Earl Scruggs

Essential Albums

  • Foggy Mountain Banjo (Remastered 2014)
    Foggy Mountain Banjo (Remastered 2014)

    By the time Flatt & Scruggs released Foggy Mountain Banjo in 1961, the band had already been at it for over a decade, shepherding hillbilly music—or bluegrass, as it had come to be called—into something like the mainstream, guesting regularly on nationally syndicated media and joining folk festivals aimed at audiences looking to recover something “real”. Decades later, the music here retains an intensity more germane to punk than anything else, driven by thumping bass, searing fiddle and the breathless picking of banjo player Earl Scruggs, who seems to have been given more fingers than most. Down-home as they were, there are times—“Cumberland Gap”, “Lonesome Road Blues”, “Bugle Call Rag”—when the band appears to wheel up and leave the ground.

Singles & EPs

Live Albums

Compilations

About Earl Scruggs

Earl Scruggs is one of the most important instrumentalists in bluegrass history. Raised in Appalachia, he learned to play banjo at the age of five. In 1944, he joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, where he perfected his patented three-finger banjo technique. He subsequently formed the Foggy Mountain Boys with Lester Flatt in 1948, the two enjoying a brilliant 20-year career together. After they parted in 1969, he formed the Earl Scruggs Revue with his sons, Randy, Gary and Steve. Scruggs recorded a string of excellent albums in the 1970s, notably HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS, which included guest appearances by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Byrds, and the timeless DUELLING BANJOS. He died in 1992.

HOMETOWN
Flint Hill, NC, United States
BORN
6 January 1924
GENRE
Country

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