Earl Scruggs

In 1945 at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, a skinny 21 year-old from North Carolina stepped onto the stage and lit a firestorm by picking the five-string banjo like no one had ever heard before. His rapid three-finger technique and clarity of notes sent the audience into a cheerful frenzy. In just one night, Earl Scruggs transformed the banjo, which had been widely associated with clowns and background accompaniment, into a mainstream solo instrument pursued by countless musicians. After a two year stint with the Father of Bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, Earl and lead singer/guitarist, Lester Flatt, formed their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys, more commonly billed as Flatt and Scruggs. Earl Scruggs recorded and performed with some of the music industry's biggest stars like Billy Joel, Elton John, Sting, the Pointer Sisters, Dan Fogelberg, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Kenny Loggins, Vince Gill, Travis Tritt, Don Henley, and Steve Martin. Gordon Castelnero and David Russell explore Scrugg's rise to fame and lasting legacy on bluegrass music and banjo playing traditions. With interwoven interviews with the Scruggs family and over 30 notable banjo players, this narrative biography will shed light on the history of bluegrass for both amateur and professional musicians, students of music and American history, and any reader entranced by Scrugg's unmistakable sound.