WATTS, HOWARD (“CEDRIC RAINWATER”) (1913-1970)

Howard Watts played bass in the “classic” edition of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, in which the modern sound of bluegrass jelled between 1945 and 1948. Watts struck off with bandmates Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to form the Foggy Mountain Boys. He performed on all sixteen of the sides Flatt and Scruggs recorded in Cincinnati for Mercury in 1948 and 1949. He also played on the first solo recordings of Hylo Brown (1954) and Jimmy Martin (1956), both musicians associated with the Cincinnati/Dayton region.