Americana Roots : Your Daily Fix For Americana Music : - Best of Flatt Scruggs TV Show Vols. 1 2

Bill Monroe had staked claim on the Grand Ole Opry, a long held personal goal, in 1938 and in 1945 he began to assemble the Blue Grass Boys line-up that would define the genre. Monroe had honed his mandolin playing to a virtuoso level and brought along with him fiddler Chubby Wise and bass player Howard Watts (Cedric Rainwater) through a series of personnel changes. In March of that year, Monroe added the guitar playing and soulful voice of Lester Flatt to the band and momentum began to build.

In December, Monroe added a fresh faced Carolina boy named Earl Scruggs on banjo.
When the group made their first Grand Ole Opry appearance in early 1946, the revolutionary banjo style of Scruggs sent the crowd reeling and reports say that radio listeners were bewildered because all that could be heard over the air was the rambunctious crowd response drowning out the music.
This quintessential line-up lasted only two years, when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left the band and formed their own group Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys (for a short time in 1949 joined by Howard Watts).

Monroe felt this was a personal affront and refused to speak to either man (or even be in the same room with them) for many years.
Flatt Scruggs began appearing on other radio stations, most frequently in Knoxville where they began a long association with the Martha White Flour Mill, who sponsored a fifteen minute segment of the Grand Ole Opry. In 1953 the Martha White Company made the request that Flatt Scruggs begin appearing on their segment of the Opry.

In fear of offending Monroe, the Opry declined and Martha White began sponsoring a thirty minute morning show featuring the group.
1955 marked the year that the most enduring Foggy Mountain Boys line-up would assemble featuring Flatt on guitar and vocals, Scruggs on banjo (guitar on gospel numbers), Curly Seckler on mandolin, Paul Warren on fiddle, Cousin Jake Tullock on bass and Uncle Josh Graves on Dobro. Their success couldn t be denied and they were made members of the Grand Ole Opry that year as well.

Their popularity also led to a regional television show called Flatt Scruggs Grand Ole Opry (which must have really gotten Monroe s goat) sponsored by Martha White and Pet Evaporated Milk and aired in parts of Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and West Virginia. The show featured the playing of the group and an occasionally guest star and aired from 1955 to 1969 when the group disbanded.
In those days of television is was commonplace for a show to be recorded, aired and then recorded over, losing the contents forever.

This was believed to be the fate of the Flatt Scruggs Grand Ole Opry shows.
That is until 1989 when Bill Graham, who once worked for the ad agency that represented Martha White Mills, was cleaning out his garage and found a box containing 24 fully intact episodes of the show. He donated these precious pieces of Country and bluegrass music history to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Soon after this donation another source contacted the museum with 12 more episodes.
With the arduous process of transferring these fragile films to video complete, the CMHFM are releasing the rescued shows on DVD featuring shows from 1956 to 1962.
Each volume in the series will contain two complete shows which follow the same general format, a format that lays the groundwork for Country Music variety shows that followed such as The Wilburn Brothers Show, and the Porter Wagoner Show.

The show begins with an introduction from Grand Ole Opry announcer T. Tommy Cutrer who brings in Lester Flatt, who in turn welcomes the viewers (neighbors, as he calls us) and launches the band in to an opening number. The format that follows is roughly the same each week including a couple of songs from the band, a commercial for a Martha White product (complete with cooking demonstration) , a gospel number preceded by Uncle Josh Graves reading off a list of names from families and individuals who had sent in postcards and letter that week.

, a couple more numbers and another commercial, followed by a song, a comedy bit and a few more songs to round out the show.
The first two shows on Vol. 1 come from August 1961 and February 1962 and feature the band in top form.

Watching them together, ribbing each other good naturedly between songs, it is evident that they get along like family and are having a lot of fun. The second show on the DVD (Feb. 1962) features a guest appearance by Hylo Brown.

Brown was a member of the Foggy Mountain Boys starting in 1957 and his popularity prompted Flatt Scruggs to start a second division for the Foggy Mountain Boys called the Timberliners. Hylo continued with the group until he went solo in 1961 and appears here in early 1962 singing two of his recent Capitol singles, John Henry and Lovesick and Sorrow.
The 2nd volume contains two shows from 1961 (July and August) that follow the format established on the first DVD release.

The special guest on the second show (Aug. 1961) is the venerable Mother Maybelle Carter who plays one song on the guitar ( Wildwood Flower ) and another on autoharp ( The Liberty Dance ). This appearance comes just weeks before Flatt Scruggs release Songs of the Famous Carter Family.

These two releases (and subsequent ones to follow) mark an incredible find and a treasure to fans of Bluegrass. Many of the early Bluegrass groups were not captured on film and with roster changes and artists passing on, the chance to see them doesn t exist except in cases like these wonderfully put together DVDs.