The great Earl Scruggs
What we owe to the true lion of bluegrass banjo
The legendary 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs passed away 11 years ago yesterday. Like other major news events (like 9/11 or the Challenger space shuttle disaster), I clearly remember where I was when I heard this news. And unlike those other events, I burst into tears as the NPR host announced his passing. These tears came as a total surprise — while his influence over my banjo playing is undeniable (I play what is classed Scruggs Style Banjo), I had not given much thought to my direct connection to Earl beyond his enormous impact on 3-finger bluegrass banjo. Yet at that moment, my eyes opened to this man's undeniable influence on my own musical path.
Exhibit A (and what led me to tears) — I heard the news just before I walked into a Bateria Alegria rehearsal in which I played "agogo" (the bell) with a 20-piece Brazilian percussion ensemble. As convoluted as this sounds, my path with the banjo led me to this playing samba cowbell in this obscure music. My discovery and deep love of Brazilian choro music came from a deep dive into acoustic stringband music, which came from studying banjo. And therefore, my circuitous path with music through the lens of the 5-string banjo stemmed from this incredible man's incredible music.
Exhibit B — I did not have the Earl Scruggs epiphany that many banjo players experience — instead, I had that experience seeing the great Béla Fleck at Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1990. I ran home to Boulder, bought a banjo, and began lessons with the late, great Mark Vann, who, of course, started me with Earl. As I dove deeper into this musical world, I realized Béla's primary banjo influence was Earl Scruggs (along with JD Crowe [one of the best all-time practitioners of Scruggs style banjo] and Tony Trischka [my hero and a lifelong devotee of Earl's music]). All the lessons I took, all the interviews I read, all the banjoists I met around the world, they all pointed to Earl. In fact we all played his tunes trying to emulate his work note for note. Think about that!
As with my previous missive about Phish, I wonder if I add much to the endless beautiful words written and spoken about Earl, but here on this anniversary, I hope to add to the conversation. We miss you, Earl.
Enjoy some of his music here.
Wonderful clips! What a great bunch of young pups in what I think he said, was the IBMA instrumentalists of the year (what year?) I didn’t recognize or quite catch the names of the bass or the banjo players....what do you know of what became of them?