Earl Scruggs, Country Music Hall of Famer, dies at age 88

[Tx4obama]

Source: The Tennessean

Country Music Hall of Famer Earl Scruggs, a singular talent of collective import, died Wednesday morning at a Nashville hospital. He was 88.

A quietly affable presence, Mr. Scruggs popularized a complex, three-fingered style of playing banjo that transformed the instrument, inspired nearly every banjo player who followed him and became a central element in what is now known as bluegrass music.

But Mr. Scruggs’ legacy is in no way limited to or defined by bluegrass, a genre that he and partner Lester Flatt dominated as Flatt & Scruggs in the 1950s and ‘60s: His adaptability and open-minded approach to musicality and to collaboration made him a bridge between genres and generations.

Read more: http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2012/03/28/earl-scruggs-country-music-hall-of-famer-dies-at-age-88/

[notadmblnd]

1. I remember Flatt and Scruggs fromthe Beverly Hillbillies

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Pearl Pearl Pearl, don't give your love to Earl. He combs his hair with possum fat.

[Faygo Kid]

16. +1. Loved that show (the B&W years) as a kid.

[Justice wanted]

20. OH okay now I know who he is. Ashame in all regards May his family be filled with healing wishes

RIP

[eShirl]

2. THE MASTER FROM FLINT HILL: EARL SCRUGGS by Steve Martin Jan 17 2012

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/01/steve-martin-earl-scruggs.html

Some nights he had the stars of North Carolina shooting from his fingertips. Before him, no one had ever played the banjo like he did. After him, everyone played the banjo like he did, or at least tried. In 1945, when he first stood on the stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and played banjo the way no one had ever heard before, the audience responded with shouts, whoops, and ovations. He performed tunes he wrote as well as songs they knew, with clarity and speed like no one could imagine, except him. When the singer came to the end of a phrase, he filled the theatre with sparkling runs of notes that became a signature for all bluegrass music since. He wore a suit and Stetson hat, and when he played he smiled at the audience like what he was doing was effortless. There aren’t many earthquakes in Tennessee, but that night there was.

As boys in the little community of Flint Hill, near Shelby, North Carolina, Earl and his brother Horace would take their banjo and guitar and start playing on the porch, then split up and meet behind the house. Their goal was to still be on the beat when they rejoined at the back. Momentously, when he was ten years old, after a fight with his brother, he was playing his banjo to calm his mind. He was practicing the standard “Reuben” when found he could incorporate his third finger into the picking of his right hand, instead of the his usual two, in an unbroken, rolling, staccato. He ran back to his brother, shouting, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” He was on the way to creating an entirely new way of playing the banjo: Scruggs Style.

He was only twenty-one when he was in on the founding of bluegrass music, adding the Scruggs’ banjo sound to Bill Monroe’s great blend of guitar, bass, fiddle, mandolin, and Monroe’s iconic high, lonesome voice, singing, “It’s mighty dark for me to travel.” He had already been playing Scruggs style for eleven years. On the Grand Ole Opry’s Ryman Auditorium stage, the banjo had been played well, but mostly in the old style, and mostly by comedians, prompting Uncle Dave Macon, a beloved regular, to say about Earl from the wings, “That boy can play the banjo, but he ain’t one damned bit funny.”

... (snip)

A grand part of American music owes a debt to Earl Scruggs. Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl has, putting him in a category with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins, and Jimi Hendrix. His reach extends not only throughout America, but to other countries, including Japan, where bluegrass bands, strangely, abound, as well as Australia, Russia, the U.K., Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic, which boasts not only bands but banjo makers. Most, if not all, of the banjo players play Scruggs style.

(snip)

[thelordofhell]

7. Men With Banjos Who Know How To Use Them

[Old and In the Way]

19. Wow another Foggy Moiuntain Scruggs jam on Letterman...never saw that one.

This is one of my favorite jams...Only Earl and Steve playing banjo, but some great individual efforts - Jerry Douglas on Dobro is superb.

I used to mess around on a banjo until I lost it in a fire, never got around to replacing it. Earl was an inspiration...RIP Earl

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. Good lord...what a group!

Thank you so much for posting this. It is superb.

[Old and In the Way]

29. I saw that show when it aired.

I think when I discovered Youtube this was one of the first performances I went looking for. That's Vince Gill and Albert Lee playing the electric guitars and I think Earl's sons were playing the acoustic guitar and the harmonica. Just an insanely great stage jam...you can tell they were all enjoying themselves being part of that...

[glinda]

31. I loved that appearance! Earl was wonderful!

Safe journey!

[Doctor_J]

35. Albert Lee - my fave strat player of all time

youtube him for hours of enjoyment. And i used to think of Vince Gill as a singer.

[northoftheborder]

34. Wow! Gives me goosebumps.

[Hoyt]

8. Great tribute. Wish I still had my banjo.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. A true master and maker of his craft.

nt

[KansDem]

5. "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"

[Botany]

6. Beat me to it

Like Les Paul, Chet Atkins, and so may more real talents

[KansDem]

12. I learned to play the 5-string when I was in my teens

Late 1960s.

Scruggs was a big influence and inspiration.

I bought a Kay and two teaching tools: "How to Play the 5-String Banjo" by Pete Seeger--



...and an LP of Flatt and Scruggs, "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"--



Between reading Seeger's book and working on the exercises and listening to Scruggs and trying to imitate him, I managed to work up some proficiency on the instrument.

(but I could never get "frailing" right!)

Just some memories...

[Botany]

17. Loves me some seeger

[KansDem]

22. A classic!

Thanks!

[TahitiNut]

14. Nobody - I mean NOBODY - came close to playing the banjo like Scruggs. He was a total master.

Music has lost another founding genius.

I dislike "C&W" ... but love bluegrass, especially breakdown Scruggs-style.

[Paladin]

9. RIP To A Genuine Original. (n/t)

[madrchsod]

10. he is a legend and it`s sad to see another one go

he was one of the first country stars to come out against the vietnam war.


i`ll have to spin some of this lps tonight.

[mbuch64]

11. sad

I worked on a small market country station after I graduated from high school in 1982 and I loved playing their music.

[bart95]

13. bazzarre youtube of lester flatt's beverly hillybillies wife

&feature=related

[Uncle Joe]

15. RIP Earl and thanks for the music.

Thanks for the thread, Tx4obama.

[tabasco]

18. An awesome talent.

Your music will live forever.

[sarchasm]

21. Thanks for the memories Earl. RIP

There's a hellava pickin' party going on somewhere tonight!

[yesphan]

23. Thanks for all the wonderful years !

[wilt the stilt]

24. Moratorium on Washington 1969

How many of you realize he played on the first march on Washington against the Vietnam war in 1969. I walked at that march and came to the stage to hear earl playing.

[Old and In the Way]

30. Wow...didn't know that.

Interesting. I got interested in Bluegrass through Old and In the Way I think Jerry must have spent some time with Earl....he wasn't a bad flatpicker himself. If you haven't heard Jerry play banjo, there's an instrumental with him and Dave Grisman, playing a tune called 'Rawhide' - absolutely blistering...I think they were competing on who could out-uptempo the song on the other.

[jberryhill]

25. Awesome talent

On a Sunday afternoon my dad would pull out his guitar, play some Wildwood Flower and put on a Flatt & Scruggs album like it was his religion.

[DinahMoeHum]

26. Priceless. A consummate talent.

Broke a lot of barriers along the way, in terms of working together with other music genres.



http://www.amazon.com/Earl-Scruggs-Friends/dp/B00005NEYZ/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1332987050&sr=1-1

[Lochloosa]

27. Ah shit....i saw him about 3 years ago....

[harmonicon]

32. Man... of the best.

What a life that guy must have lived - he even outlived greats that he himself inspired. I wonder if people realize how truly important his innovations were to American music - I'm searching to think of comparisons... Django Reinhardt on guitar maybe? Maybe we have to go as far back as Paganini to find another person who single-handedly changed the idea of what an instrument could do.

[AnneD]

33. But the legacy he was most proud of....

that several of his boys were fine musicians and he was able to play with them in concert. He leaves behind a rich legacy to us all.

[rayofreason]

36. Saw him live once....

...what a fantastic artist!

The world is poorer for his loss, but much richer for his gifts to all.

[Old and In the Way]

37. well said.

The world is poorer for his loss, but much richer for his gifts to all.

I can't think of a better way to be remembered.

[Burma Jones]

38. This was an important man who mattered

Thanks........

[jimmil]

39. Earl Scruggs was my first Bluegrass hero!

I picked up the banjo after hearing him and a great many others on the first, "Circle Be Unbroken", album. I saw him several times and really like the Earl Scruggs Review that featured not only Earl but his sons, Gary and Randy, also. What a talent he was. As stated above, he changed the sound of Bluegrass music.

If you want a great DVD you have to get, "Three Pickers". It features Earl along with another legend, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs. Doc is THE flat picker in Bluegrass/Mountain music. He is slowing down now in his 80s but you can still hear the true talent he has. Ricky Skaggs may not be a legend but his singing harks back to Bill Monroe. It is an absolute joy to listen and watch these guys.