Obit: Earl Scruggs (1924-2012)

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

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 (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,Terray
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 07:41 AM

"Google Doodle for today!"

          ?

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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 01:10 PM

Dave Holt posted this story on Facebook:

Earl Scruggs was a quiet reserved man and when I was interviewing him for LEGACY I wanted him to tell the story about how much he helped Doc back in 1966. Doc was happy to tell the story but Earl just didn't want to blow his own horn and didn't want it told at that time. I talked to Doc this morning and he said, "Now is the time to tell it."

In 1966 Flatt and Scruggs invited Doc to record an album with them...to be called "Strictly Instrumental." Doc and Merle traveled to Nashville and were staying in a motel the day before recording was to start. Doc woke up that morning feeling very sick. Earl insisted they go to the doctor and the doctor immediately put Doc in the hospital with a ruptured appendix. At one point they gave Doc a 5% chance of surviving.

Doc said that in those days "he didn't have nickel." Earl realized this and explained Doc's financial situation to the Opry Fund and made a case that they should help this fine young musician from North Carolina. Doc was not well known at the time nor was he a close personal friend of Scruggs and yet Earl went to bat for him and was able to get the money to pay Doc's medical bills.

Doc was forever grateful to Earl for helping in this dire time. When Doc was well enough to leave the hospital Earl flew him home in his plane, and let Doc try his hand at flying. After this, Doc and Earl were friends for life. And when Strictly Instrumental was finally recorded and released it became an instant classic.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 12:29 PM

That last was me. #$^%* cookie!
- Phil

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 11:54 AM

My Earl story: He was booked to play a spring festival at the university shortly after he broke up with Lester. The show was cancelled or rescheduled or something because it conflicted with the big spring training football game. No one told Earl, but no fuss, no superstar tantrum. Eventually five or six of us showed up for the show. We chatted with Earl and the band while they set up, and then sat around the edge of the bandstand while they played their entire show for us.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 30 Mar 12 - 11:08 AM

The New York Times has a nice video: Remembering Earl Scruggs.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 10:04 PM

I cannot express what Earl's banjo music has meant to me, ever since the day in 1956 when a fellow picker played me some dubs of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and two or three other cuts, and a passion for 3-finger picking began insinuating itself into my life.

There has never been anything like it! And I've loved exploring among the antecedents, Snuffy Jenkins and the others who inspired him, and tracing this way of playing back through the years into the traditional roots where it all came from in the first place.

Thanks for so much fine music, Earl, and may heaven ring with your work.

Bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Janie
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 08:15 PM

One of my earliest memories of TV, and of music on TV was the 15 minute Flatt & Scruggs show, broadcast live every Thursday night at 6:00 pm from WSAZ, Huntington, WV. Daddy would not miss it, even if it meant supper got cold on the table.

Having fantasies - of Daddy seeing Earl arrive in his heaven and thinking, "Dang, I didn't know it could get even better!"

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 06:38 PM

RIP Earl! You will live forever in the legacy that you left behind!

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 05:58 PM

My introduction to bluegrass - Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs - Theme from the Beverley Hillbillies - But that was an English kid in the 60's!

Definitely a sad day.

DtG

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 04:16 PM

RIP EARL

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Gurney
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 03:51 PM

A tongue-in-cheek note: An announcer on our local radio said "Scruggs took the music of Scotland and Ireland and made it an art-form."

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: gnu
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 02:21 PM

RIP andf thanks for the great tunes.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 01:48 PM

No, Seamus, no!

~ Becky in Tucson, clawhammer player

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,Seamus Kennedy
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 01:28 PM

This just in: All the harps in heaven now have Scruggs tuners, and are to be played with thumb pick and fingerpicks.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: topical tom
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 01:21 PM

The music world has lost a great innovator. Flatt and Scruggs have left a wondrous legacy of bluegrass music. Heavenly music can only improve by the addition of Earl to the heavenly choir. I ghrew up listening to the music of Flatt and Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys, hence my love of bluegrass today. RIP, Earl. You gave us all a musical legacy never to be forgotten.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 01:13 PM

I'm glad he was among us for so many years. There will never be another.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Cool Beans
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 12:39 PM

RIP, Earl Scruggs

In bluegrass music heaven, where all good pickers go,
On the sunny side of the mountain, by the banks of the Ohio,
Somewhere up on Rocky Top, in the sweet, sweet by and by
If my walking shoes still fit me, gonna go there when I die...

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: pdq
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 11:06 AM

Here is a nice discussion of Earl Scruggs life with some fine videos:

http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/get-rhythm/32436-earl-scruggs-1924-2012

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Amos
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 11:03 AM

That banjo is going to ring all over Hebben.

A

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: glueman
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 10:54 AM

Sad news but he wrote his name in music history. A remarkable talent.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 10:10 AM

Earl was unique in being not only the originator of a style, but the unquestioned master of it. Other instrumental styles have been created by single innovative players, but those styles have been taken to their highest levels by others. Earl's bandmate Josh Graves arguably invented modern bluegrass Dobro, but Jerry Douglas has taken it way beyond what Graves did. But nobody has ever played Scruggs style banjo better than Earl.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Haruo
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 09:08 AM

I just posted an entry on him in the Esperanto Wikipedia (pretty much all translated from the English, but I added a couple of YouTube links):

Earl Scruggs

I keep promising to do an article there on Blugreso (Bluegrass) in general, maybe in April?

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Beer
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 08:44 AM

He will be sadly missed in the Bluegrass circle. Lets hope that he is still playing and with his friends who have passed on as well.
Sympathies to his family, fans and friends.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 08:33 AM

If Earl played the harp, he'd raise the standard it a few levels and in a few weeks they'd all be doing it.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: voyager
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 08:22 AM

Lonesome EJ got it right....Earl Scruggs is a guiding light in the sky.

Nashville Tennessean

voyager

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 08:12 AM

So do they give out banjos at the Pearly Gates or do you need to bring your own?

Somehow I just can't imagine Earl playing the harp.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 08:07 AM

He was like the pebble that first hits the pond. The ripples go on and on and on.....

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 07:12 AM

Saw him along with Lester Flatt at a Schlitz summer free concert in Milwaukee in 1967.

Here's the obit in the NY Times -- NY Times Scruggs Obit

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,JohnnyBeezer
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 04:23 AM

Whew, what to say!

RIP Banjoman.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 04:04 AM

He's probably jammin with Vassar Clements, John Hartford and Lester by now.

RIP Earl.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: fat B****rd
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 03:56 AM

So sad, RIP Mr.Scruggs.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,Roger Knowles
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 03:54 AM

A great loss to the world of American music. One of my first heroes.
Sleep well, Earl, you'll be missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: GUEST,Mike Rogers
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 03:25 AM

Another Grand Old Man of Music done gone.
Nobody did it better.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: alanabit
Date: 29 Mar 12 - 02:54 AM

Thanks for linking that Steve Martin article Becky. I have probably heard his influence every time I have heard banjo in a bluegrass band. Obviously there is a long life of achievement for his family, friends and many admirers to celebrate.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 11:45 PM

Thanks for the link fix, Ross.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 11:29 PM

A long life, well lived. There should be a Constellation named after him.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Amos
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 11:24 PM

JUst got the word from old Mudcatter Banjoest who talked to Earl's son Garry. A great man has passed on. May he pick forever in his own kind of heaven.


A

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 11:23 PM

Oh, sad.

Obits
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-03-28/earl-scruggs-banjo-legend-bluegrass-dies/53841194/1

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/03/earl-scruggs-remembering-a-bluegrass-and-american-music-legend.html

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-28/earl-scruggs-banjoist-who-invented-scruggs-style-dies-at-88

I am sure there will be many more.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 11:05 PM

I agree Janie......and my thanks as well Becky.

I remember a discussion we had here 10 years or so back about Bluegrass. Basically we talked about the beginnings of various musical forms. While it is very hard to come up with a moment in time when jazz or rock or even classical or whatever began, with Bluegrass it began the first time Earl Scruggs played with Bill Monroe. Bill Monroe had the style already but the true trademark of the genre came with Earl Scruggs.

Thanks Earl.......


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88) Mar. 28, 2012
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 10:59 PM

A working link:- Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88)
From: Janie
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 09:29 PM

Very nice tribute from Steve Martin. Thanks for linking to it Becky.

Subject: RE: Obit: Earl Scruggs (age 88)
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 28 Mar 12 - 09:26 PM

Earl Scruggs was arguably one of the most influential musicians in American cultural history - as much or more so than Bill Monroe himself. It's a great loss, and that's all there is to it.

Dan