Flatt Made Mark On Music History

The City of Sparta celebrates one of its most famous residents ever Saturday with the annual Lester Flatt Day.

Sparta Resident Blake Williams was Flatt’s last banjo picker in the Nashville Grass before Flatt passed away in 1979. Williams said Flatt rose to stardom when he joined other bluegrass pioneers Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise, and Cedric Rainwater in a band called the Bluegrass Boys.

“That is considered the big explosion of the music we know as bluegrass today because of Earl’s fantastic picking,” Williams said. “And of course, Lester was a great guitar player and songwriter. He’s actually got about 168 songs to his credit that have all become classics.”

Williams said Flatt loved to laugh and had a dry wit about him. Williams recalled a story of when Lester was complaining about how hot it was inside Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Flatt approached the auditorium’s manager saying he was going to pay for the auditorium to install air conditioning.

“The manager said, ‘well Lester you know with today’s money it would cost at least a million dollars to air condition this auditorium,'” Williams said. “And Lester then said, ‘well it ain’t near as hot as I thought it was.’ So that was his sense of humor.”

Williams said Lester is a big part of Sparta’s history and the city has celebrated Lester Flatt’s Day for over 20 years. Williams said he hopes the new generation will come out and learn the history of Lester Flatt.

The celebration will have over 200 vendors, a classic car show, and of course, some of that good ole bluegrass music. Williams said the city celebrates Lester Flatt Day to celebrate Sparta’s History.

“Bluegrass pickers and fans like to travel over large areas,” Williams said. “We will have at least a dozen states represented here tomorrow, so it is good for tourism, it’s good to keep Lester’s memory alive, and it’s good to honor bluegrass music because we have such a great heritage here.”

The celebration begins at 11am at the City Square in Sparta.