Flatt and Scruggs NBC News Segment

[@81crowe]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of American music history. Flatt & Scruggs are still the best!

[@keeganbluegrass]

agreed

[@bobbywilliams780]

Always will be

[@CAROLUSPRIMA]

So refreshing to see an intelligent analysis and coverage of bluegrass music. Really good. I saw Flatt and Scruggs at a drive-in theater in Paintsville KY when I was a kid. They played atop the concession stand and we listened through the speaker that hang on the car window. And applauded by blowing the car horn.

[@annetteparker3471]

that is an interesting story and that's the way some church services was presented and in the South too except without Car Horne's added !

[@oldcremona]

Earl and Lester's great talent and style notwithstanding, I love their humility and warmth . Contrast that to the stars of today. Ego and selfishness are the order of the day. Sad isn't it.

[@BanjoChief]

Great old tv segment about my all-time favorite band!

[@TruegrassBoy]

Oh Boy - does this take me back..... wonderful!

[@TeddyRayThomas]

Good segment.

[@patrickolaughlin6027]

Cool , thanks !

[@jackvalentine566]

Where can I find the footage of them In the Martha white bus more in depth? Any possible links to any behind the scenes clips like the ones that are shown in this video thank you!

[@nicoswarley]

Make that 5 string hot!!!

[@banjobailey1849]

Love how earl just wants to play lol love it man love it!

[@joeosborn123]

"The acknowledged kings of bluegrass". Boy, Bill Monroe must have hit the ceiling when he heard this! Notice when Lester is interviewed about where Bluegrass music came from, he just can't bring himself to mention his former employer and competitor Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys (which of course, is where the music got its name). He just says, "Well, the banjo is where they get the name Bluegrass..." Say what? And "There's a lot of outfits that play similar..." Yeah, like maybe Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys? Bill being, of course, the true king and father of Bluegrass, by pretty much unanimous opinion today.

[@sokolowmus]

+Joe Osborn true, but folks didn't start calling it bluegrass until Earl joined Bill's band. Also true, you can have a fiddle or a mandolin (or both) in a bluegrass band...but you can't leave out the banjo. Adding the banjo to Bill's band is what completed the bluegrass sound.

[@FANJG24]

Bill Monroe is considered the "Father of Bluegrass" because he just happened to be the one that got to Earl scruggs first. Earl Scruggs IS Bluegrass. Bluegrass wouldn't have existed without Earl.

[@joeosborn123]

No, I think it was more than that. You need both Bill and Earl together to make Bluegrass. I'm not sure Flatt & Scruggs would have sounded the same if both Earl and Lester hadn't played with Bill first. I don't think just anyone with Earl would have created Bluegrass.

[@sokolowmus]

+Joe Osborn...agreed, Bill created that format where soloists take turns and each is spotlighted, which encourages virtuosity, and there are no electric instruments, and just strings, and tight harmonies...all the things which, in addition to Earl's banjo style, define the genre. With all respect to both of them, it took both to make bluegrass happen. If Bill had hired Don Reno we'd still have bluegrass...but I'm sure glad he hired Earl instead.

[@joeosborn123]

+Fred Sokolow I agree!

[@mandoblue]

Any idea which year that was?

[@davemoy330]

No one will ever be better than Earl

[@Robbylester]

Try ralph stanley

[@lilcrumpet9190]

@@Robbylester who cant be that good

[@bobbywilliams780]

@@Robbylester bahahahahahaha. You’re kidding right. Stanley couldn’t hold a candle to Earl

[@oldcremona]

Even Bela Fleck will tell you that Earl was and is the King of 3 finger bluegrass banjo.

[@Banjobailey98]

None of ya ever sat down and actually listened to Don Reno. It don’t take long to realize your listening to something out of this world and a true treasure! Don could literally play circles around anyone you put him around he’d choose not to for your sake but… Go listen to “limehouse blues” or “Lady of Spain” and if you don’t like that you didn’t like your moms milk

[@ScottShuster]

This will have been from around 1963-1971 from either The Frank McGee Report or it's successor program, which McGee also usually presented. As it appears to be a kinescope I'm going to guess it's from the earlier part of that period (as kinescopes were not much being used to capture video by 1970). Also the reference to the 300% increase in banjo sales mentioned: That had to be '63 or '64, (however it was driven more by the hootnanny folk music craze than by bluegrass...

[@craigmiller1870]

How much does punk rock and or roll have to owe to the mentality that created bluegrass? I blame the Irish.