holy crap....my dad was NYPD for 23 years and spent a good chunk of the middle of his career working in Central Park SEU (street enforcement unit)...they had a festival every summer called the Schaffer Beer Central Park Music Festival....thanks to my dad i sat on the stage for dozens of concerts- one of them being Earl Scruggs about 1975!!!
Lucky you, my Dad was stationed in Brooklyn, so I didn't get those kind of perks!!!!!
“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!