William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

1691 The Foggy Mountain Boys (Flatt & Scruggs) - Cripple Creek From: Foggy Mountain Banjo , Year: 1961 Genre: Bluegrass Yesterday I found out that legendary musician Earl Scruggs passed away. The two songs most would probably remember from Flatt & Scruggs would be " The Ballad of Jed Clampett " (the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies ), which can be heard here on YouTube ; and Foggy Mountain Breakdown (from the film Bonny and Clyde ); it can be heard here on YouTube . Anyway, after hearing about his death I was remembering a lot of his music, which I was mostly exposed to through my grandfather. He was a big fan of Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe, and bluegrass in general. This was the first song he taught me to play on the banjo many, many years ago. Here is a recording on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Queensrÿche - Fear City Slide My song pick two years ago today: Dream Theater - Light Fuse and Get Away My song pick three years ago today: The Doors - Gh...

Last night I came across a program on public television about a Bluegrass festival in San Francisco. The first artist on the show was Earl Scruggs and his performance of this song was shown. A lot of the others on the show, including such artists as Béla Fleck, were excellent and were very much worth staying up late to watch it. The song can be heard on the soundtrack to the movie " Bonnie and Clyde ;" it has been used on a lot of other places as well. It is considered to be one of the more difficult song to play on the banjo. Earl Scruggs is considered by all to be the master of the 5-string banjo and he shows it in spades on this one. Here is a studio recording on YouTube. Here is a television performance on YouTube. +