Dudley Culp first saw clogging in spring 1971 at the Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Union Grove, NC.  When he saw the Smoky Mountain Cloggers perform, he knew he wanted to learn to clog. Evelyn Smith Farmer of Fries, VA, showed him a basic step that he took back to friends in Greenville, NC, hoping to start a team.  Dudley and Toni Jordan (now Williams) took a square dance class at East Carolina University and later learned more figures from Betty Casey, an internationally experienced square dance caller then living in Greenville.  At the 1971 Autumn Square-Up at Fiddler’s Grove, festival organizers Harper and Wansie Van Hoy encouraged Dudley’s hopes for a clogging team. In December 1971, with the local Flatland Family Band, the new dance group gave its first performance under the name Toni suggested—Green Grass Cloggers, a reference to Greenville, bluegrass, and the counterculture.  

With their energetic dance style and somewhat informal costumes—calico dresses for the ladies and jeans and western work shirts with calico accents for the gents—the GGCs transferred their offstage personalities to their performances so that they were a team, yet all still individuals.  In 1972, the hippie cloggers, many wearing thrift store shoes, debuted at Union Grove on April Fools’ Day, and they later won ’72 and ’74 World Championship titles at the Square-Up against polished teams. After they all met in 1973, flatfooter Willard Watson from Deep Gap, NC, and fiddler Tommy Jarrell from near Mt. Airy, NC, were attracted to the GGCs’ youthful energy and said the early GGCs’ spirit on and off stage reminded them of the way dancing used to be, before competitions so heavily influenced clogging.  The GGCs had used square dance figures they knew and created steps as they needed and wanted to—and that improvisation itself makes what they were doing a folk art form. They felt validated in knowing that what they’d created, while trying to be different from the norm, was actually recapturing a more earthy spirit of the dance.  

To follow the increasing performance invitations, in 1977, some of the GGCs formed a Road Team of full-time dancers for the circuit of large U.S. and Canadian folk festivals, with some trips overseas.  Those who couldn’t travel became the Home Team. Travels led them to a new mentor—Robert Dotson of Sugar Grove, NC—whose Walking Step helped the GGCs enhance their footwork. Both the Home and Road groups were based in Greenville until the Road Team relocated to Asheville, NC, in 1980.  That group traveled internationally to such places as South America and Asia, released the album Through the Ears marking the GGC fifteenth anniversary in 1986, disbanded soon afterwards, and later re-formed in Asheville to do occasional performances. Meanwhile, the Home Team created new routines in the eighties, and in the nineties adapted the earlier choreography for a smaller membership. 

While both the eastern and western groups of GGCs kept dancing the same routines, they didn’t have much interaction outside of reunions until the early 2000s when several dancers from the early-1970s GGCs moved to the Asheville area and began dancing again.  Their return led to a large thirty-fifth anniversary reunion in 2006. Since then, the eastern and western groups have danced together at more festivals so the routines can remain similar. The Green Grass style has maintained partner-based choreography and prioritized live music.  The traveling and teaching that the group did in the seventies and eighties had such a wide influence that much of the clogging around the world that isn’t the competition precision style can be traced back to the Green Grass Cloggers through the spin-off groups that started among people who saw the cloggers and attended workshops at festivals. 

Recent recognitions for the Green Grass Cloggers include Western Carolina University’s 2008 Mountain Heritage Award, the Charlotte Folk Society’s 2011 Folk Heritage Award, and a 2012 Community Traditions Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society. During the fortieth anniversary tour in 2011—named the Year of the Possum as a reference to the group’s 1978 pet possum Alfred—the GGCs grew to include three squares of dancers on stage together at venues such as Fiddler’s Grove, Greenville’s Sunday in the Park, Asheville’s Shindig on the Green, and the official reunion at the Hoppin’ John Old-Time and Bluegrass Fiddlers’ Convention at Shakori Hills.  The November 2011 homecoming celebration at East Carolina University’s Wright Auditorium marked an onstage first for the group: they performed the earliest Green Grass routine with four squares of dancers. Presently, out of about one hundred seventy members throughout the group’s history, the combined eastern and western rosters include nearly forty active dancers who joined during each of the four decades.

Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music," Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.

Acuff began his music career in the 1930s, and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. In 1932, Dr. Hauer's medicine show, which toured the Southern Appalachian region, hired Acuff as one of its entertainers.  While on the medicine show circuit, Acuff met legendary Appalachian banjoist Clarence Ashley, from whom he learned "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Greenback Dollar", both of which Acuff later recorded.  

In 1934, Acuff left the medicine show circuit and began playing at local shows with various musicians in the Knoxville area. That year, guitarist Jess Easterday and Hawaiian guitarist Clell Summey joined Acuff to form the Tennessee Crackerjacks, which performed regularly on Knoxville radio stations WROL and WNOX. Within a year, the group had added bassist Red Jones and changed its name to the Crazy Tennesseans after being introduced as such by WROL announcer Alan Stout. The popularity of Acuff's rendering of the song "The Great Speckled Bird" helped the group land a contract with the ARC, for whom they recorded several dozen tracks in 1936. 

In 1938, the Crazy Tennesseans moved to Nashville to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. Although their first audition went poorly, the band's second audition impressed Opry founder George D. Hay and producer Harry Stone, and they offered the group a contract later that year. On Hay and Stone's suggestion, Acuff changed the group's name to the "Smoky Mountain Boys," referring to the mountains near where Acuff and his bandmates grew up. 

He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff co-founded the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company—Acuff-Rose Music—which signed acts such as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and The Everly Brothers. In 1962, Acuff became the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 1972, Acuff appeared on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The appearance paved the way for one of the defining moments of Acuff's career, which came on the night of March 16, 1974, when the Opry officially moved from the Ryman Auditorium to the Grand Ole Opry House at Opryland. The first show at the new venue opened with a huge projection of a late-1930s image of Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys onto a large screen above the stage. A recording from one of the band's 1939 appearances was played over the sound system, with the iconic voice of George Hay introducing the band, followed by the band's performance of "Wabash Cannonball".

In the early 1980s, after the death of his wife, Mildred, Acuff, then in his 80s, moved into a house on the Opryland grounds and continued performing on stage. In 1991, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts and given a lifetime achievement award by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the first Country music act to receive the esteemed honor. He died in Nashville on November 23, 1992 of congestive heart failure at the age of 89.

James Silas “Jimmy” Church was well known in the western North Carolina area as a country music singer and guitarist. He was born June 22, 1937 in Wilkes County to Silas and Bessie Holman Church. His dad taught him to play the straight guitar, which was the first of many instruments he played. His band, Jimmy Church and the Gems performed at numerous venues in the area for decades along with countless benefits such as muscular dystrophy and other charitable organizations.

Jimmy Church and the Gems played as the house band for Tweetsie Railroad theme park near Blowing Rock, playing for more than 200,000 people. Gospel music was a special love of Jimmy’s and he played throughout his life at churches and other religious events. He recorded two records, “Be Nobody’s Darling but Mine” with Christine Horton and “Ruby” with the Gems.

Church signed a contract in Nashville with Mary Reeves, wife of the late Jim Reeves and shared the stage with artists such as Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, Marty Stuart, Jim Ed Brown, Dale Reeves and the Wilburn Brothers. The Gems appeared on the Nashville Music “You can Be A Star” show at Music City, USA and received the Outstanding Entertainment award. He taught his children, grandchildren and many others to play music and often performed with family members. He made music a full time profession and his group included his sons, Jimmy Jr., playing the steel guitar and singing, Rickey on the drums and Bud playing the bass guitar. His youngest son Chris was a featured soloist for many years with the Gems. His grandson David Gambill began playing with him at the age of twelve and continues to perform with the training he received from his grandfather. Christine Horton of Ferguson played piano with the Gems for 13 years; Clay Wilson and Lloyd Church were other fellow band members for many years.

He was also an experienced radio announcer, having worked as a disc jockey at WFMX in Statesville and WQXZ in Taylorsville. He always wanted to stay in the local area. His love for music and his talent showed through each performance whether it was playing for the governor or playing for a family reunion. His musical ability allowed him many opportunities to visit with government officials, movie stars, sports stars, and musical stars but mostly he loved the interactions with his people of western North Carolina. Jimmy Church died on February 23, 2010 at his home.

The Stoneman Family originated with Ernest V. ‘Pop’ Stoneman (1893-1968) who learned to play guitar, autoharp, banjo and harmonica and showed a talent for quickly learning songs that he either heard or read in early songbooks. He worked in cotton mills, coalmines and as a carpenter in various parts of the area. He traveled to New York where, providing his own autoharp and harmonica backings, he auditioned for Columbia Records and OKeh Records. He made his first recordings for Okeh in September 1924, including his million-seller, ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’. It proved to be one of the biggest hits of the 20s and has since been recorded by many artists, including Roy Acuff. The records sold well enough and further sessions soon followed; on one he was accompanied by Emmett Lundy, a noted Virginian fiddler, and on occasions, he recorded with his fiddle-playing wife Hattie Stoneman (1900-1976). In 1926, he recorded for RCA - Victor Records with his first band the Dixie Mountaineers and later with the Blue Ridge Cornshuckers. In the following years many recordings were made, which saw release on various labels, some under pseudonyms such as Slim Harris, Ernest Johnson, Uncle Ben Hawkins and Jim Seaney. In July 1927, he recorded at the noted sessions at Bristol, Tennessee, where Ralph Peer also recorded the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. Owing to the Depression, he did not record between 1929 and 1933, but even so he had proved so popular that between 1925 and 1934, he had still recorded over 200 songs. Some recordings were with other musicians, including his banjoist cousin George Stoneman, fiddlers Alex ‘Uncle Eck’ Dunford and Kahle Brewer and on his last pre-World War II session in 1934, he was accompanied by his eldest son Eddie, who played banjo and took some vocals. In 1931, financially insecure in spite of the earnings from record sales, he moved to Washington DC to support his family. Some of the children learned to play instruments during childhood and when, after the war, he gradually began to return to entertaining, his band was made up of his wife and their own children.

A winning appearance on a television quiz show in 1956 led him to reactivate his career. With his wife and five of his children, he recorded again (on Folkways Records) in 1957. After adding some contemporary country and bluegrass music to the old-time and folk songs that he had always performed, the Stoneman Family became a popular touring act. They played on the Grand Ole Opry in 1962 and even appeared at Fillmore West in San Francisco, America’s first psychedelic ballroom. In 1964, they moved their home to California, where they became active on the west coast folk scene and appeared at the prestigious Monterey Folk Festival. They also played on various network television shows in the 60s, including the Jimmy Dean TV Variety Show, and between 1966 and 1968, they hosted their own series. At this time, the group consisted of Pop (autoharp, guitar), Scotty (1933-1973: fiddle), Van Haden (1941-1995; guitar), Donna (mandolin), Roni (banjo) and Jimmy (1937-2002; bass). They had five minor hits with recordings on MGM Records in the late 60s but later recorded for other labels including Starday and RCA. In 1967, the Country Music Association voted the Stoneman Family the Vocal Group Of The Year. Ernest Stoneman made his last recordings on April 11th of 1968, and continued to perform with the group almost up to his death. He was in all probability the first person ever to record using an autoharp and he is well remembered by exponents for his ability to play the melody line, instead of merely playing chords, the standard method of playing the instrument, even by its inventor. He is also accepted as being the only country musician to record on both Edison cylinders and modern stereo albums and he was also the leading performer of string-band music in the Galax area of Virginia.

After ‘Pop’ Stoneman’s death, his daughter Patti (autoharp) gave up her solo career to join with Donna, Roni, Van and Jimmy and as the Stoneman Family, they continued to play his music and toured all over the USA and Europe. Scotty Stoneman, who also worked with the Blue Grass Champs and the Kentucky Colonels, won many fiddle competitions, including the national contest on several occasions and at the time of his death, in 1973, he was rated one of the world’s finest bluegrass fiddle players. Hattie Stoneman, who first recorded in 1925, died in hospital aged 75. In later years, Donna left to concentrate on gospel music, and Roni became a featured star of the television show Hee Haw. Patti, Jimmy and Van continued to play as the Stoneman Family. Another brother John (1923-2001; autoharp) was one of the original members of the family group but later in life become a farmer. Twin brothers Gene (1930-2005) and Dean (1930-1989) performed for a time in the Maryland area as the Stoneman Brothers, until Dean formed his Vintage Bluegrass band. In 1981, several members of the family reunited to record a special album.

Norman Blake, born March 10, 1938 in Chattanooga, TN, grew up in Sulphur Springs and Rising Fawn, GA. He  quit school at the age of 16 to play mandolin in a band, and music has been the focus of his life ever since.

 His first band, The Dixie Drifters, played the Tennessee Barndance on KNOX Radio in Knoxville, TN. Later, they went to WDOD Radio, and from there to WROM-TV in Rome, GA where they stayed until 1956. Norman then worked with banjoist Bob Johnson as The Lonesome Travelers. They joined with Walter Forbes in making two records for RCA. In 1959, Norman left those groups to go with Hylo Brown and the Timberliners, although he continued as a duet with Bob Johnson in making several guest appearances on WSM's Grand Ole Opry.

 At that time, Norman was drafted and stationed in the Panama Canal as a radio operator. There he formed the Fort Kobbe Mountaineers, a bluegrass band in which Norman played the fiddle and mandolin. They were voted Best Instrumental Group of the Caribbean Command, with Norman voted Best Instrumentalist.

 Upon returning to the United States, Norman taught guitar to as many as 150 students weekly, and played the fiddle in a country and western dance band three and four nights a week. He also made frequent trips to Nashville to play sessions and, for a time, played as a member of June Carter's road group.

 In 1969, Norman moved to Nashville to do the Johnny Cash Summer TV show, in which he played the guitar and dobro as a member of Cash's group. Along with country and western sessions, Norman recorded with Bob Dylan on The Nashville Skyline album. He was a member of Kris Kristofferson's first road group, playing guitar and dobro, and did a seasonal tour with Joan Baez, playing mandolin, guitar, and dobro; Norman recorded with both groups. He left Kristofferson to join and record with John Hartford's Aeroplane Band. After that band dissolved, Norman toured with John Hartford as his accompanist for 1 1/2 years, during which time he recorded his first solo album, Home in Sulphur Springs. He also received a gold record for his participation on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's legendary, Will the Circle be Unbroken album. After a nine-month tour with the Red, White and Blue(grass), he left to go back on his own where he has been ever since.

In the ensuing years, Norman and his wife Nancy Blake have toured extensively, playing to larger and more dedicated audiences. Again, Frets Magazine Readers Poll Awards voted Norman first place, this time in the category of Best Multi-Instrumentalist of 1986. In 1989, the Blakes received Grammy nominations for "Best Traditional Folk Recording of the Year" on their duet record, Blind Dog, and again in 1992 in the same category for their Shanachie debut Just Gimme Something I'm Used To.

A San Francisco Examiner music critic wrote, "What Blake does is important, of course - but the glory of his string sounds, the Tennessee-Georgia twangy drawl of his vocals and the awesome blend of the Blakes' instruments produces an American music of incomparable purity and integrity."

Lester Flatt was born in Tennessee in 1914 and learned to play banjo from his father at an early age. He didn't particularly like the banjo, so he quit that to pick up guitar before he was seven. By ten years old, Flatt was playing guitar and singing in local schools and churches.
As a teenager, he moved to North Carolina to work in a silk mill. While there, he married his wife, Gladys, with whom he began performing as a duo. When the mill shut down, the Flatts returned to Tennessee for a short time before moving to Virginia. As the result of a bout with rheumatoid arthritis, Flatt quit the mill permanently to focus on a career in music.

He played with a handful of groups before being invited by Charlie Monroe to join the Kentucky Pardners in North Carolina. Charlie had Flatt playing mandolin and singing tenor, niether of which pleased Flatt too much. Upon finally leaving the Kentucky Pardners, Charlie's brother Bill Monroe immediately invited Flatt to join his Blue Grass Boys as a guitar player and lead singer. His first gig with the band was in 1945 at the Grand Ole Opry, with no prior rehearsal.

Soon after, banjo player Earl Scruggs joined the Boys, as well, and the group surged to popularity, holding down a rigorous tour schedule for nearly three years. Tired of the road, Scruggs left the band in 1948, followed soon after by Flatt and Cedric Rainwater.

Together, the three formed Flatt & Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys, who became one of the most influential bands in the genre. Flatt and Scruggs continued to perform together until 1969, when they went their separate ways. Lester formed the Nashville Grass, hiring most of the Foggy Mountain Boys, with whom he played for ten years before his death on May 11, 1979.

His role as lead singer and rhythm guitar player in each of these seminal ensembles helped define the sound of traditional bluegrass music. He is also remembered for his library of compositions. The Flatt songbook looms titanic for any student of American acoustic music.