Paul Warren (1918 to 1978) was the fiddler in Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys from 1954 to 1969, and he stayed with Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass until 1977. He played on about 250 Flatt and Scruggs recordings and more than 100 with the Nashville Grass. He kept the old-time breakdown style of Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith alive inside the most popular bluegrass band of its day. The IBMA put him in its hall of fame in 2013.
Why Warren matters
Warren is the reason a bluegrass fiddler can play a plain hoedown and still sound right. While other fiddlers of the 1950s and 1960s chased jazz and Nashville swing, Warren played breakdowns the way Arthur Smith did in the 1930s: straight, driving, and short. His fiddle and banjo duets with Earl Scruggs set the pattern for every fiddle-banjo twin break since. If you play Sally Goodin or Liberty in a jam, you are playing tunes Warren kept on the radio for 23 years.
Life and career
Warren was born Dorris Paul Warren on May 17, 1918, in Lyles, Tennessee. His early model was Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith, the Grand Ole Opry star of the 1930s. In 1938 he joined Johnnie Wright’s band, the Happy Roving Cowboys, and stayed until 1942.
He served in World War II and was captured in North Africa. He spent 29 months as a prisoner of war. In camp he traded cigarettes for a fiddle, and his playing earned him better treatment from the guards. After the war he rejoined Wright in Johnnie and Jack and the Tennessee Mountain Boys, from 1946 to 1954. He recorded 76 tracks with the duo and 37 with Kitty Wells, including It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.
In 1954 Warren joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. He stayed 15 years and played on the theme to The Beverly Hillbillies, which ran from 1962 to 1971. Along with fiddle breaks he sang bass in the quartet, one of the few bluegrass fiddlers to do so. When Flatt and Scruggs split in 1969, Warren went with Flatt into the Nashville Grass and played until he retired in 1977. He died in Nashville on January 12, 1978. CMH Records collected his Nashville Grass fiddle features on America’s Greatest Breakdown Fiddle Player in 1979.
Playing style
Warren played breakdowns. He said plain old country fiddle was what he liked, and that it took a lot of practice and staying with it. His tunes came from the Arthur Smith book: Black Eyed Susie, Durham’s Reel, Dusty Miller, and Grey Eagle. He played them in the old Middle Tennessee way, with a sawing shuffle bow, tight double stops, and no long jazz runs.
His breaks were short and hit hard. In the Foggy Mountain Boys he had to fit between Scruggs’s banjo and Josh Graves’s Dobro, so he learned to say his piece in one pass and get out. On the fiddle and banjo duets, he and Scruggs played the melody in unison and then traded, and the fiddle carried the tune while the banjo rolled under it. His timing sat right on the beat, which is what a dance fiddler needs and what a bluegrass band needs.
Influences and legacy
Warren learned from Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith and carried Smith’s tunes into bluegrass. He worked beside Johnnie Wright, Jack Anglin, and Kitty Wells before Flatt and Scruggs, and beside Earl Scruggs, Josh Graves, and Curly Seckler after. In the Nashville Grass his bandmates included Marty Stuart, Roland White, and Kenny Ingram.
His son Johnny Warren plays his father’s fiddle in the Earls of Leicester, the Flatt and Scruggs tribute band led by Jerry Douglas. That fiddle was shown beside Earl Scruggs’s Granada banjo and Lester Flatt’s D-28 at the Country Music Hall of Fame in May 2023.
Signature tunes and songs
Black Eyed Susie Durham’s Reel Liberty Dusty Miller Grey Eagle Hoedown in Hickman County Sally Goodin Pig in the Pen.
Essential recordings
America’s Greatest Breakdown Fiddle Player, with Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass (CMH, 1979)
Awards and honors
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2013)
Watch and listen
Warren and Earl Scruggs play Billy in the Lowground as a fiddle and banjo duet. Watch how they trade the melody.
Warren plays Bear Creek Hop with the Nashville Grass. Listen to how short and driving his break is.
What to learn from Warren
Learn Black Eyed Susie from the CMH record. It is a short old-time breakdown, and Warren’s version is the one most bluegrass fiddlers know. The technique to steal is his short break. Play the tune once through, put every note on the beat, and stop. Do not add a third part or a jazz ending. In a jam, a clean Warren-style break sets up the banjo better than a long one, and the band will thank you.
Sources
Dorris Paul Warren, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Paul Warren (fiddler), Wikipedia Paul Warren with Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass, America’s Greatest Breakdown Fiddle Player, Discogs Earl’s Granada makes it to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more players. Warren learned from Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith and followed Benny Martin in the Flatt and Scruggs fiddle chair. Kenny Baker held the same kind of job with Bill Monroe. His son Johnny Warren plays his fiddle today.