple dozen cuts originally released in 1961-1966. The Stanley Brothers were a consistent enough act that the songs picked for best-of comps are pretty much up to the taste of the compiler, but this does a fine job both in the quality and the variety of the material presented. In addition to plenty of originals, there are also interpretations of songs by A.P. Carter, Alton Delmore, and traditional items.

Paul Lansky - Folk Images (1995) {Bridge Records BCD 9060}
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© 1995 Bridge Records | BRIDGE 9060
Folk / Classical / Post-Modern / Electronic / Traditional / Computer Music / Experimental

The instruments are guitar, violin, computer, occasional voice; the music, some settings and arrangements of well-known folk songs as well as several original folk-like pieces. Folk music lovers will undoubtedly say it's not really folk music (they're right); computer music aficionados and cyberspace cadets may not think of it as computer music (maybe they're right too); and guitar freaks will say our guitar is not nearly as good as Leo Kottke's (oh boy are they right). Though it's not a bad thing to defy description, the best way to understand the music is probably found in the title, Folk Images.

The Stanley Brothers - The King Years 1961-1965 (2003) {4CD Collector's Box Set, King Records KG-0950-2}
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© 1961-65, 2003 King Records | KG-0950-2
Bluegrass / Country / Traditional Bluegrass

Virginians Ralph and Carter Stanley, the Stanley Brothers, took the traditional Appalachian string band songs of their home and updated them into a traditionally rooted modern bluegrass sound that was singular for its authentic tone, no-frills simplicity, and at times haunting and astonishing beauty, the very model of the high lonesome sound. This expansive four-disc, 111-track box covers the later part of the middle period of their recording career, collecting virtually every side the brothers recorded for the King record label between 1961 and 1965. That's a whole lot of Stanley Brothers, but the musical quality, integrity, and execution of this storied duo never waver here, and indeed, they never really did waver one bit any time the two of them stepped in front of the microphones.