U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee has introduced a resolution honoring Lester Flatt.

On June 25 Mr. Davis, supported by 10 other members of the House of Representatives, introduced his resolution in recognition of Tennessee native Flatt and his singular legacy in American music.

The resolution begins as follows:

RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Lester Flatt has made an invaluable contribution to American art as both a songwriter and a performer, leaving an indelible legacy in bluegrass music.

The full text of the resolution can be found on the Flatt and Scruggs Preservation Society blog.

Chris Sharp may be best known for his work on the Grammy Award winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, or his years spent touring with the late John Hartford. What you may not know is that this accomplished guitar player is also a dedicated instructor.

Sharp is making it easy to take advantage of his interest in teaching guitar. He recently uploaded close to a dozen instructional video clips to YouTube. The video segments are each 10 minutes or less in length, respecting Youtube’s 10 minute length limit per video.

Addressing the rhythm style of Lester Flatt, he covers everything from tuning, to chord shapes, the thumbpick-fingerpick pattern inherent to Flatt’s style, and more. The most recent video, number 8 in the Lester Flatt series, tackles the E Chord and Flatt’s rhythm pattern for the tune Six White Horses. It’s a little out of the order he had planned to present the material in.

After getting several emails specifically asking about this pattern I bumped it up in the original outline for how these videos would proceed. The “Six White Horses” pattern is one of Lester’s staple patterns and I believe this is very close to what he was playing and hope this video will be of assistance of any who wish to learn it.

Shot with an HD camera, the videos are well done with studio quality audio. If you have the bandwidth, I’d suggest you click the “watch in HD” link under the video. Doing so will present you with a large and very nicely encoded High Definition version of the video. My Verizon DSL played them back flawlessly without hesitation.

If you enjoy the videos, be sure to visit Chris’ website and purchase a CD or t-shirt to help support his efforts to provide this kind of instruction for free.

Here’s the Six White Horses clip.

When I saw Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder perform in 2005, they dedicated a portion of their show to reminding the audience that the following year (2006) would mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of bluegrass music.

It is widely held that bluegrass was born when Bill Monroe performed with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at The Grand Ole Opry in 1946, along with Chubby Wise and Howard Watts. Though Monroe had named his group The Bluegrass Boys before these men joined the band, it was this combination of musicians who gave the music we now know so well its defining parameters.

Skaggs made a point of referring to this event, and the music that these pioneers made, before the band played a number of songs from that era, in a style remarkably faithful to the original recordings. I’m not sure if this is still a staple of his live show, but I’m sure it will be next year when his next CD hits.

Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and ‚Äò47′ is scheduled for release on March 25, 2008. The 12 tracks are envisioned as a tribute to the Original Bluegrass Band, comprised of songs they recorded over that seminal two year stretch. The list is one sure to stir the passions of any die-hard traditionalist.

Why Did You Wander		Mighty Dark To Travel
When You’re Lonely		Toy Heart
Remember the Cross		Bluegrass Breakdown
Mansions For Me		Little Cabin Home On The Hill
I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling		I’m Going Back to Old Kentucky
The Old Cross Roads		Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong

And Skaggs has the band to pull this off. Banjo picker Jim Mills is a serious student of Earl Scruggs’ music, and tenor singer Paul Brewster can soar as high as Monroe ever did. Skaggs is, of course, a gifted vocalist and a fine Monroe-style mandolinist himself. Fiddler Andy Leftwich, though a youngster, can surely emulate these “ancient tones,” and guitarist Cody Kilby and bass player Mark Fain are equally up to the task.

Ricky said that the idea for this CD came to him when he came across some live recordings of Monroe’s band in ‘46 and ‘47, and he felt that he had a chance to both honor the men who brought this music to life, and also tell their stories in the music.

"We wanted to tell their stories through music, honoring their arrangements and their tempos, bringing 1946 to the present for the next generation of listeners. Every generation needs to be educated. If you don’t tell the stories of the fathers (of the music), the next generation will forget. That’s what this record is about."

Yep… 2008 is shaping up to be a fine year for recorded bluegrass music.

Our industrious British correspondent, Richard F. Thompson, is back with an expanded overview of a story Brance posted last month.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs will be among this year’s five new inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. announced on Monday. Flatt and Scruggs first met as part of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1945. During his time with Monroe, Lester Flatt assisted with the growth of his leader’s song writing and is credited as co-writing Will You Be Loving Another Man and When You Are Lonely. Flatt sang lead on and thus helped to popularize many of the songs that they did. Of course, Scruggs’s banjo playing at this time was wholly ear-catching and new to the vast majority of those who saw and heard the innovative Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.

In 1948 they left Monroe and started their own act, forming the Foggy Mountain Boys and the duo, recognizing that original material would help to create an individual identity and repertoire, began to write their own songs. Their catalogue is vast and a partial list alone features many songs readily recognizable as ’standards’ ‚Ķ.. God Loves His Children, I’m Going To Make Heaven My Home, We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart, My Cabin In Caroline, Down The Road, So Happy I’ll Be, Don’t Get Above Your Raising, Your Life Is Like A Flower [with assistance from Bea Lilly] and Blue Ridge Cabin Home, [credited to Louise Certain (Scruggs) and Gladys Stacey (Flatt)].

Additionally, Lester Flatt penned many that are credited in his name – or his wife’s name, Gladys Stacey (Flatt) – alone. These include Why Don’t You Tell Me So, I’ll Never Shed Another Tear, Is It Too Late Now?, My Little Girl In Tennessee, I’ll Never Love Another, I’m Head Over Heals In Love, The Old Home Town, I’ll Stay Around, Get In Line Brothers, Brother, I’m Getting Ready To Go, Be Ready For Tomorrow May Never Come and You Can Feel It In Your Soul.

Earl Scruggs wrote and arranged a considerable number of instrumental pieces, including Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Earl’s Breakdown, Flint Hill Special, Dear Old Dixie, Foggy Mountain Chimes and Randy Lynn Rag, along with Shucking The Corn and all the traditional tunes that are featured on one of the band’s most successful albums, the all-instrumental Foggy Mountain Banjo. (more…)