The pair of Flatt & Scruggs DVDs we posted about in January are officially out this week, and the first reviews are coming in.

Both The Raleigh News & Observer and Americana Roots have weighed in on the value of these two DVDs of previously unreleased footage, taken from Flatt & Scruggs television appearances in 1961 and 1962.

Each DVD includes better than two dozen songs, with much of the classic Flatt & Scruggs repertoire represented. Jimmie Brown The Newsboy, Before I Met You, Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, Earl’s Breakdown, Polka On A Banjo, Down The Road and many more are here, along with several live Martha White commercials and the comedy stylings of Jake Tullock and Josh Graves.

Hylo Brown appears as a guest on Vol. 1, Maybelle Carter on Vol. 2, and the Foggy Mountain Boys also include Curly Seckler and Paul Warren.

Full track listings can be found from either Janet Davis Music, County Sales or The Music Shed – all of whom also have the DVDs available for immediate shipping.

For most current fans and students of bluegrass music who never had a chance to see this group perform live in person, these DVDs – and others said to be set for release later this year – offer a glimpse of Flatt & Scruggs at the peak of their popularity, and to may historians of the genre, the high point of their artistic endeavors.

Here’s a fun site with images of vintage music show posters. It’s run by Mitch Diamond, who calls himself The Kardboard Kid.

Mitch has been collecting these posters and hand bills since 1970, and has amassed a substantial number of these classics of advertising art. He is also something of a celebrity in the world of poster collectors, having established the record for the highest price ever paid for a show poster when he purchased an original 1966 Beatles Shea Stadium poster, now on display at The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

In addition to an assortment of rock and roll, blues and jazz posters, Mitch also has a good many early country and bluegrass posters displayed on his site. I found original posters of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Reno and Smiley, The Osborne Brothers and The Stanley Brothers.

Mitch buys and sells in addition to collecting, and invites people with an interest in his collection – or who may have articles to sell – to contact him by email.

See all the posters at The Kardboard Kid site.

Yesterday I posted about about the controversy that Steve Jobs stirred up with his open letter to the music industry concerning digital downloads and DRM. Today two things caught my attention while doing some reading online.

The first is a rumor that EMI is considering licensing it’s entire catalog to online retailers as unrestricted mp3s. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required to read full story) recently reported on this rumor.

In a move that could signal a shift in the music industry’s antipiracy strategy, EMI Group PLC has been holding talks with several online retailers about the possibility of selling its entire digital music catalog in the unprotected MP3 format, which can be freely copied and played on virtually any device…

My understanding is that EMI at first sought upfront cash payments from the retailers in an effort to insure against what the label deemed “potential losses.” The retailers didn’t entirely like the idea and are now offering counter-proposals as negotiations continue. My take on this is that EMI still thinks that selling their music online, unprotected by DRM, will result in piracy and a loss of sales. If Steve Jobs is right and EMI is wrong, this could provide an opportunity for online retailers who have the available capitol to take advantage of the labels fear by negotiating an initial payment followed by lower per track payments on the backend. I don’t know the details of the offered deal though, and it seems likely that EMI is trying to position itself to gain from either scenario.

Other major labels are taking the defensive against Jobs’ challenge. It should be interesting to watch where this goes in the next year or so.

The second matter is only slightly releated, but an article on the CMT.com website is drawing parallels between Jobs’ attitude toward the industry and that of the early Flatt & Scruggs. The author of the piece traces the condition of the industry in relation to anemic sales of country music CDs and talks about Jobs’ idea of selling unprotected mp3s. He then goes on to talk about the soon to be released Flatt & Scruggs DVDs and the band’s attitude toward being on TV. At the end of the article he compares their attitude to that of Jobs.

Flatt & Scruggs never met Steve Jobs, obviously. But if they had met, they would have recognized themselves as brothers-in-arms. For they had a common goal: to dominate their market and leave a mark. And they both did so.

One of the hottest underground collector’s item for serious fans of the early days of bluegrass music have been the various audio tapes, CDs, videos and DVDs of live Flatt & Scruggs performances from the 1950s and 60s. Folks who remember those days recall that Lester and Earl seemed to be everywhere back then, and these bootleg copies of their many television appearances have become cherished keepsakes for fans, and students of the banjo in particular.

While furtively trading copies of these TV appearances, a common topic of discussion would be why these classic performances were never released commercially. Surely there was an interest in such a venture, both among fans and financially, so the refrain would go.

At long last, it appears that a set of Flatt & Scruggs TV shows is to be released on DVD, with two volumes expected in March from Shanachie. There are no details yet shown on the Shanachie site, but we did find pre-release ordering available from Amazon.com.

Both volumes are tittled Best of Flatt & Scruggs TV Show – Classic Bluegrass from 1956 to 1962. Amazon.com has no details about songs, but orders are being accepted there now for both Volume 1 and Volume 2.

These DVDs will surely be widely available from bluegrass-oriented resellers once they have been released (3/13/07). It appears that distribution will be handled by Koch, should any retailers want to contact them about carrying it.