PDA

View Full Version : Lester Flatts Biography...



Duane Graves
Jan-04-2011, 3:19pm
I am seeking information on the best Biography of Lester Flatts. I'm sure there must be some around and so I'm asking for the best of the lot in your opinion. Thanks,

Duane......

f5loar
Jan-04-2011, 3:35pm
There has only been about 2 published so far and both are small books so get them both. They may both be out of print so check ebay for used copies.

Willie Poole
Jan-04-2011, 7:06pm
Type in his name on the internet and I`m sure there will be some interesting stuff on there....I think they call it "Googeling"...Willie

Duane Graves
Jan-05-2011, 8:00am
Type in his name on the internet and I`m sure there will be some interesting stuff on there....I think they call it "Googeling"...Willie

Hi, Willie. "googling" is good, of course, but it doesn't tell me what the best bio is and according to f5loar there isn't too much anyway which surprises me. tks, Duane.

Brent Hutto
Jan-05-2011, 8:31am
Google will at least give you the correct spelling of his name, that's a start...;)

AlanN
Jan-05-2011, 8:41am
You mean it warn't Flatts and Scrugg? Well, I'll be...

Brent Hutto
Jan-05-2011, 8:56am
Hey, what do I know. I thought for years the band was named "Lester'nEarl"...

Willie Poole
Jan-05-2011, 11:57am
Duane, I typed in "Lester Flatt" and one of the posts that came up is infact his biography....Looks like that is what you need right there....I don`t know about your computer but on mine I just type in the subject matter and it goes there automatically....Some good info there on Lester Flatt....If you are on dial up you have to give it time to connect tho....Willie

Duane Graves
Jan-05-2011, 1:46pm
Google will at least give you the correct spelling of his name, that's a start...;)

You're right, Brent.....Lester only had "one" Flatt....(wink)

Ed Goist
Jan-05-2011, 1:56pm
Lester ♭

Duane Graves
Jan-05-2011, 2:26pm
Lester ♭

good one Ed....now we're cookn'......

f5loar
Jan-06-2011, 1:14am
I found my copies of the only 2 on Lester Flatt I know about. They are the 1980 "Lester Flatt, Baron of Bluegrass" by Olan Bassham and the more common one from 1982 "Lester Flatt, The Good Things Out Weigh The Bad" by Jake Lambert and Curly Sechler.
Both books have long been out of print.

Duane Graves
Jan-06-2011, 7:16am
I found my copies of the only 2 on Lester Flatt I know about. They are the 1980 "Lester Flatt, Baron of Bluegrass" by Olan Bassham and the more common one from 1982 "Lester Flatt, The Good Things Out Weigh The Bad" by Jake Lambert and Curly Sechler.
Both books have long been out of print.

Thank you, f5loar. To me this is a sad scenario...."out of print"....it's like a life lost. Perhaps someday someone might put him back "in print" for truly there is a trail to be followed here with such a busy man in Bluegrass roots as Lester Flatt....with one Flatt (smiling).....Duane.

allenhopkins
Jan-06-2011, 10:30pm
I have the Lambert & Sechler book, and it's pretty forgettable. Has a decent discography (but without recording session info), and a transcribed interview with Curly S. Also, some "thumbnail" bios of other band members. Flatt ended up living in his girlfriend's apartment in his last days; he went to his divorce hearing with a pistol in his pocket, took his girlfriend along with him on tour as his "nurse" (when I saw the Nashville Grass, in Flatt's last year or so, she helped him on and off stage, in her nurse's uniform), then left her out of his will. She later sued for a portion of his estate as his common-law wife.

What does any of that have to do with his music? Not a damn thing. Flatt was a great bluegrass singer, and a great rhythm guitarist (though the Foggy Mountain Boys sometimes reinforced him with an extra guitar). He was a central part of some of the best bluegrass ever played. If you liked Smith's Bill Monroe biography, you won't like The Good Things Out Weigh [sic] the Bad. Any book whose back cover shouts, "At Last the Truth Can Be Told About Lester Flatt" -- well, you see where that's going.

Willie Poole
Jan-07-2011, 11:58am
Interesting Allen....I have always judged musicians by the way they played and not by what they did in there private lives....A lot of the "old timers" weren`t people that we should copy regarding their private lives....I was a good friend of Buzz`s but didn`t like the things he was doing at that time but I never pushed him aside, same with Scotty Stoneman as you might have read in some of my former posts....Bib Mon wasn`t a saint either by any means....

Sorry to get off of the point but when searching for a bio of someone you might get more than you really want to hear...Judge Lester by what he did in the bluegrass field and not what he did privately....

Willie

allenhopkins
Jan-07-2011, 12:11pm
...Judge Lester by what he did in the bluegrass field and not what he did privately....

Couldn't agree more. The Lambert/Sechler book is tabloid fodder; here are some of the quotes on the back cover:
I started to shoot them both, and Brenda and the kid's [sic] came up before me
He told the judge that I had a gun in my pocket
I told him that if he didn't get his damn behind out of there I would kick the hell out of him...
Note: apologies to moderators -- this is what the publisher of The Good Things Out Weigh the Bad thought would "sell" the book.

It's a shame that a long-time friend and band-mate like Curly Sechler (which is how it's spelled in the book) would have put his name on this "tell-all" little volume. I know that Smith's Bill Monroe bio spent some time on Monroe's personal life -- his long affair with Bessie Lee Mauldin, his paternity suit, his financial problems -- but I'd say that was to try and give a total picture of the man, not to just "dish the dirt." The Flatt biography is less admirable, IMHO.

I hope Monroe, Flatt, Buzz Busby, Scott Stoneman, Jimmy Martin, and all the other bluegrass musicians who dealt with personal problems, are remembered for their wonderful music and not the mistakes they made in their offstage lives.

SternART
Jan-07-2011, 12:14pm
I read a lot of artist & musician's biographies, if I like their art, I think it is interesting to see what their lifestyle was like, who their friends were, what their influences were when they were coming up, what it was like to live in their time, in their shoes..... I want to better understand how they developed their style, what kind of a person they were, what inspired them, etc. Then, when I listen to their music, or look at the art, I seem to get a lot more out of it.

If someone's creative output really speak to me.....I want to know about the person too. Good and bad......

Duane Graves
Jan-08-2011, 9:04am
....If someone's creative output really speak to me.....I want to know about the person too. Good and bad......

That's exactly how I feel Art...I don't know, their life just inspires me somehow, both the good and bad parts of it....it doesn't turn me off of their contribution to their art that (even if) they "shot the judge" really, but the thing that gets me is trying to establish if this or that actually true. I just hate reading something and get all excited about it and find out that this probably didn't happen. That's why it is good to throw it out to the larger body as per this thread. For instance I am reading "Can't you Hear me Callin'" and that is because of an earlier thread about the life of BMonroe and the resulting general (high, I might add) concensus that this was probably a very close rendition of his life. And, you know what there are some pretty raunchy parts in this bio...quite revealing...but there are also wonderful stories depicting how BM was a good and kind person also (the author wanted to be honest I think). The book is making me "relate" somehow to his music. So, yes, I want to know all that happened in that life. Their music and name comes alive for me then--dgg