Posted on 03/28/2012 5:51:56 PM PDT by ArtDodger
An old gentleman that married my Dad’s sister late in life was in a band for years beginning in the late 1930’s. The subject of Earl Scruggs came up when I had told Uncle James that I had just bought the “Earl Scruggs and Friends” CD.
Uncle James told me about meeting Earl Scruggs and his family many, many years ago. The story went that Uncle James’ band was trying to find a banjo player and heard about Earl. They visited his home while Earl still lived with his mother.
While Uncle James was there, he told me he went squirrel hunting and killed several squirrels. He was dressing the squirrels to eat when Earl’s mother stopped him and said, “You don’t know anything about cleaning squirrels!”. She proceeded to dress them in just a few minutes.
As history shows, Earl did not join up with Uncle James’ band and Uncle James never became famous, but I thought it was an awesome story.
Earl Scruggs invented the three finger style of playing. Before that, banjos were strummed, or played claw hammer style like grandpa Jones used to play.
I travel to western Virginia every year to work the last Sunday of September and the morning bluegrass gospel radio station is one of the big reasons why do.
“thanks to my dad i sat on the stage for dozens of concerts- one of them being Earl Scruggs about 1975!!!”
I was at that one, too.
Earl’s health had been in decline lately, but still hurts to see him go.
When Gibson finally got around to introducing an “Earl Scruggs” model, Earl personally signed the labels for a few years. I have his signature on my own Gibson Scruggs in the other room.
Earl did for the 5-string banjo what Segovia did for classical guitar. That is to say, he created the standard for others to follow. Although he wasn’t the first to use 3 fingers instead of 2, he was the one who smoothed it out, made it shine, and found the right moment to get his sound out, with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in December of 1945. Few musicians in any genre have transformed the place of their instrument within the music as did Earl.
Before he stepped onto the stage, the 5-string banjo was all-but a tiny niche instrument, essentially forgotten. Scruggs was one of two men who “brought it back” (the other being that tall skinny folk singer from Beacon, New York). He saved the instrument, but even more, he forever defined its place in acoustic music.
When Earl’s casket is lowered down, the last notes of whatever song they sing and play for him should be “shave and a haircut, two bits!”
Godspeed, Mr. Scruggs!
There was a couple in my little small town in Arkansas whose names were Webster and Pearl Earls. After Lester Flatt sang “Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, don’t you marry Earl” on the Beverly Hillbillies, my daddy came home drunk singing “Pearl, Pearl Pearl, don’t marry Webster Earls”. I still laugh when I think about it today.
Scruggs played at Nixon's inauguration parade and at the anti-War moratorium in the same year. Quite a feat in a very divided country.
FWIW, somebody should invent a "Who died today" app. I saw the Beverly Hillbillies clip on CNN out of the corner of my eye, and couldn't figure out if it was Jethro or Ellie May who had passed on today (Buddy Ebsen †2003, Irene Ryan †1973).
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