Earl Scruggs

Bluegrass banjo picker

Considering Earl Scruggs pioneered the three-finger picking style now known as Scruggs' Style banjo picking, it's not really fair to make a clear comparison. Still, other great banjo players fans of Scruggs may be interested in checking out include Tony Trischka, Béla Fleck, J.D. Crowe, and Pete Seeger.

That's Earl Scruggs picking the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies.

Flatt & Scruggs - Don't Get Above Your Raisin'
Flatt & Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Jamboree
Flatt & Scruggs - 1948-1959 (Box Set)

"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (from Earl Scruggs & Friends)
"Cripple Creek" with Lester Flatt (from The Essential Earl Scruggs)
"Hey Jude" (from Nashville's Rock)

Born in North Carolina in 1924, Earl Scruggs was surrounded by music growing up. His mother played organ, his father played fiddle and banjo, and his four siblings played banjo and guitar. After his father's death when Earl was only four years old, Earl picked up the banjo and started playing with a two-finger picking style. He developed the three-finger style that would become known as Scruggs Style when he was ten.

At the age of 15, he joined up with his first musical group, the Morris Brothers, but only played with them for a few months before leaving to take care of his mother.

Then, in 1945, he was invited to play with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. He made his first recording with them in 1946, and remained with the legendary group for two more years before leaving to take care of his sick mother. Soon after he left the group, guitarist Lester Flatt followed, and together they became known as Flatt and Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys.

The Foggy Mountain Boys would stick together for twenty years, becoming one of the most legendary and influential bluegrass groups of all time, and winning a Grammy Award in 1969, before disbanding for artistic differences.

Earl went on to perform with his two sons as the Earl Scruggs Revue, won several Grammy Awards, was inducted in to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in a Nashville hospital on Mar. 28, 2012, at the age of 88.