The elder Scruggs was an innovator who pioneered modern banjo sound. His use of three fingers rather than the clawhammer style elevated the banjo from a part of the rhythm section — or a comedian's prop — to a lead instrument. In this photo, Earl Scruggs performs at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI on Saturday, July 30, 2011. Scruggs performed at the original festival 52 years earlier. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)
The legendary bluegrass banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs is picking in heaven today. Earl passed on from natural causes in a Nashville hospital yesterday at 88, surrounded by family and friends. Earl brought about the modern banjo sound with the use of three fingers rather than the clawhammer style. The Associated Press reports Earl's string-bending and lead runs became known worldwide as "the Scruggs picking style" and the versatility it allowed has helped popularize the banjo in almost every genre of music. The debut of Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys during a post-World War II performance on The Grand Ole Opry is thought of as the "big bang" moment for bluegrass and later 20th century country music. Later, Lester Flatt and Scruggs teamed as a bluegrass act after leaving Monroe from the late 1940s until breaking up in 1969 in a dispute over whether their music should experiment or stick to tradition. Flatt died in 1979. They were best known for their 1949 recording "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," played in the 1967 movie "Bonnie and Clyde," and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" from "The Beverly Hillbillies," the popular TV series that debuted in 1962. Jerry Scoggins did the singing. In a July 2010 interview, Scruggs said in the early days, "I played guitar as much as I did the banjo, but for everyday picking I'd go back to the banjo. It just fit what I wanted to hear better than what I could do with the guitar." "It's not just bluegrass, it's American music," Dierks Bentley said. "There's 17- or 18-year-old kids turning on today's country music and hearing that banjo and they have no idea where that came from. That sound has probably always been there for them and they don't realize someone invented that three-finger roll style of playing. You hear it everywhere." In 2001 he released a CD, "Earl Scruggs and Friends," his first album in a decade and an extension of The Earl Scruggs Revue. On it, are Vince Gill, Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Travis Tritt, Elton John, Sting and actor Steve Martin among others. Read more here. Louise Scruggs, his wife of 57 years, died in 2006. He is survived by two songs, Gary and Randy. Gary Scruggs says funeral arrangements are incomplete.
About Me: I should have known I was destined to have a career where all I do is talk when I was in kindergarten at Plattsburg Elementary in the late 60's.
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