Some artists are lucky enough to be born with names that effortlessly fit their music. Like Mick Jagger of rock and Thelonious Monk of jazz, the name Earl Scruggs immediately evokes the old-timey bluegrass sound that Scruggs helped popularize.
At the Birchmere tonight performing with his family and friends, the 81-year-old banjo innovator is celebrating his sixtieth year in music. Scruggs is widely regarded as a critical musical figure who permanently transformed the banjo into a dynamic instrument capable of blindingly fast rolls and licks.
Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, a guitarist and vocalist, joined country music godfather Bill Monroe??s Blue Grass Boys in 1945. Some of the greatest names in country music got their start in Monroe??s group, whose name came to define the budding musical genre.
Flatt and Scruggs both left the Blue Grass Boys in 1948 and formed Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, which catapulted bluegrass music to new heights of popularity. Flatt & Scruggs?? wildly addictive theme to The Beverly Hillbillies, 1963??s ??The Ballad of Jed Clampett,? turned bluegrass music into a mainstream phenomenon.
But as their fame soared in the late 1960s, the duo split over Flatt??s staunch adherence to traditional bluegrass. Scruggs and his two sons formed the Earl Scruggs Review and explored new sounds and musical ideas that often strayed far from his country background.
The Birchmere often hosts living legends, but an opportunity to see Earl Scruggs play the instrument that he revolutionized is certainly a special treat.
