"Foggy Mountain Breakdown." Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. (1949)
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and their band, the Foggy Mountain Boys, made this influential recording for Mercury Records on December 11, 1949, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first of many instrumental hits featuring Scrugg’s three-finger banjo picking style, it has set benchmarks for generations of banjo players and bluegrass performers. The 1949 recording of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was famously featured as chase music in the 1967 film, Bonnie and Clyde.
"Lovesick Blues." Hank Williams. (1949)
Hank Williams (1923-53) is the most important artist in country music history, but he couldn’t have done it without Fred Rose. Born in rural Alabama and raised by a strong mother in the Depression South when his father was committed to an institution, young Hank lived for music. It is reputed that Hank picked up rudiments of guitar and performing from blues singer Tee-Tot (Rufe Payne) as a child in Greenville. The family moved to Montgomery in ‘37, and Hank was already good enough to win a talent contest with an original song, “W.P.A. Blues,” that year. With a repertoire of Roy Acuff, Jimmie Rodgers and original tunes, Williams had his own radio show on WSFA by ‘41.
A back injury kept Williams out of the Army, so he worked in the shipyards of Mobile by day and played the honky tonks by night. He met another strong woman, Audrey Sheppard, who had enough confidence in Hank’s talent for the both of them, and they were married in ‘44.
Fred Rose (1897-1954) was a child prodigy on piano who played for tips in the saloons of St. Louis. He gravitated to Chicago by his teens, where he performed, recorded player piano rolls, and wrote scores of songs, including “’deed I Do“ and “Red Hot Mama” for Sophie Tucker. Rose played briefly with Paul Whiteman’s band, drifted to Nashville in ‘33 where he had his own radio show on WSM (Fred Rose’s Song Shop - “you suggest the title and Fred will compose the song live on the air!”), then to the songwriter’s mecca, New York’s Tin Pan Alley. Another songwriter introduced Rose to Gene Autry, whom he accompanied to Hollywood and with whom he co-wrote 16 film songs including “Tears On My Pillow,” and the Academy Award-nominated (‘41) “Be Honest With Me.”
Rose returned to Nashville in ‘42 and had his country music epiphany one evening listening to Roy Acuff sing “Don’t Make Me Go to Bed and I’ll Be Good” at the Opry. Rose began writing country songs in earnest and accepted when Acuff asked him to go into partnership on the first all-country music publishing company, Acuff-Rose. By ‘45, Rose had turned over the daily management of the company to his accountant son Wesley in order to concentrate on songwriting, talent hunting, and marketing (i.e. song plugging). Father and son Rose were engaged in their daily table tennis session when Hank and Audrey Williams walked unannounced into their office in September of ‘46.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Well we didn't all that list since it is at the link.
To take this much of the text, in this case, it should be pointed out, is OK because it is a 100-percent government release. As in, no copyright.
I'll have to get back this but very cool. I was going to commend the poster for the link back to other blogcritic articles - before I saw it was EricO. :-)
2 - Eric Olsen
bolded the titles to make it more readable; yes, government source, ripe for the picking, but I did include my own input as well: that which is not indented
3 - DrPat
Well, I thank you! I would never have thought to check the list without this link and the substance posted here. It makes me feel good to realize I have more than a half-dozen of these in my own collection...
4 - Eric Olsen
glad it was helpful, the '02 and '03 lists are worth perusing as well
5 - Eric Berlin
Man, I'd love to check out those Murrow broadcasts from London circa The Blitz. Now that's some history for you.
Yesterday, I was walking along when the Ewok celebration from Return of the Jedi popped into my iPod. That song transitions into the Star Wars main theme, and I was thinking about how amazing it is, how striking, how original, how utterly... Star Wars it is. If that's not the greatest movie theme ever, I don't know what is.
6 - Eric Olsen
I love the jaunty faux-jazz of the nightclub scene in the original
7 - Eric Berlin
Are you talking about the Cantina scene? That music is fabulous. And I love the blue dude with like elephant-type hands that plays the keyboard-like instrument.
8 - Eric Olsen
yes, cantina, it's been a while
9 - Al Barger
Bad as I hate the idea of guvment as art critic, I gotta say this is a pretty sweet list. Jimmie Rodgers, the Beach Boys and Public Enemy all together. Plus some real pickin' fiends from Flatt & Scruggs and the Allman's. What more could you want?
10 - JR
Actually, it's the government as a library, maintaining our intellectual infrastructure. These are just the librarians' picks.
11 - Eric Olsen
with nominations from the public
12 - Dave Nalle
I've got 8 of those on my iPod including 2 of the albums. Not bad. Bet you''d never guess which ones I have tho.
Dave
13 - Beto Mattos
Friends!!!
Friends are with a lot of affection and pleasure that me same Beto Mattos singer and Brazilian composer request her/it this recording support, because I have a wonderful work of a lot of more success with the bankruptcy of the big ones recording in Brazil am disabled of selling my work, so much that with the great success of my album don't have cd in the market and I seek a recording one or even dealer that can help myself in this process visits my site hears some of the music hope to count with this considered company.
www.betomattos.art.br
011 (97342103
14 - Joe Arnold
Mike Johnson's "YODELING 40 YEARS" 2-disc CD
is now part of the Library of Congress' Recorded Sound collection!
What's so special about Mike Johnson's release, you ask, since there have been many, many yodeling albums containing 20 to 30 yodeling songs on them! Quite true, but none of them can boast that ALL of the songs on those releases were written by ONE person! Well we can, because all 50 of the yodeling songs on this 2-disc CD album were written & composed by Mike Johnson.
These songs will take you on a journey from Mike's raw beginnings and development to becoming Country Music's No.1 Black Yodeler. Also debuting on this release are more of Mike's unique wordless yodeling songs like "Black Yodels No. 2 to 7", "Snuggle-Up Yodel", "Wild Horse Yodel", and "Yodel Round Up." Mike has written over 100 yodeling songs.
On 15 March 2007 we received a confirmation letter from the Library of Congress informing us that Mike Johnson's "Yodeling 40 Years" and "Black Yodel No.1" CDs, and related yodeling material, are now part of the Recorded Sound Reference Center's permanent collection. This is a part of the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
Mike Johnson is also one of the 18 World Famous Yodelers featured on the "Rough Guide To Yodel" CD, singing his ever-popular "Yeah I'm A Cowboy."
Wanna hear some of those songs, go to www.indiecharts.com/yodeler
Wanna see Mike in action, go to www.YouTube.com and type the following titles into the Search Engine bar;
1. Mike Johnson's Tarzan Did! [Mike is 60 years old on this performance]
2. Mike Johnson's Wild Horse Yodel [and this one too!]
3. Mike Johnson - Mama Don't Allow No Music Round Here.
Radio DJs can download Mike Johnson songs at;
www.airplaydirect.com/music/bands/12725
Mike's Mother's Day hit "DID YOU HUG YOUR MOTHER TODAY?" is now part of the CD Baby lineup.
www.cdbaby.com/all/mikejohnson
Have a good day.
Joe Arnold, Roughshod Records
P.O. Box 100933, Arlington, Va. 22210