Earl Scruggs

Earl Scruggs was born in Cleveland County, NC in 1924. Though the banjo’s role in most rural settings was to provide rhythm for fiddle-led string bands, around Flint Hill there was a small but vital tradition of melody-oriented, three-fingered picking. Raised with his brothers by a mother widowed when he was 4, Earl learned to play his dad’s banjo. By the time he was in his teens, Earl had mastered the three fingered tradition and was moving beyond it, smoothing the uneven style into advanced and rhythmically powerful patterns called “rolls.’ The invention came to Scruggs “almost like a dream.”

Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1946. This event is considered the moment when bluegrass music was invented. In 1948, Scruggs and Lester Flatt left Monroe’s group, forming Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Scruggs’ tour de force instrumental was cut in 1949. It is one of the 20th Century’s most widely recognized tunes.

Flatt and Scruggs became “stars” broadening their audience on the college circuit and festivals like the Newport Folk Festival. Flatt’s traditionalism, contrasting Scruggs desire to experiment, led to the band’s split in 1969. Scruggs formed the Earl Scruggs Revue with his sons Gary and Randy and later fiddler Vassar Clements and Dobro master Josh Graves. The revue was ahead of its time in forging the best of bluegrass, rock, folk and even jazz.

Now fully recovered from health problems, Scruggs is playing with his virtuosity intact.