Re: Tuning to Flatt and Scruggs
Originally Posted by
Fretbear
Curley played mandolin....?...
I'm currently reading Foggy Mountain Troubadour: The Life and Music of Curly Seckler by Penny Parsons, and it tells me that one of Seckler's early jobs was as a mandolin playing, tenor singing "replacement" for Bill Monroe in Charlie Monroe's group, after the Monroe Brothers broke up. Seckler was called "Smilin' Bill" by Charlie Monroe, to give the impression that the "Monroe Brothers' sound" was still available from the Kentucky Partners (or Pardners).
Seckler, obviously, is not known for playing driving Bill Monroe-style mandolin; his best-known "break" with Flatt & Scruggs is the tremolo-heavy one on Foggy Mountain Special. The only time I've seen Seckler live, with the Nashville Grass when Flatt was still alive, he'd switched to guitar (Flatt was basically holding his guitar at that stage of his life), and teenage Marty Stuart was the mandolinist.
Secular apparently started out playing tenor banjo, but he played mostly mandolin (Gibson F-2, for many years) and guitar from WWII era on.
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