Re: [Harp-L] History of Bluegrass Harmonica

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

The correct year is 1945, not 1948.  January 1945, Bill's Bluegrass Boys
were Bill, Howdy Forester (fiddle), Sally Ann Forester (bass, accordion),
Stringbean (banjo), and Lester Flatt (guitar).  When Howdy took off for the
Army in 1945, Bill's band was down to him and Lester Flatt, as Stringbean
and Sally Ann had also left.  Bill found a new bass player and picked up
Chubby Wise for the fiddler, then he went to Lester, after having seen this
amazing youngster on banjo, and told him he had found their new banjo
player (Earl).  Lester Flatt reportedly responded "Not another banjo
player!  He'll just slow us down!".  With the addition of Earl, history was
made.

In 1949, Lester and Earl and the rest of the Bluegrass Boys took off and
Bill started back up with another bunch of players.  The new band created
from this separation was Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain
Boys.  They took "Bluegrass Breakdown", changed a chord (trading the IV
chord for a VIm) and renamed the tune "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", and that
was their theme tune.  They then set about to play shows as they had been.

In the 1950's, the Foggy Mountain Boys included Earl Taylor on mandolin and
harmonica.  Of the recorded bluegrass harmonica players that could not
possibly be considered "proto", Earl Taylor would be the first.

After Flatt and Scruggs had made a name for themselves, toured Europe,
etc., they practically became the household word.  Bill wasn't happy about
it, but they weren't on the Grand Ol' Opry and he was.  Then a festival
promoter wanted to get Flatt and Scruggs for his folk festival, as they
were known then, but the band wasn't available.  At this time, Bill's
tours and radio play was primarily regional.  However, someone pointed out
to the promoter that they had heard Flatt and Scruggs style music from
someone else that might be easier to get -- a fellow named Bill Monroe.  So
Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys played the festival, in the place of
Flatt and Scruggs.  The irony was not lost on Bill.

By the way, a note regarding the initial 1949 separation:  It was about
money.  Bill was taking all the money in and paying the band a salary.  The
Bluegrass Boys (Earl and Lester included) started doing the sums and
decided that they could do just as well and they would split the money
evenly amongst each other.  Every one earns or doesn't earn equally, as
music jobs go.  What a band leader like Bill would usually end up doing is
banking the money for the lean times so that the band continued to be paid
even when times were lean, but the Bluegrass Boys weren't seeing any lean
times, so it looked a little lopsided.  So, 1949, the Bluegrass Boys became
the Foggy Mountain Boys and Bill started a new band to sound like the old
one.  You can imagine what Bill was thinking when he was playing a festival
in place of Lester and Earl -- that he got the job because Lester and Earl
were too busy elsewhere.  He wasn't always a temperate man.

Cara



On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 2:40 PM, eskeene@xxxxxxxx <eskeene@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Not to get all definitional on you, but I read recently that the term
> Bluegrass (meaning the music) didn't happen until 1957, when some writers
> began borrowing the term to pertain to the music that was similar to that
> of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys (Bill named the Boys after the
> Bluegrass state of Kentucky as most of you probably know). You have the
> whole continuum of "Hillbilly", "Old-Time Country Music", etc.
> Smithsonian/Folkways' "Mountain Music Bluegrass Style" released in 1959
> contains a version of Fox Chase, but if I recall,most of the harmonica on
> that album is used more as a novelty than as an actual "break" instrument,
> so I think you could consider Charlie McCoy the first to record with what
> became the "standard" Bluegrass band instrumentation of bass, guitar,
> banjo, mandolin, and (generally) fiddle with those instruments used as both
> rhythm and SOLO instruments. BUT- the harmonica was used as a solo
> instrument prominently in many proto-Bluegrass bands that recorded from the
> 1920's on, often in conjunction with three-finger style banjo (Garley and
> Gwen Foster both played with Dock Walsh in a band called the "The  Carolina
> Tarheels" which also featured Clarence Ashley). For me, Bluegrass "jelled"
> with the 1948 Monroe band when Earl Scruggs joined the band with HIS
> version on three finger style banjo. There are those (among them, banjoist
> extraordinaire Butch Robbins),  who feel that Earl's style was just an
> extension of a style already in existence, but IMHO Earl's innovations were
> a quantum leap. Previous versions of the three finger banjo playing tended
> either to be rather amorphous syncopated rolls or jerky/clunky, "make or
> break" pinches-neither one of which the clear rhythmic momentum for which
> Bluegrass is noted. Jesse McReynolds said, "The banjo IS Bluegrass" and
> many of us would agree. However, just as in other forms of music, personal
> and professional rivalries play a part in Bluegrass music, and Bill Monroe,
> who soon found himself overshadowed by the popularity of Flatt & Scruggs,
> said, "The FIDDLE is Bluegrass." (though after Earl Scruggs left his band,
> Monroe always featured a Scruggs syle banjo player in his bands).  George
> Pegram and Dock Walsh both played in the styles from which Scruggs style
> evolved, but once again, IMHO, were in turn influenced post-1948 by Earl
> Scruggs. "Pickin' and Blowin"", the album John Kerhoven mentioned is great!
> The two of them (Red Parham and George Pegram) sound like an entire band!
> Though this album is very rare, through an odd set of circumstances I've
> ended up with THREE copies, two of which will appear on Ebay when I get
> around to it.
> ____________________________________________________________
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