Foggy Mountain Jamboree

 (6 customer reviews)

Before its reissuance on CD, there's a reason that "Foggy Mountain Jamboree" was a heavily sought after Flatt & Scruggs LP. It's classic bluegrass of the finest quality. Recorded in Nashville from 1951-1955, it was produced by Don Law who provided for a high level of quality control. Besides Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, the rest of the band included some of the finest bluegrass ever assembled at the time: Curly Seckler or Everett Lilly (mandolin), Benny Martin, Paul Warren or Howdy Forrester (fiddle), and Josh "Buck" Graves (dobro). While every cut has strong emotional and historical value, I especially like the material that featured Lilly's wonderful tenor voice soaring above Flatt's solid and expressive lead vocal.

The bluegrass classics include Flint Hill Special, Some Old Day, Earl's Breakdown, Jimmie Brown the Newsboy, Foggy Mountain Special, It Won't Be Long, Shuckin' The Corn, Blue Ridge Cabin Home, Randy Lynn Rag, Your Love is Like a Flower, and Reunion in...Read more

There are two Flatt and Scruggs albums that sum up all you really have to know about bluegrass music. The first is the album "Foggy Mountain Banjo" and the second is "Foggy Mountain Jamboree". Here you have Flatt and Scruggs, two of the icons of the genre, at their peak vocally and instrumentally. The bluegrass classics of "Flinthill Special" and "Earl's Breakdown" are recorded here and are two standards every 5-string banjo player wants to master in order to become worthy to be known as a bluegrass player. The vocals, especially "Blue Ridge Cabin Home" and "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy" are classics that mark a certain era in the development of bluegrass music and define the way it should be done. If you are beginning to build a bluegrass library, this is the cornerstone for your collection. One listen and you'll understand why Flatt and Scruggs were revered the way they were by lovers of this style of music.

Pure on the instruments and harmonies, with lyrics long on reflection and meaning. Lester and Earl didn't put this together with the thought of going gold, this is about as true and soulful as bluegrass gets. Even though these two are probably the best pickers that ever lived, they show extraordinary restraint on the slow songs, focusing instead on the story, melody and that trademark harmonizing. And when they pick....well, they light it up. This album will send you back to the days when a wagon pulled up against a barn was a proper stage!