Obit: Earl Scruggs (1924-2012)

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Rex
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 01:19 PM

Mark Gardner and I got to meet with Earl back in '06. He was still hot on the banjo and was playing his great classics like Pike County Breakdown. It seemed like he was playing even faster than on the old recordings. We were like five year old kids fawning over our hero and telling him how he inspired us to take up the banjo. Mark observed that he probably heard that a lot. Earl said, "well I might have heard that a time or two." There aren't many who have changed the direction of an instrument or a kind of music so clearly as he did. Thank you Earl for the great music and inspiration.

Rex

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 03:46 PM

Paul Brown has an item on NPR online: A Look Back At The Hidden Earl Scruggs

Excerpted:

In Scruggs' case, when you gently peel back the banjo layer of his musical persona, you find a guitar player as impressive as the banjo picker, as well as a gospel singer the equal of any in the finest Southern traditional quartet.
...
If you think at times you're hearing a trademark three-finger Scruggs banjo roll on the guitar, you are — it's incredible — while his baritone singing is solid, straightforward, unassuming. "God Loves His Children" serves as audible proof that Scruggs not only had heard traditional church music as a kid in rural North Carolina, but was fully steeped in it. He knew it in his soul.

More at the link, as well as audio of the song.

Also, on NPR's Fresh Air today, they are re-airing this: "Earl Scruggs: The 2003 Fresh Air Interview

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: banjoman
Date: 31 Mar 12 - 09:27 AM

I feel a bit of a fraud using the name banjoman and will gladly admit that Earl was and always will be the true BANJOMAN

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 Mar 12 - 06:01 PM

When I was in high school (Putney, VT, 1950-54), Mr Scruggs's name was often mentioned, but I was imperfectly aware that it was that of a human being. Primarily, it meant three-finger banjo picking. As such, it will live a long time.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 07:19 AM

Google Doodle for today!

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,Terray
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 07:41 AM

"Google Doodle for today!"

          ?

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,Terray
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 07:59 AM

Got it.

If ever anyone deserved a Doodle...

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 11:45 AM

The Ballad of Jed Clampett.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (1924-2012)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 01:30 PM

Hi Y'all

I haven't posted for a while but glad to be in touch with fellow folkies.

Guy Carawan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and I camped out on the lawn at WGN
in 1953 to visit with Earl when he was doing his early radio show. He was
so gracious and such a nice person even when that morning his wife was
delivering his child. My memory of him is that he was as great a person as
he was a banjo player.

He will be remembered wherever and whenever bluegrass is played anywhere.

Frank