On this day (May 11) in 1979, Lester Flatt died of heart failure in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 64. Most remember him as half of Flatt & Scruggs, the foundational bluegrass duo. He and Earl ...

Bill Monroe transmuted childhood tragedy into an entirely new genre of music. The original singer of the popular Elvis Presley hit “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” Monroe blended “Scottish bagpipes and ...

Smithsonian Institution, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, 600 Maryland Ave., S.W., Suite 2001, Washington ...

The ripple created in 1945 by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys has spread ever outward through the decades, absorbing new influences and spinning off subgenres. Sunny skies and seasonably warm ...