Folk Songs of Our Land / Hard Travelin'

In 1944, Lester Flatt came to the Grand Ole Op ry in Nashville, Tennessee as a featured vocalist and guitarist. The Skill and sincerity with which he sings make him an outstanding performer in any number he undertakes, whether it is ballads, blues or hymns. Earl Scruggs managed to play tunes on his banjo before he was five years old. At the age of ten, he developed a unique style of playing the banjo with three fingers which is known nationally as Scruggs-Style Picking. In 1945, when he first came to Nashville, he dazzled audiences with this new, hard-driving, three-fingered technique. It was this artistry that gave life to a band style called Bluegrass. One music critic has compared Scruggs-Style Picking to Paganini s dazzling violin style. They formed the Foggy Mountain Boys and brought bluegrass to international prominence. Hard Travellin features The Ballad Of Jed Clampett (theme song from the hit TV series The Beverley Hillbillies ) it was the first bluegrass song to reach #1 in the Country Music Charts. They were elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1985.