Earl Scruggs
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| Earl Scruggs | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Earl Eugene Scruggs |
| Born | January 6, 1924 |
| Origin | Shelby, North Carolina, USA |
| Genre(s) | Bluegrass Country |
| Occupation(s) | Bluegrass Artist |
| Instrument(s) | Banjo Guitar |
| Years active | 1945 – Present |
| Label(s) | MCA Nashville Records |
| Associated acts | Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys Flatt and Scruggs Earl Scruggs Revue |
| Website | www.earlscruggs.com |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Gibson Granada 5-String Banjo Gibson RB-4 |
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Earl Eugene Scruggs (born January 6, 1924) is a musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo style (now called Scruggs style) that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. Although other musicians had played in 3-finger style before him, Scruggs shot to prominence when he was hired by Bill Monroe to fill the banjo slot in the "Blue Grass Boys". Scruggs built on earlier styles to develop a truly new and readily identifiable style, involving: unprecedented smoothness, syncopation, and uninterrupted flow; a large vocabulary of unique and original licks or clichés; blues and jazz phrases, evident in backup and in solos such as "Foggy Mountain Special;" and an overall coherency and polish that other stylists lacked, which readily inspired imitation by newer generations of banjo pickers.
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[edit] Biography
Scruggs was born in Shelby, North Carolina to Georgia Lula Ruppe and George Elam Scruggs.[1] Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in late 1945 and his syncopated, three-finger picking style quickly became a sensation. In 1948 Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt left Monroe's band and formed Flatt and Scruggs. In 1969, Flatt and Scruggs broke up and Scruggs started a new band, the Earl Scruggs Revue, featuring several of his sons.
Flatt and Scruggs won a Grammy Award in 1969 for Scruggs' instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown". They were inducted together into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985. In 1989, he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship. Scruggs was an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991.
In 2002 Scruggs won a second Grammy award for the 2001 recording of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", which featured artists such as Steve Martin on 2nd banjo solo (Martin played the banjo tune on his 1970s stand-up comic acts), Vince Gill and Albert Lee on electric guitar solos, Paul Shaffer on piano, Leon Russell on organ, and Marty Stuart on mandolin. The album, Earl Scruggs and Friends, also featured artists such as John Fogerty, Elton John, Sting, Johnny Cash, Don Henley, Travis Tritt, and Billy Bob Thornton. Earl Scruggs and Friends (MCA Nashville, 2001).
On February 13, 2003, Scruggs received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, he and Flatt were ranked #24 on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.
Scruggs' wife and manager Louise Scruggs died on February 2, 2006 at the age of 78 at Nashville, TN's Baptist Hospital following a lengthy illness. [1]
On September 13, 2006, Scruggs was honored at Turner Field in Atlanta as part of the pre-game show for an Atlanta Braves home game. Organizers (Banjo.com) set a world record for the most banjo players (239) playing one tune together (Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Breakdown).
On February 10, 2008, Scruggs was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
[edit] Discography
- Where Lillies Bloom
- Nashville's Rock (Columbia CS 1007)
- Foggy Mountain Jamboree (Sony, 1957)
- Changin' Times (1969)
- Nashville Airplane (1970)
- I Saw the Light with Some Help from My Friends (Sony, 1972)
- Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends (1972)
- Live at Kansas State (1972)
- Rockin' 'Cross the Country (1973)
- Dueling Banjos (CBS, 1973)
- The Earl Scruggs Revue (1973)
- Anniversary Special (1975)
- The Earl Scruggs Revue 2 (1976)
- Family Portrait (1976)
- Live from Austin City Limits (1977)
- Strike Anywhere (1977)
- Bold & New (1978)
- Today & Forever (1979)
- The Story Teller & the Banjo Man (CBS, 1982)
- Flatt & Scruggs (1982)
- Top of the World (1983)
- Superjammin' (1984)
- Artist's Choice: The Best Tracks (1970-1980) (Edsel - (UK), 1998)
- Earl Scruggs and Friends (MCA Nashville, 2001)
- Classic Bluegrass Live: 1959-1966 (Vanguard, 2002)
- Three Pickers (Rounder Records, 2003)
- The Essential Earl Scruggs (Legacy Recordings, 2004)
- Live with Donnie Allen and Friends (Legacy Recordings, 2005
[edit] DVDs
- Earl Scruggs - His Family and Friends (2005)
- (Recorded 1969. Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Bill Monroe, Joan Baez et al)
- Private Sessions (2005)
- The Bluegrass Legend (2006)
Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs
- The Three Pickers (2003)
Flatt and Scruggs
- The Best of Flatt and Scruggs TV Show Vol 1 (2007)
- The Best of Flatt and Scruggs TV Show Vol 2 (2007)
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Rosenberg, Neil V. (1998). "Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 173-4.
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- at the Country Music Hall of Fame
- on MCA Nashville
- Old-Time Banjo Tunes
- on Rounder Records
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