Recorded in 1949, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" changed the face of American music. Earl Scruggs's instrumental essentially transformed the folk culture that came before it while helping to energize bluegrass's entry into the mainstream in the 1960s. The song has become a gateway to bluegrass for musicians and fans alike as well as a happily inescapable track in film and television. Thomas Goldsmith explores the origins and influence of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" against the backdrop of Scruggs's legendary career. Interviews with Scruggs, his wife Louise, disciple Bela Fleck, and sidemen like Curly Seckler, Mac Wiseman, and Jerry Douglas shed light on topics like Scruggs's musical evolution and his working relationship with Bill Monroe. As Goldsmith shows, the captivating sound of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" helped bring back the banjo from obscurity and distinguished the low-key Scruggs as a principal figure in American acoustic music.Passionate and long overdue, Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown takes readers on an ear-opening journey into two minutes and forty-three seconds of heaven.| Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments 1. Out to Follow Scruggs's Path 2. "I grew up around a banjo" 3. The Piedmont's Rich Musical Soil 4. Early Professional Days 5. Joining Bill Monroe 6. Working as a Blue Grass Boy 7. Flatt and Scruggs Build a Career 8. Recording "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" 9. "Like a Jackhammer" — How the Tune Works 10. The Number-One Banjo Player 11. The Beverly Hillbillies Welcomes the Banjo 12. Riding with Bonnie and Clyde 13. Scruggs without Flatt: A Period of Transition 14. Scruggs's Banjo Gains a Cult Following 15. Reaping the Harvest Notes Index |"Unexpectedly moving . . . Well-written and researched . . . Goldsmith's sweeping view of twentieth-century popular culture tells a fascinating story of how a regional banjo style journeyed from rural North Carolina to the American mainstream, and of the musician and his iconic composition that took it there." —Journal of American Folklore
"Goldsmith packs his narrative with not only numerous facts but interesting anecdotal evidence. . . . All told, the author skillfully succeeds in weaving together an explanation of how Scruggs and his tune became legendary. " —North Carolina Historical Review
"Those who are already fans of 'Earl' and his astounding banjo work will certainly want to own this volume. . . . Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown is a worthy addition to the library of any bluegrass, country, and acoustic-music enthusiast." —Journal of Folklore Research
|Thomas Goldsmith is a music journalist. For more than thirty years, he has worked both in daily newspapers in North Carolina and Tennessee and as freelance writer. He is the editor of The Bluegrass Reader, winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association's best journalist award.