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Earl Scruggs

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Earl Scruggs was born in 1924 in Flint Hill, in Cleveland County, North Carolina. His father died when he was four. The whole family played music, and Earl was already working at the banjo so young that he first had to lay the instrument on the floor beside him. Around the age of ten, while playing the tune Reuben, he discovered that he was picking with three fingers instead of two. From that moment he practised every spare minute.

Music and breakthrough

In 1945 he joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, and his playing was an immediate sensation. In 1948 he left, as did the singer and guitarist Lester Flatt. Together they formed the duo Flatt and Scruggs. Their instrumental Foggy Mountain Breakdown, recorded in 1949, became a lasting hit and found a new audience when it was heard in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. In 1962 they recorded The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the theme tune of the television series The Beverly Hillbillies, which reached number 1 on the Billboard chart. In 1969 they split up, because Scruggs wanted to sound more modern and Flatt held on to tradition.

Influence

The Scruggs style is fast and rhythmic. With picks on thumb, index finger and middle finger he plucks individual strings in a fixed pattern, with the melody continuing to sound between the notes. As a result the banjo became a solo instrument instead of an accompanist in the background. That way of playing became a hallmark of the whole of bluegrass. Scruggs died in Nashville in 2012.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Foggy Mountain Breakdown by Flatt and Scruggs. Notice the stream of fast banjo notes: the melody is hidden in it, while the other fingers keep playing notes around it.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

Categories: ArtistsBluegrass