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Personnel includes: Lester Flatt, Mac Wiseman, Bill Monroe. Recorded between 1969 & 1974. Contains 148 tracks. Personnel: Lester Flatt (vocals, guitar); Mac Wiseman (vocals, guitar); Bill Monroe (vocals, mandolin); Boomer Clarke (vocals); Gary Scruggs (baritone, guitar, tambourine); Earl Scruggs (baritone, banjo); Paul Warren (bass voice, fiddle); Howard G. "Johnny" Johnson, Grady Martin, Monroe Fields, Randy Scruggs, Ray Edenton (guitar); Fred Carter (electric guitar); Charlie Daniels (12-string guitar, electric bass); Jerry Shook (12-string guitar); Jack Martin, Charles Nixon (dobro); Haskel McCormick, Kenny Ingram, Vic Jordan (banjo); Roland White, Bobby Osborne (mandolin); Jimmy Riddle (harmonica); Robert G. Wilson, Hargus "Pig" Robbins, Jerry Whitehurst (piano); Ralph Gallant, Marilyn Harman, Kenny Buttrey, Jim Isbell (drums). Audio Mixers: Dennis Ferrante; Vic Anesini. Recording information: Columbia Recording Studio, Nash (05/16/1966-03/19/1974); Neely Auditorium, Nashville, TN (05/16/1966-03/19/1974); RCA Victor Studio, Nashville, TN (05/16/1966-03/19/1974). Illustrators: Les Leverett; R.A. Andreas. Photographers: Les Leverett; R.A. Andreas. It started as early as 1966, when Earl Scruggs convinced his partner, Lester Flatt, to record some songs outside of the bluegrass tradition. Among them were some Bobby Bare cuts: "Passing Through," "Shut Your Face, I'm Talking to Your Head," "Before You Die," and "Take Me Home to Mama." In the same year there was the song that Ralph Stanley would make his signature, Waylon Jennings' "Man of Constant Sorrow." In 1967 it was Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country," and in 1968 it was Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," produced by Bob Johnston, Dylan's producer. And in 1969, amid the ringing electric guitars of Randy Scruggs, Charlie McCoy's harmonica, Charlie Daniels' rhythm guitar, and others bluegrass "innovations," it was over. Arguably the most famous duo in the history of bluegrass -- eclipsing even the profile of the music's founders, Bill Monroe (their former employer) and Ralph Stanley in the early '60s -- Flatt & Scruggs had a bitter parting of ways that would not be mended until Flatt was on his deathbed ten years later. This Bear Family set compiles the aforementioned tracks and five and a half more CDs, including Flatt's last live date, all recorded for RCA between 1969 and 1978. Flatt, by far the more traditional of the two men, and ten years Scruggs' senior, went to record with Mac Wiseman, Josh Graves, Marty Stuart, and a host of other traditional musicians -- including Bill Monroe -- on over ten albums' worth of material both original and from the bluegrass canon. None of it matches the majesty of Flatt & Scruggs at their peak -- and neither does Scruggs' -- but it is all worthwhile as a way of looking at how bluegrass music survived a particularly tumultuous era. Certainly, collectors will find the most use for these recordings, but their appeal cannot be denied because Flatt was the
