Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was
an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style,
now called "Scruggs style", that is a defining characteristic of
bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from
the ways the five-string banjo had been historically played. He popularized the
instrument in several genres of music and elevated the banjo from its role as a
background rhythm instrument, or a comedian's prop, into featured solo status.
The youngest of five, Scruggs was born in rural Cleveland
County, North Carolina, and lived on a
farm which he helped tend after his father died. As a teenager, he attended
high school in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. With his school, farm work and
other chores, his past time became the five-string banjo and he spent every
spare moment playing it. He was fascinated with the instrument. He played his
father's banjo and one his older brother owned until he was around eleven or
twelve years old.
Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in late 1945
and devised a picking method in which the thumb and two fingers of the right
hand led a breathtaking dance, its leaps and rolls transforming the sound of
the rural stringband into an intricately engineered high-performance music.
Critics would call him the Segovia of the five-string banjo, the Paganini of
bluegrass.
In 1948, Flatt and Scruggs set out on their own, jointly
leading the Foggy Mountain Boys The
group made sparkling recordings such as Flint Hill Special, named after
Scruggs's home town; Randy Lynn Rag, for his eldest son; Foggy Mountain
Breakdown and The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the theme tune of the popular TV show
The Beverly Hillbillies and a No 1 on the country chart in 1962.
The instruction book Earl Scruggs and the Five-String Banjo
was published in 1968; it went on to sell more than a million copies. But
Scruggs became, as he said later, "bored and unhappy doing the same things
for over 20 years", and in 1969 he broke with Flatt and formed the Earl
Scruggs Revue with his sons Gary and Randy, and later Steve. Their embrace of
amplified instruments, drums and repertoire outside the bluegrass canon lost
Scruggs some of his original audience, but he found another on the college
campuses of the 1970s, and he participated in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972
triple LP Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which opened the ears of many rock fans
to connections with earlier forms.
Technically gifted (he was also a very fine guitarist) and
musically open-minded, Scruggs stepped easily across the borders of genre, and
when, in 1975, he celebrated 25 years at Columbia Records with an anniversary
album, he was joined by Leonard Cohen, Billy Joel and dozens of other musicians
from backgrounds unlike his own.
From the 1980s onwards he played less often, but the awards
for his innovation rolled in: election to the Country Music Hall of Fame in
1985, a National Heritage fellowship in 1989, the National medal of arts in
1992. On the album Earl Scruggs and Friends (2001) he remade Foggy Mountain
Breakdown, sharing the banjo part with the comedian Steve Martin, and the tune
won its second Grammy. In 2008 Scruggs received a Grammy lifetime achievement
award.
(Info edited mainly from an article by Tony Russell @ The
Guardian & Wikipedia)
Having editing problems with Blogger. This is my 3rd attempt and still not as per normal settings.
ReplyDeleteFor “Earl Scruggs and Friends (2001)” go here:
http://www72.zippyshare.com/v/1oiM1kQB/file.html
01 Country Comfort - Earl Scruggs and Elton John
02 Borrowed Love - Earl Scruggs and Dwight Yoakam
03 Ring Of Fire - Earl Scruggs and Billy Bob Thornton
04 True Love Never Dies - Earl Scruggs, Gary Scruggs and Travis Tritt
05 The Angels - Earl Scruggs and Melissa Etheridge
06 Fill Her Up - Earl Scruggs and Sting
07 Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Instrumental) - Earl Scruggs, w/Glen Duncan, Randy Scruggs, Steve Martin, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Gary Scruggs, Albert Lee, Paul Shaffer, Jerry Douglas and Leon Russell
08 Somethin' Just Aint Right - Earl Scruggs and Randy Scruggs
09 I Found Love - Earl Scruggs, Vince Gill and Johnny Cash
10 Blue Ridge Mountain Blues - Earl Scruggs and John Fogerty
11 Passin' Thru - Earl Scruggs, Don Henley, and Johnny Cash
12 Foggy Mountain Rock-Foggy Mountain Special (Instrumental) - Earl Scruggs and Marty Stuart
A big thank you to Maria @ El Ranch blog for active link.
Found the Bear Family Box Set of Flatt & Scruggs 1948 – 1959 on multiple blogs. Here is CD 1.@128 Happy hunting for the remainder.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/3evfxy3s38ij7ar/Flatt-Scruggs48-59%20CD%201.rar
01 God Loves His Children
02 I'm Going To Make Heaven My Home
03 We'll Meet Again Sweetheart
04 My Cabin In Caroline
05 Baby Blue Eyes
06 Bouquet In Heaven
07 Down The Road
08 Why Dont You Tell Me So
09 I'll Never Shed Another Tear
10 No Mother Or Dad
11 Is It Too Late Now!
12 Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Instrumental)
13 I'll Be Going To Heaven Sometime
14 So Happy I'll Be
15 My Little Girl In Tennessee
16 I'll Never Love Another
17 Doin' My Time
18 Pike County Breakdown (Instrumental)
19 Cora Is Gone
20 Preachin', Prayin', Singin'
21 Pain In My Heart
22 Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms
23 Back To The Cross
24 Farewell Blues (Instrumental)
25 Old Salty Dog Blues
26 Take Me In A Lifeboat
27 Will The Roses Bloom (Where She Lies Sleeping)
28 I'll Just Pretend