# Earl Scruggs



## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

What are peoples thoughts on Scruggs and bluegrass.I always did like bluegrass.


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Great, great musician

Bluegrass is overrated relative to Western Swing, which was created about the same time and had a similar mix of country and swing / blues influences, but like them both

tend to prefer the rawer old-time music to bluegrass


----------



## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

His influence was profound..The dominant bluegrass style of banjo playing bears his name.


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Jerry Goodman, Mike Marshall, Mark O'Connor, Joshua Bell, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Chris Thile, Stuart Duncan... Bluegrass is alive & well.


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

bagpipers said:


> What are peoples thoughts on Scruggs and bluegrass.I always did like bluegrass.


Scruggs perfected and popularized the three-finger banjo style that was played in the area Scruggs was from by several musicians prior to him, e.g. Charlie Poole and Snuffy Jenkins. Most people date the Bluegrass style finally coalescing when Scruggs (and Lester Flatt) joined Bill Monroe's band in 1946.

However, I prefer the clawhammer style, popular in Old Time mountain music.


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I prefer Bela Fleck, but there still hasn't been a banjo player that has really done it for me. This song by Dave Matthews on Sesame Street with banjo and vocal is pretty neat though!

(70) Sesame Street: Dave Matthews and Grover Sing about Feelings - YouTube 

I like Dave's rhythm playing a whole lot, it's very creative imo. Check out some DMB tunes such as Rhyme and Reason and Dreams of Our Fathers to see what I mean. Focus on the guitar playing.

I prefer instrumental music overall.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Earl Scruggs? That feller could play!


----------



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I suppose I retract the statement of preferring instrumental music, I prefer lyrics that are soaked in metaphors and colors and really make you feel rather than think.

That's something I love about Phish, the lyrics seem non-sensical, but they really make me feel something without getting a literal meaning from it. I suppose you could do that with any lyrics, but Phish's are particularly effective in this way, imo.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

NoCoPilot said:


> Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Jerry Goodman, Mike Marshall, Mark O'Connor, Joshua Bell, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Chris Thile, Stuart Duncan... Bluegrass is alive & well.


Did you mean to say Jerry Douglas? Jerry Goodman is the guy from Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I don't have any Earl Scruggs albums but he was obviously very influential. I've mostly listened to JD Crowe, Pete Wernick, and Bela Fleck.


----------



## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

I actually like grass and Old Time. I live on the shoulder of a ridge here in the Appalachians, so yes, mountain music is something I enjoy.

I grew up listening to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. They were big favorites of my dad. 

I'm not sure about all this Bela Fleck stuff, though. He's a really good banjo player, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't really label his music as bluegrass, would you?


----------



## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Scruggs' playing sometimes leaves me Flatt.


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

starthrower said:


> Did you mean to say Jerry Douglas? Jerry Goodman is the guy from Mahavishnu Orchestra.


Douglas, yeah you're right. Sorry! Although I know Goodman more from his series of solo albums on Private Music than his stint with MVO.


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Nate Miller said:


> I'm not sure about all this Bela Fleck stuff, though. He's a really good banjo player, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't really label his music as bluegrass, would you?


I think he himself labels it "newgrass."


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Nate Miller said:


> I actually like grass and Old Time. I live on the shoulder of a ridge here in the Appalachians, so yes, mountain music is something I enjoy.
> 
> I grew up listening to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. They were big favorites of my dad.
> 
> I'm not sure about all this Bela Fleck stuff, though. He's a really good banjo player, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't really label his music as bluegrass, would you?


I wouldn't label his music, period. He's done a lot of different things over the years, some of it close to traditional bluegrass and much of it not.


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Nate Miller said:


> I actually like grass and Old Time. I live on the shoulder of a ridge here in the Appalachians, so yes, mountain music is something I enjoy.
> 
> I grew up listening to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. They were big favorites of my dad.
> 
> I'm not sure about all this Bela Fleck stuff, though. He's a really good banjo player, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't really label his music as bluegrass, would you?


He has spent his career using the banjo in atypical musical settings, but began life studying and playing Bluegrass. His first major gig was as a member of the original New Grass Revival, granted, a progressive Bluegrass band. Interestingly his latest record is a return to those roots, _My Bluegrass Heart._

He is married to another excellent banjoist, Abigail Washburn, who also draws on a myriad of influences outside of the traditional banjo repertory.

But you're right, he is certainly not dyed in the wool Bluegrass.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bela was in the second incarnation of New Grass Revival along with Pat Flynn starting in the early 80s. The original band featured Curtis Birch and Courtney Johnson.


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

starthrower said:


> Bela was in the second incarnation of New Grass Revival along with Pat Flynn starting in the early 80s. The original band featured Curtis Birch and Courtney Johnson.


I stand corrected.


----------



## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

NoCoPilot said:


> Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Jerry Goodman, Mike Marshall, Mark O'Connor, Joshua Bell, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Chris Thile, Stuart Duncan... Bluegrass is alive & well.


I'm a fan of Earl Scruggs (and of Bill Monroe, whom SanAntone mentioned). I mean, how couldn't you love Foggy Mountain Breakdown in Bonnie and Clyde? But bluegrass would be little more than an enjoyable but minor niche genre for me were it not for the musicians you mention and others of the current day who have developed it in creative and interesting new directions.
Bonnie and Clyde on a drive


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

A band of some of Nashville's best Bluegrass players, *The Earls of Leicester,* was founded in 2013 by Jerry Douglas to play the music of the Flatt & Scruggs Foggy Mountain Boys.

They still come together to record and play the occasional gig. This is a live recording from 2018.






Jerry Douglas - Dobro
Shawn Camp - lead vocals and guitar
Charlie Cushman - banjo and guitars
Johnny Warren - vocals and fiddle
Daniel Kimbro - vocals and bass
Jeff White - mandolin and vocals


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Also, a new film by bluegrass banjoist *Bill Evans* presents a really nice survey of various banjo styles chronologically:

*The Banjo in America*








> Evans plays tunes representing perhaps 150-200 years worth of banjo music, using period-specific repertoire and banjos.
> 
> That Evans can play so well in so many styles on so many different banjos in various tunings is not the overarching point of these 19 performances, and yet his musicality brings the pieces to life. Evans has been touring a stage performance of The Banjo in America since the 1990s. A filmed version is now being released on DVD by Tiki Parlour Recordings, a Los Angeles outfit that specializes in recording traditional old-time music. (source)


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Pompey Ran Away was published in 1782, so it is more like 250 years


----------



## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Bluegrass is overrated relative to Western Swing


I don't see it.


----------



## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

bagpipers said:


> What are peoples thoughts on Scruggs and bluegrass.I always did like bluegrass.


I love bluegrass. I'll never forget my first bluegrass concert. It was fantastic. I was mesmerized. I was a city kid, I had never heard that kind of music. Heck, I don't think their was any kind of country music radio station in NYC at the time. This is the actural show:


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

eljr said:


> I don't see it.


Western Swing has yodeling, so you have that, got some mariachi action as well





nothing against bluegrass, but this stuff at least as good


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Western Swing has yodeling, so you have that, got some mariachi action as well
> 
> 
> 
> ...


No argument about Western Swing but you brought it up in a thread about Earl Scruggs and the Bluegrass banjo style he pioneered. I would welcome a thread about Western Swing, or Bob Wills - but do not enjoy seeing a good thread diluted and derailed with this kind of off-topic intrusion.


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> No argument about Western Swing but you brought it up in a thread about Earl Scruggs and the Bluegrass banjo style he pioneered. I would welcome a thread about Western Swing, or Bob Wills - but do not enjoy seeing a good thread diluted and derailed with this kind of off-topic intrusion.


The OP asked for thoughts about Bluegrass and I just mentioned I liked it and compared it to Western Swing, which is related in that its another offshoot of country music created about the same time by sophisticated musicians with a wide range of influences. I then responded to a response to this. I no more derailed this thread with Asleep at the Wheel than you did posting old time banjo, and if you want to derail this thread by ‘post shaming’ me, I ain’t going to play that.


----------

