Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Flatt & Scruggs 1964-1969, plus (6 CD, 1995/FLAC)

 

The final five years of the team of Flatt & Scruggs is documented on the six-CD Bear Family set 1964-1969, Plus. Their final six recordings together are on a Lester Flatt box set on the same label (Flatt on Victor Plus More, Bear Family 15975). Though the pair never referred to themselves as bluegrass musicians -- because of its association with their mentor, Bill Monroe -- they had a difficult time telling the ever-increasing flood of international fans just what it was they did. Certainly it was folk music, but not the folk music of the folk revival of the late '50s and early '60s, and it was country music, though not what Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins was pushing through Nashville at the time, and while a lot of the music was rooted in blues and gospel, it couldn't be called that either.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Flatt & Scruggs 1959-1963 [5 CD, 1992]

 

The second of four box sets documenting the complete recordings of Flatt & Scruggs as a working band. These were Earl and Lester's prime years. They rode the crest of the folk boom, supplied the theme for 'The Beverly Hillbillies', and played Carnegie Hall. Through it all, their music remained remarkably pure and honest. The core of this set is six albums, all incredibly rare now: "Songs Of Glory", "Folk Songs Of Our Land", "Foggy Mountain Banjo", "Songs Of The Carter Family", "Hard Travelin'", "Carnegie Hall" and Gordon Terry's "Square Dance Party." Fans who have treasured the 'Carnegie Hall' album will be amazed by the 19 unissued songs we've uncovered from that date. There are also singles not reissued until now and previously unissued recordings.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - 1948-59 [ 4 CD, 1991]

 

Lester Flatt, guitar, and Earl Scruggs, banjo, were two musicians who were probably predestined to play together. They learnt their trade as Bluegrass Boys with Bill Monroe, as so many artists did, eventually leaving Bill in 1948. And it is at this point where this 4 CD Bear Family Box Set picks them up. Originally signing for Mercury, CD 1 comprises their complete recordings for this label, which include famous tracks like Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Roll In My Sweet Babys Arms. The other three CDs deal with their early period on Columbia from late 1950 to 1959.