Biography
John Ray Sechler, who performed under the name Curly Seckler, earned his primary recognition as mandolinist and tenor vocalist in Flatt & Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, the ensemble that secured a permanent spot in bluegrass annals through the Grammy-winning instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” He devoted the greater part of his professional life to touring and recording alongside such bluegrass stalwarts as Jim & Jesse McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, the Sauceman Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Charlie Monroe, and Flatt & Scruggs. Whenever performance income fell short, Seckler sustained his household through jobs as a postal worker and truck driver. Although his stature never equaled that of Flatt & Scruggs or Monroe, he emerged as an influential presence on his own merits. The percussive “chop” that defined his mandolin approach later shaped the playing of numerous subsequent mandolinists.
Born on Christmas Day 1919 in China Grove, North Carolina, as the fourth child of Carrie and Calvin Sechler, he received the nickname “Curly” as soon as his hair grew in. Music ran through the Sechler household; his father handled autoharp, fiddle, and mouth harp while his mother performed on guitar and organ. She introduced Seckler and his brothers to basic guitar chords in childhood, and he acquired his singing skills through public school. After Mr. Sechler died when the boy was nine, the widow was left with six sons and five daughters, three of whom came from an earlier marriage. Economic necessity sent Seckler and his brothers into a local cotton mill as soon as they reached working age. Around that time he acquired a secondhand five-string banjo from musician Happy Trexler, and he and brother Marvin began performing for swimmers at Trexler’s pond.
Before long the Sechler brothers formed their own act. Seckler exchanged the five-string banjo for a tenor model, George took up fiddle, and younger sibling Duard learned guitar chords. In 1935 the four siblings organized as the Yodeling Rangers and appeared at local gatherings and schools. Their first sustained opportunity arrived with a daily radio program on a Salisbury, North Carolina station that later aired simultaneously on several nearby outlets. A few years afterward they adopted the name Trail Riders and traveled as far as West Virginia, playing small venues across the South. During this period Charlie Monroe began visiting the studio while the Trail Riders were on the air. Following the Monroe Brothers’ separation, Monroe sought a tenor for his new group; he took an interest in the nineteen-year-old Seckler and offered him a road position. Although reluctant to leave his brothers, Seckler accepted when Monroe proposed twenty dollars weekly.
Seckler remained with Monroe until 1940, then returned home to rejoin his siblings. He soon partnered with Tommy Scott on a radio program underwritten by Vim Herb Products. Using forty-two dollars borrowed from the sponsor, he purchased his first mandolin. Seckler and Scott continued touring the South until the outbreak of World War II, after which Seckler teamed with Leonard Stokes. The pair relocated to Knoxville as the Melody Boys, received draft notices, and were later excused from service because of lung ailments. They moved with their families to Columbus, Ohio, where Seckler found postal employment.
Throughout the following decade he moved among ensembles across the South, working with the Happy Valley Boys, the Smokey Mountaineers, the Sauceman Brothers, the McReynolds Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs. He first encountered Flatt & Scruggs in the late 1940s while in Bristol, Virginia, performing on a radio broadcast with Mac Wiseman. Seckler collaborated intermittently with Flatt & Scruggs until the latter secured sponsorship from Martha White Mills, at which point he joined permanently. In 1953 he relocated to Nashville with the band and remained for the next nine years. Flatt & Scruggs joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1956 and expanded their regional tours on the strength of that affiliation. During Seckler’s tenure the group laid down much of its best-known material, among them the 1949 recording “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” later featured on the soundtrack of the 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde, and the 1957 album Foggy Mountain Jamboree, subsequently regarded as essential by many critics. In total he contributed to 138 tracks with the group, including “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and “Salty Dog Blues.”
Seckler departed in 1962 and took up trucking. Although driving occupied most of his time, he continued appearing at bluegrass festivals. County Records signed him in 1971, and his debut solo album, Curly Seckler Sings Again, appeared later that year; he adopted the spelling “Seckler” with this release to forestall mispronunciation. In 1973 he rejoined Lester Flatt as tenor for the Nashville Grass. As Flatt’s health deteriorated over the next six years, Seckler assumed leadership after Flatt’s death in spring 1979. A few months later the ensemble issued its first album under the name Curly Seckler & the Nashville Grass, No Doubt About It. Willis Spears joined in 1981, and Seckler and Spears guided the Nashville Grass through thirteen additional years of recordings and performances before the group retired in 1994.
Seckler maintained occasional appearances and recordings into the new century. The year after leaving the Nashville Grass he released the solo album 60 Years of Bluegrass with My Friends, and two years later he received the IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award. He was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor in 2004. One year afterward he issued his first new album in a decade, Down in Caroline, paired with an expanded reissue of his initial solo effort, That Old Book of Mine. Another full-length, Bluegrass, Don’t You Know, followed in 2006. Curly Seckler died in Nashville on December 27, 2017, two days after his ninety-eighth birthday.
Born on Christmas Day 1919 in China Grove, North Carolina, as the fourth child of Carrie and Calvin Sechler, he received the nickname “Curly” as soon as his hair grew in. Music ran through the Sechler household; his father handled autoharp, fiddle, and mouth harp while his mother performed on guitar and organ. She introduced Seckler and his brothers to basic guitar chords in childhood, and he acquired his singing skills through public school. After Mr. Sechler died when the boy was nine, the widow was left with six sons and five daughters, three of whom came from an earlier marriage. Economic necessity sent Seckler and his brothers into a local cotton mill as soon as they reached working age. Around that time he acquired a secondhand five-string banjo from musician Happy Trexler, and he and brother Marvin began performing for swimmers at Trexler’s pond.
Before long the Sechler brothers formed their own act. Seckler exchanged the five-string banjo for a tenor model, George took up fiddle, and younger sibling Duard learned guitar chords. In 1935 the four siblings organized as the Yodeling Rangers and appeared at local gatherings and schools. Their first sustained opportunity arrived with a daily radio program on a Salisbury, North Carolina station that later aired simultaneously on several nearby outlets. A few years afterward they adopted the name Trail Riders and traveled as far as West Virginia, playing small venues across the South. During this period Charlie Monroe began visiting the studio while the Trail Riders were on the air. Following the Monroe Brothers’ separation, Monroe sought a tenor for his new group; he took an interest in the nineteen-year-old Seckler and offered him a road position. Although reluctant to leave his brothers, Seckler accepted when Monroe proposed twenty dollars weekly.
Seckler remained with Monroe until 1940, then returned home to rejoin his siblings. He soon partnered with Tommy Scott on a radio program underwritten by Vim Herb Products. Using forty-two dollars borrowed from the sponsor, he purchased his first mandolin. Seckler and Scott continued touring the South until the outbreak of World War II, after which Seckler teamed with Leonard Stokes. The pair relocated to Knoxville as the Melody Boys, received draft notices, and were later excused from service because of lung ailments. They moved with their families to Columbus, Ohio, where Seckler found postal employment.
Throughout the following decade he moved among ensembles across the South, working with the Happy Valley Boys, the Smokey Mountaineers, the Sauceman Brothers, the McReynolds Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs. He first encountered Flatt & Scruggs in the late 1940s while in Bristol, Virginia, performing on a radio broadcast with Mac Wiseman. Seckler collaborated intermittently with Flatt & Scruggs until the latter secured sponsorship from Martha White Mills, at which point he joined permanently. In 1953 he relocated to Nashville with the band and remained for the next nine years. Flatt & Scruggs joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1956 and expanded their regional tours on the strength of that affiliation. During Seckler’s tenure the group laid down much of its best-known material, among them the 1949 recording “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” later featured on the soundtrack of the 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde, and the 1957 album Foggy Mountain Jamboree, subsequently regarded as essential by many critics. In total he contributed to 138 tracks with the group, including “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and “Salty Dog Blues.”
Seckler departed in 1962 and took up trucking. Although driving occupied most of his time, he continued appearing at bluegrass festivals. County Records signed him in 1971, and his debut solo album, Curly Seckler Sings Again, appeared later that year; he adopted the spelling “Seckler” with this release to forestall mispronunciation. In 1973 he rejoined Lester Flatt as tenor for the Nashville Grass. As Flatt’s health deteriorated over the next six years, Seckler assumed leadership after Flatt’s death in spring 1979. A few months later the ensemble issued its first album under the name Curly Seckler & the Nashville Grass, No Doubt About It. Willis Spears joined in 1981, and Seckler and Spears guided the Nashville Grass through thirteen additional years of recordings and performances before the group retired in 1994.
Seckler maintained occasional appearances and recordings into the new century. The year after leaving the Nashville Grass he released the solo album 60 Years of Bluegrass with My Friends, and two years later he received the IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award. He was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor in 2004. One year afterward he issued his first new album in a decade, Down in Caroline, paired with an expanded reissue of his initial solo effort, That Old Book of Mine. Another full-length, Bluegrass, Don’t You Know, followed in 2006. Curly Seckler died in Nashville on December 27, 2017, two days after his ninety-eighth birthday.
Albums
