Lester Flatt

Born in 1914 near Sparta, Tennessee, Lester Flatt began playing guitar at the young age of seven.  Story has it that by the age of ten he was well known for singing bluegrass and gospel in schools and church choirs around his hometown. Flatt’s career picked up later when he supported “father of bluegrass” Bill Monroe, playing guitar and singing leads in the Blue Grass Boys, a band that would come to serve as something like a rite of passage for many great musicians.

While wider audiences might know him best as the voice carrying the theme to 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, more seasoned bluegrass listeners are no doubt familiar with Lester Flatt through his work with Earl Scruggs in the foundational bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. The two were not only majorly successful in their lifetimes, but are considered essential performers of the genre by bluegrass historians.

Flatt’s later work with his own ensemble, The Nashville Grass. Formed in 1969 after the breakup of his seminal duo, the Nashville Grass consisted of some of the finest bluegrass performers in Nashville, including several who had previously supported Flatt and Scruggs as the Foggy Mountain Boys. No mere footnote in his discography, Flatt’s later recording career consists of some essential works, the culmination of several decades of picking.

Flatt continued putting out records right up until he passed in 1979. His final six full-length LPs were all recorded for CMH. We’re proud to be the home for this essential late career work. His final album, Pickin’ Time, recorded for CMH in 1978, just a year before he passed, shows he had it in him until the very end.

Lester Flatt was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as well as the International Bluegrass Hall of Honor in 1985 and 1991 respectively.