Earl Scruggs - Biography
By J Poet
Earl Scruggs is one of bluegrass music’s founding fathers and one of the best banjo players in bluegrass, country and popular music. During his days with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys, he helped take bluegrass from the southern mountains to Carnegie Hall and the international stage. When he left The Foggy Mountain Boys to join his sons Gary, Randy and Steve in the Earl Scruggs Revue in 1970, he ventured into folk rock and alt.country with electric instruments, including an electric banjo. Since the 90s, Scruggs has been semi-retired, although he does show up a few times a year for live dates and recording sessions. In 1989, Scruggs was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship. He was an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991. In 2003 Scruggs was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy in 2008.
With the possible exception of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs did more than anyone to create the sound of bluegrass. His style of banjo picking, using three fingers, had been around before he came along, but he perfected it with his lightening fast runs and smooth, syncopated counter melodies. Scruggs was born in 1924 into a musical family. His brothers and sister played guitar, Autoharp, banjo and fiddle. He picked up the guitar when he was five, playing in the style of Mother Maybelle Carter, but his sister’s musical partner Smith Hammett got him interested in banjo. By the time he was a teenager he was picking banjo at local dances in a duo with his brother Horace. In 1939 he joined The Morris Brothers - Zeke on mandolin, Wiley and George on guitar. He left them to help take care of his widowed mother. In 1945 he joined Lost John Miller and the Allied Kentuckians, who had a radio show on WSM, home of the Grand Ole Opry. In December of 1945, Bill Monroe came calling, looking for a banjo player to replace Dave “Stringbean” Akeman. Lester Flatt was already in the band playing guitar and singing high harmonies with Monroe.
When he left The Foggy Mountain Boys in 1969, feeling stifled by the hard core traditional stance of Flatt, he joined his sons Randy, Gary, and Steve to create The Earl Scruggs Revue. The band played “progressive” bluegrass using electric instruments. Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends (1972 Columbia) showed what was to come. It’s a forward looking album with an all-star cast including Joan Baez, Doc Watson, the Byrds, and Bob Dylan. I Saw the Light with Some Help from My Friends (1972 Columbia) was another collaboration with Linda Ronstadt, Arlo Guthrie, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and other pickers. Rockin' 'Cross the Country (1973 Columbia) and The Earl Scruggs Revue (1973 Columbia) disturbed purists, but opened the ears of the rock audience to bluegrass. The Review played The Fillmore in San Francisco and other rock venues to get their message across. In 1973, Scruggs wrote the bluegrass score for Where the Lilies Bloom, a movie about life in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Scruggs slowed down a bit in the next 20 years, but found time to cut Anniversary Special (1975 Columbia), The Earl Scruggs Revue 2 (1976 Columbia) Family Portrait (1976 Columbia), Strike Anywhere (1977 Columbia), Bold & New (1978 Columbia), Today & Forever (1979 Columbia) Storyteller and the Banjo Man (1982 Columbia) a collaboration with Tom T. Hall, Top of the World (1983 Columbia), and Superjammin' (1984 Columbia) an artistic free for all with Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, Billy Joel, Roger McGuinn, The Pointer Sisters, and Loudon Wainwright III to mention just a few.
Scruggs has been semi-retired since the 90s, but participated in Tribute to Tradition (1998 Epic) an all-star album that celebrated the roots of country music. He won a Grammy for his contribution to the album’s “Same Old Train” track. He cut another super session, Earl Scruggs and Friends (2001 MCA), with Elton John, Vince Gill, Sting, Melissa Etheridge, Don Henley, Johnny Cash, John Fogerty, Billy Bob Thornton, Steve Martin, and many more. A new version of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on the album won a Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy. Three Pickers (2003 Rounder) was a more down to earth, acoustic session cut with Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs. Scruggs sat in with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their Welcome to Woody Creek (2004 Dualtone) album. “Earl’s Breakdown” won Scruggs and the Nittys another Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy in 2004. The Ultimate Collection: Live at the Ryman (2007 Rounder) captures his first ever headlining show at the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, and showcases his traditional side.
