LESTER AND MAC

Lester Raymond Flatt (19 de junio de 1914 - 11 de mayo de 1979) fue un cantante, guitarrista y mandolinista de Bluegrass, conocido por estar en el dúo Foggy Mountain Boys, también conocido como "Flatt and Scruggs" con el banjista Earl Scruggs.

La carrera de Flatt abarcó varias décadas; además de su trabajo con Scruggs, sacó varios discos en solitario y con colaboraciones. También trabajó en la banda de Bill Monroe durante la década de 1940.

Flatt nació en Duncan's Chapel, en el Condado de Overton, Tennessee, hijo de Nannie Mae Haney e Isaac Columbus Flatt. Cantante y guitarrista, comienza a ser conocido como miembro del grupo Blue Grass Boys de Bill Monroe en 1945. En 1948 monta su propio grupo con Earl Scruggs (discípulo de Bill Monroe) y durante los siguientes veinte años Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys fueron una de las bandas de bluegrass de mayor éxito. Cuando se dividieron en 1969, Flatt formó un nuevo grupo, los Nashville Grass, con la mayor parte del personal de los Foggy Mountain Boys. Su papel fundamental como cantante y guitarra rítmica en cada uno de los grupos, ayudó a definir el sonido de la música bluegrass tradicional. Creó un estilo que más tarde ahondarían Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, Peter Rowan y Del McCoury. Su voz es inconfundible en los estándares del bluegrass.

Memorial de Lester Flatt en Sparta, Tennessee

También es recordado por su biblioteca de composiciones: sus composiciones son muchas e imprescindibles para cualquier estudiante de música acústica. Continuó grabando y actuando hasta su muerte en 1979 de ataque al corazón, tras un prolongado periodo de mala salud. Entró a título póstumo en el Country Music Hall of Fame en 1985 con Scruggs y en 1991 inaugurando el International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. Su lugar de nacimiento Sparta (Tennessee), lleva a cabo un festival de bluegrass en su honor desde hace años, aunque parado debido a la muerte de su líder tradicional Everette Paul England; El Lester Flatt Memorial Bluegrass Day forma parte de la celebración en la Liberty Square en Sparta.

Flatt and Scruggs entraron en el número 24 del ranking 40 Greatest Men of Country Music de la Country Music Television en 2003. Tocaron la canción "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", utilizada como entrada del show de televisión The Beverly Hillbillies.

           

               

   Take's Bluegrass Album Channel

Data de publicació: 5 de maig 2016

Label: RCA Victor - LSP-4547

Format: Vinyl

Country: US

Released: 1971

Song List:

A1 - You're The Best Of All The Leading Brands 2:15

A2 - Special 2:24

A3 - Homestead On The Farm 2:40

A4 - Your Love Is Like A Flower 2:45

A5 - Now That You Have Me 2:03

B1 - The Bluebirds Singing For Me 2:47

B2 - Will You Be Loving Another Man 2:31

B3 - Jimmie Brown, The Newsboy 2:18

B4 - Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong 2:21

B5 - I'll Never Love Another 2:27

Musicians:

・Lester Flatt (Guitar, Vocals)

・Mac Wiseman (Guitar, Vocals)

・Roland White (Mandolin)

・Buck Graves (Dobro)

・Victor Jordan (Banjo)

・Haskel McCormick (Bnajo)

・Howdy Forrester (Fiddle)

・Paul Warren (Fiddle)

・E.P. Tullock Jr.(Bass)

・Hargus Robbins (Piano)

・Jerry Carrigan (Drums)

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Malcolm Bell Wiseman (May 23, 1925 – February 24, 2019) was an American bluegrass singer.

He was born on May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Virginia. He attended school in New Hope, Virginia, and graduated from high school there in 1943. He had polio from the age of six months; due to his disabilities, he could not do field work and spent his time in childhood listening to old records. He studied at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Dayton, Virginia, before it moved to Winchester, Virginia, in 1960 and started his career as a disc jockey at WSVA-AM in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Music career

His musical career began as upright bass player in the Cumberland Mountain Folks, the band of country singer Molly O'Day. When Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left Bill Monroe's band, Wiseman became the guitarist for their new band, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Later he played with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.

In 1951, his first solo single, "'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered", was released. According to Rolling Stone this song "catapulted him to solo stardom".

He was co-founder of the Country Music Association (CMA) and was its last living co-founder.[2] In 1958, the original CMA board was formed with help from Wiseman to save the popularity of country music from rock & roll.He also served as the first secretary of CMA.From 1966 to 1970, Wiseman served as director of the WWVA Jamboree.

In 1986 he co-founded the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) which was another influential bluegrass music body.

Wiseman was referred to by a disc jockey as "The Voice with a Heart", a title which became popular among his fans. He was popular for his interpretations of songs on Dot Records such as "Shackles and Chains", "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight", "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy", and "Love Letters in the Sand".

In 2014, he released an album of songs inspired by his mother's handwritten notebooks of songs she heard on the radio when Wiseman was a child: Songs From My Mother's Hand.

He died in Nashville on February 24, 2019. The cause of death was kidney failure.

Mac Wiseman recorded splendid and often groundbreaking music for more than seventy years, remaining relevant and productive even in his nineties. He was a titan of bluegrass music's first generation, though bluegrass never defined him. He helped found the CMA, he headed Dot Records' country division, and he recorded with everyone from big band legend Woody Herman to Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Duane Eddy to Americana poet laureate John Prine.

— Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 

Awards and honors

In 1993 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.Wiseman was a recipient of a 2008 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. In 2014 he was inducted into the Veteran Era category of the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is given to "an artist who achieved national prominence more than 45 years ago".