earl scruggs and friends

Subject: earl scruggs and friends
From: 53
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 06:23 PM

foggy mountain breakdown has been around since the days of bonnie and clyde, but earl has a new version out now called earl and friends, it has some of the best picking i've ever heard, give it a listen, or watch the video on cmt. BOB

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 06:44 PM

Whee! Listen to part of it on www.earlscruggs.com.

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Jerry Dingleman: The Boy Wonder(inactve)
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 06:54 PM

One of the friends playing banjo with Earl is Steve Martin, the comedian. He's a good banjo player.

Jerry

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: GUEST,Mark Clark (via public proxy)
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 07:02 PM

If you mean Bonnie and Clyde the movie, then Foggy Mt. Breakdown has been around for over twenty years before it was used in the film. If you mean Bonnie and Clyde the outlaws, then the tune hadn't been composed yet.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 07:16 PM

Thank you Mark. I had the same thought. For anyone wondering what a "breakdown" is:

BREAKDOWN:Any tune played on banjo so blindingly fast as to be unrecognizable. The tune finishes when the lugs loosen, the head pops, the neck snaps, the tailpiece knocks the player even more senseless than before, and the fifth peg richochets off of a Martin D-28 and lodges up the player's ass, as the banjo disintegrates and everyone applauds it's destruction. Often played at hoedowns.

HOEDOWN: A dance of sorts, often held in a barn or other rustic setting (a place involving the best of rotting wood, hay, straw, dirt, and a requisite amount of manure). People gather wearing their finest string ties, poofy skirts, and checkered shirts and blouses with faux pearl buttons. A smorgasboard of food is layed out consisting of overcooked vegetable dishes and tooth rotting pies. An animal is burned beyond recognition while being slathered with a sauce so the original flavor of the meat is completely gone and now cannot be distinguished from a molasses and ketchup covered guitar strap. The band cranks out some dance tunes and people stomp around the floor while someone yells out confusing directions using words unknown in any language. After each dance the band and the dancers refresh themselves with spirits often distilled deep in the woods through a Peterbilt radiator. By the end of the evening the music and dancing is frantically paced until the entire group falls into a drunken stupor and drive home in their pick-ups, endangering all those sane enough not to have attended.

Spaw

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: 53
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 08:27 PM

Spaw, thanks for the education on Breakdowns and Hoedowns. We will remember not to stand too close to the Banjo player and the Martin D 28 next time we attend a hoedown! Ho Ho Ho. That is truly great music though.

Mark, Bob was wondering who'd pick up on the Bonnie and Clyde issue first. Congrats.

Have a nice evening. I am done for the day.

Glenda

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: khandu
Date: 14 Jan 02 - 11:51 PM

Oooh, I love that version! And seeing Steve Martin in it makes it all the better. Hell, I love anything Mr. Earl does.

In the early seventies, there was an album titled "Earl Scruggs and Friends" which was quite enjoyable. Dylan, Joan Baez and others were on it. The only thing I did not enjoy was a Moog playing "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"

Earl also did some wonderful work on the soundtrack "Where the Lillies Bloom". (Where can I find a copy of that?)

The Earl Scruggs Revue was excellent, however, it is hard to beat some of the old Flatt and Scruggs songs, such as "Rose Conally", "You Are My Flower" and the great "Martha White Self-Rising Flower"!

Though he is "Mr. Banjo",I must point out that Earl's guitar work was some beautiful picking!

khandu

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: khandu
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 12:06 AM

Er... That is; "Martha White Self-Rising Flour"

Spaw, thanks for the info, but, in Mississippi, me and some of the bro's have a different meaning for "Ho-down"!

khandu

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 01:48 AM

See "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde." a poem composed by Bonnie Parker in 1934, shortly before she was machine-gunned along with Clyde. Here

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 02:10 AM

Foggy Mountain Breakdown: Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, 1949 release. Bonnie and Clyde machine-gunned down, 1934. Bonnie and Clyde the movie, 1967 (Pedantically adding a footnote to Mark's posting).

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: 53
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 09:32 AM

earl is a fine guitar picker, as well as being mr. banjo, i just love the video, and downloaded the song from morpheus yesterday, and played along with it for about an hour. BOB

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: GUEST,harvey the rabbit
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 09:54 PM

Earl is the best damn banjo-picker there is, except for Tom Jones (yes, the "What's New, Pussycat" Tom Jones).

There is a rare out of print recording of him playing breakdowns at lightning speed. It is called "Tom Jones Shows You How It's Done!!"

It is very impressive. One listen and you will proclaim him "Master Banjo"!

On the dark side, it has been hinted that Tom actually made a midnight trip to the Crossroads and made a deal. But...that is the stuff of which legends are made!

Harvey

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 11:15 AM

I got this CD yesterday. I have to admit that I'm not knocked out by all of the tunes on it, but it is an avenue for Earl to do some awfully fine picking.

The verion of FMB smokes, Earl plays some new licks that really add to it. Now, I just have to learn them.

Steve Martin does a good job too.

Harvey the Rabbit, you're making the Tom Jones thing up, aren't you?

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Fortunato
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 11:21 AM

I seem to remember a surreal,out of body experience, where Tom Jones played SEVERAL INSTRUMENTS very well.

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 11:58 AM

Boy, I wish I could go along with this, 'cause Earl is not only one of my all time favourite musicians...but I literally idolize him. I'm afraid I can hardly watch some of his later efforts though. Saw him last year on Nashville Network and he seemed almost catatonic as he muddled through "Ruben's Train" for the umpteen millionth time. Same reason I can't bring myself to watch Ralph Stanley these days.

My gawd these folks were ELECTRIC on their early recordings. Earl's timing and speed have never been duplicated on those Mercury recordings from the late forties. The ORIGINAL "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (with Benny Sims on fiddle) with the E MAJOR chord, still practically makes me cry.

And how I wish that the folks who've discovered Ralph Stanley would go back and get the recordings with Brother Carter, especially the early Columbia ones. Carter was THE Bluegrass lead singer.

The great thing about these folks' "re-dicovery" by the mainstream is that they're gettin' some "mainstream" paychecks, (to make up for the years when they played hard and far afield for peanuts) but go back to the early records to see why they WARRANTED "re-discovery".

Rick

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: van lingle
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 12:24 PM

yep,khandhu that LP you speak of was called "earl scruggs his family and friends" and was a soundtrack of a pbs tv show that featured earl going around with his sons and doing some informal picking in the homes of the folks you mentioned as well as doc watson, the byrds, roy acuff and others. highlight for me was doc and earl tearing it up on streamlined cannonball. wish someone would put it out on VHS.vl

Subject: RE: earl scruggs and friends
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 12:27 PM

Rick,

You're right about these guys being "electric" way back when. But Earl does kick it up on some of the tracks on the new CD. And knowing what I know about you, you would absolutley hate some of the stuff on this CD. However, I will loan it to you.

I saw Dr. Ralph at the Down From The Mountain Show. I was disappointed that he didn't play the banjo (I feel the same way about him as you do about Earl), but it also occurred to me he's getting on in years. I'm sure that it would be tough for both he and Earl to play with the same intensity that they did 50 years ago. The body slows down.

There is a CD out, The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers that is the next item on my shopping list. I think that more than anybody else, Carter and Ralph defined Bluegrass harmonies.