R.I.P. Earl Scruggs

[DFW]

The 5 string banjo may be dissed (and dismissed) as a hillbilly instrument, but that is a limited and very passé point of view, as anyone who knows the name Béla Fleck knows.

Earl was a visionary, a pioneer, and, not incidentally, one of the finest pickers to ever play that instrument. What Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are to the electric 6 string guitar, what Leo Kottke is to the 12 string guitar, that's what Earl Scruggs was to the 5 string banjo.

Without this:

There would never have been this:

[Peacetrain]

RIP ...

[azmouse]

He immediately makes me think of the Beverly Hillbillies. Loved that show, and he and Lester Flatt were frequent guests.

[KonaKane]

(03-29-2012 08:15 AM)azmouse Wrote:  He immediately makes me think of the Beverly Hillbillies. Loved that show, and he and Lester Flatt were frequent guests.

I've played a lot of music with the son of Bill Lowe, who played bass along with Earl on the Beverly Hillbillies soundtrack. I hear his stories all the time about how these Bluegrass Greats would come over to the house and do the "porch jams" starting in the mornings and often running to evening.

Craig (Bill's son) told me, as a kid he was once "woked up" in a startling fashion, by Earl Scruggs pouring a glass of water over his head.