Earl Scruggs is undoubtedly the most influential banjo
player to have ever picked up the banjo. This member of the Country Music Hall
of Fame and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, as well as one of the few to
claim a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame is still going strong at 82 years old.
Let's take a look at the early years and how he developed the unique banjo
style that made him so famous and influential.
Earl
Scruggs was born and grew up in Cleveland County, North Carolina. His father
was a fiddle and banjo player and a bookkeeper by trade, and his brothers and
sisters all played the banjo, while his mother played the organ. They lived and
worked on a rural farm where music was a key aspect of family activities when
they weren't working the farm. So, one might say Earl was destined to music and
to the banjo. He began playing banjo when he was only four years old, just
after his farther passed away. Earl says he remembers his father but never
heard him play banjo as a long illness preceded the elder Scruggs death. Earl
reports that most of what he learned was self taught as a youngster; his family
didn't even have a radio down on the farm until he was well into his teens!
It was when
Earl was 10 years old that he first experimented with the three-finger style of
banjo playing that he later made famous as "Scruggs-style picking." Earl was
obsessed with the banjo during these early years, first playing his father's
and his sister's banjo until he acquired his own banjo from Montgomery Ward's
mail order catalog for $10.95. Earl later purchased a Gibson RB-11 when he
began playing professionally, and during much of his career he played a Gibson
Granada formerly owned by Snuffy Jenkins, which he purchased in a South
Carolina pawn shop for $37.50.
Earl tells
the following story about how he developed his now famous three-finger banjo
style: After he and his brother had been arguing, Earl retreated to his room
where he began playing the tune "Ruben," subconsciously picking while his mind
roiled, until he realized he was doing a three-finger pick that, up to that
point , he had been working on but unable to master. His brother reports that
Earl came running out of the room yelling "I've got it, I've got it!" and banjo
music was forever changed. Earl soon smoothed out the technique, added
syncopation, and developed the ability to play melody lines with the
three-finger style.
Earl
Scruggs went on to be a key member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys during the
seminal years in the 1940s when that band created what is considered the "gold
standard" of bluegrass music and recording. As if that weren't enough, Earl
soon left Bill Monroe's band with fellow Bluegrass Boy Lester Flatt and went on
to form Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, which eclipsed even Bill
Monroe's band in prominence and popularity. From that time on, there were TV
shows, accolades, key appearances on the seminal Will the Circle Be Unbroken
album in the 1970s, and recordings and performances with virtually everybody
who is anybody in music. In a future column we will take a look at Earl's
middle years and at what he is currently doing.
Infamous
Stringdusters Coming to Del Mar
The San Diego Bluegrass Society and the Del Mar foundation
are bringing IBMA's reigning winners of Album of the Year, Song of the Year,
and Instrumental Group of the Year awards to the Del Mar Powerhouse for a
concert on Friday evening March 21. The Del Mar Powerhouse is a beautiful venue
overlooking the beach with about 100 seats, so every seat gets a great view and
up close chance to hear this great band. Tickets are $20 while they last. For
tickets, visit www.summergrass.net and click on "Del Mar Foundation/SDBS
Concert Tickets" on the menu bar on the left to order tickets on line with a
credit card; you can also order by mail. The Infamous Stringdusters will also
be making an appearance at this year's Summergrass Festival in August, so be
sure to get out and hear this top band!
Spring
Bluegrass Camp Out
The annual Spring Bluegrass Camp Out is set for the weekend
of April 18-20 at the KOA campground in Chula Vista. The public is welcome,
pickers and listeners, kids and adults. This camp out has a great history of
good times. So, come on down with your motor home, or rent a cabin from KOA.
Or, you can come for a day fee and go home at night if you wish. For
reservations and information, contact Phil Levy at (619) 440-7028. Reservations
are due by April 10. To take a peek at the campground, visit: http://www.koa.com/where/ca/05112/.
Hope to see you there!