Sunday Afternoon Bluegrass The legendary bluegrass banjo player Earl Scruggs performs “The Black Mountain Rag.” Mr. Scruggs started playing the banjo at the age of 4, and by the age of just 10 he had already developed his own unique three-fingered technique, later known as “Scruggs-Style Picking.” His name has become synonymous with the banjo; his pioneering style has influenced a countless number of musicians around the world and he has helped to define the sound of 20th-century country music. Earl Scruggs was born in Flint Hill, North Carolina, near the Town of Boiling Springs North Carolina and nestled in the foothills of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Cleveland County. He passed away two years ago last month at the age of 88. Scruggs won his first Grammy Award in 1969 (along with his longtime collaborator Lester Flatt) for “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” which they first recorded in 1949. Scruggs received a second Grammy Award for a 2001 performance of the song (with Steve Martin on second banjo) on the Late Show with David Letterman. The rendition was from his album Earl Scruggs and Friends, featuring collaborations with artists that included Martin, Vince Gill, Albert Lee, Paul Shaffer, Leon Russell, Marty Stuarts, John Fogerty, Elton John, Sting, Johnny Cash, Don Henley, Travis Tritt, and Billy Bob Thornton. “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” has become a standard of bluegrass music. Scruggs and Flatt are perhaps best known to general audiences for “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” the beloved theme song of the long-running 1960′s TV show The Beverly Hillbillies, which they both appeared on several times. Scruggs was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985 and the North Carolina Music Hall Of Fame in 2009. In 1994, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the people of the United States. The country singer Porter Wagoner once said of Scruggs: “Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was. And the best there ever will be.” The General Assembly honored Scruggs with a Joint Resolution in 2007 and earlier this year, The Earl Scruggs Center opened in the City of Shelby, North Carolina celebrate his life and legacy. For more information, please visit nchouse116/sunday-afternoon-bluegrass/
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 17:30:56 +0000
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