Description

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 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 Bla 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 the banjo back from obscurity and distinguished the low-key Scruggs as a principal figure in American acoustic music.

“An enormous contribution to the history of bluegrass and a fascinating read, well organized and well told. Goldsmith’s lengthy interview with Earl is a treasure trove of information not only about ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ but about the early days of bluegrass and specifically Earl’s working relationship with Bill Monroe, which has long been clouded in mystery.” – Murphy Hicks Henry, author of Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass

An ear-opening journey into two minutes and forty-three seconds of heaven. 6″ x 9″ 179 pp.