On the Tube and Big Screen

Whether it was properly labeled bluegrass or old-time, mountain music became part of the general public’s consciousness through television and film during the latter half of the 1900’s. The Dillards (aka, the Darlings) were a popular act who made regular guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show beginning in 1960.

“The Ballad of Jed Clampett”, by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, was made popular by the TV show, The Beverly Hillbillies in 1962.

On the Big Screen, “The Foggy Mountain Breakdown”, by Flatt and Scruggs, became a hit after it was featured in the movie Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, even though it had been written and recorded previously by them in 1949.

 The 1972 movie, Deliverance, featured the song “Dueling Banjos” written by Arthur Smith, though the song had been performed by the Dillards on The Andy Griffith Show, years earlier.

More recently, the old-time folk song, “Man of Constant Sorrow”, first popularized by the Stanley Brothers in the 1950’s was made even more popular when a recording by Dan Tyminski was used in the soundtrack of O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? in 2000.