Earl Scruggs

Infobox musical artist
Name = Earl Scruggs


Img_capt = Earl Scruggs performing at The Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 12, 2005
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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Earl Eugene Scruggs
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1924|1|6
Died =
Origin = Shelby, North Carolina, USA
Instrument = 5-string banjo, guitar
Genre = Bluegrass, country
Occupation = Bluegrass artist
Years_active = 1945 – Present
Label = MCA Nashville Records
Associated_acts = Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, Flatt and Scruggs, Earl Scruggs Revue
URL = [http://www.earlscruggs.com/ www.earlscruggs.com]
Notable_instruments = A 1933/34 Gibson Granada previously owned by Don Reno and Snuffy Jenkins, and "Nellie," a Gibson RB-3 flathead

Earl Eugene Scruggs (born January 6, 1924) is a musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger style (now called Scruggs style) on the 5-string banjo 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; 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.

Biography

Scruggs was born in Shelby, North Carolina to Georgia Lula Ruppe and George Elam Scruggs. [ [http://www.wargs.com/other/scruggs.html Ancestry of Earl Scruggs ] ] 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. [http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1523089/20060202/scruggs_earl.jhtml?headlines=true]

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.

Discography

* "Where Lillies Bloom"
* "Nashville's Rock" (Columbia CS 1007)
* "Foggy Mountain Jamboree" (Sony, 1957)
*"Strictly Instrumental" (with Lester Flatt and Doc Watson) (1967)
* "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 Anywher"e (1977)
* "Bold & New" (1978)
* "Today & Forever" (1979)
* "The Story Teller & the Banjo Man" (CBS, 1982)
* "Flatt & Scrugg"s (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 Scrugg"s (Legacy Recordings, 2004)
* "Live with Donnie Allen and Friends" (Legacy Recordings, 2005

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)

Footnotes

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.
* [http://www.flatt-and-scruggs.com/earlbio.html Willis, Barry R. "Biography of Earl Scruggs." Retrieved October 5, 2008.]
* [http://www.charliecushman.com/ScruggsReno.htm Description of his Gibson RB3 banjo]

External links

* [http://www.earlscruggs.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/inductees/flatt_scruggs.html at the Country Music Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.mca-nashville.com/earlscruggs/welcome.html on MCA Nashville]
* [http://www.banjofrailer.org Old-Time Banjo Tunes]
* [http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&catalog_id=6478 on Rounder Records]
* [http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/inductees.aspx?cid=117 Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0780184/ Profile at the Internet Movie DataBase]