Chapter 10: Bluegrass
By the 1950s and 1960s, the United States saw a growing interest in folk music and traditional American genres. As part of this folk music revival, younger audiences, especially those on college campuses, began seeking out what they saw as “authentic” roots music untouched by the polish and commercialism of mainstream pop. Among the genres rediscovered and embraced during this period was bluegrass, which had initially developed in the 1940s but had remained somewhat niche outside of Southern audiences.
Bluegrass, with its acoustic instrumentation, virtuosic musicianship, and perceived emotional directness, was perfectly suited to this new wave of interest in “real” American music. Musicians like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and The Stanley Brothers found themselves invited to perform at folk music festivals, university campuses, and major venues such as Carnegie Hall, a significant leap from the radio shows and county fairs where many had gotten their start. The cultural and political significance of this broader folk revival will be explored in more detail in a later chapter.
Of all the bluegrass artists during this period, Flatt and Scruggs perhaps benefited the most from the revival. In 1962, they composed and performed “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” as the theme song for the television series The Beverly Hillbillies. The show’s popularity brought their music to millions of households each week, and the song itself reached number one on the Billboard Country Chart, making it one of the most commercially successful bluegrass singles of all time.
Their earlier instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” first recorded in 1949, gained new life in 1967 when it was prominently featured in the soundtrack of the hit film Bonnie and Clyde. The film’s critical and commercial success introduced a younger, more urban audience to bluegrass music and sparked a renewed interest in Flatt and Scruggs’s decades-old catalog. The tune once again climbed the charts, proving that bluegrass could resonate across generations and cultural contexts.
The folk revival helped to reposition bluegrass as a genre worthy of cultural preservation and academic study. Bluegrass bands began appearing at major events like the Newport Folk Festival, and record labels started reissuing older recordings for new audiences. The movement helped solidify bluegrass’s identity not only as a subgenre of country music, but as a distinct and historically significant musical form within the broader scope of American roots music.