CNN) -- Earl Scruggs, whose distinctive picking style and association
with Lester Flatt cemented bluegrass music's place in popular culture, died
Wednesday of natural causes at a Nashville hospital, his son Gary Scruggs said.
He was 88.
"I realize his popularity
throughout the world went way beyond just bluegrass and country music," Gary
Scruggs told CNN. "It was more than that."
For many of a certain age,
Scruggs' banjo was part of the soundtrack of an era on "The Ballad of Jed
Clampett" -- the theme song from the CBS sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies," which
aired on CBS from 1962 to 1971 and for decades afterward in syndication.
But much more than that, he
popularized a three-finger picking style that brought the banjo to the fore in a
supercharged genre, and he was an indispensable member of the small cadre of
musical greats who created modern bluegrass music.
Scruggs was born in 1924 to a
musically gifted family in rural Cleveland County, North Carolina, according to
his official biography. His father, a farmer and a bookkeeper, played the fiddle
and banjo, his mother was an organist and his older siblings played guitar and
banjo, as well.
Young Earl's exceptional gifts
were apparent early on. He started playing the banjo at age 4 and he started
developing his three-finger style at the age of 10.
"The banjo was, for all practical
purposes, 'reborn' as a musical instrument," the biography on his official
website declares, "due to the talent and prominence Earl Scruggs gave to the
instrument."
While Scruggs' status as the
Prometheus of the banjo may be overstated, many musicians feel he changed the
game. Fiddler John Hartman, quoted in Barry R. Willis' "America's Music:
Bluegrass," summed it up this way: "Everybody's all worried about who invented
the style and it's obvious that three-finger banjo pickers have been around a
long time -- maybe since 1840. But my feeling about it is that if it wasn't for
Earl Scruggs, you wouldn't be worried about who invented it."
In an article on the Country
Music Hall of Fame and Museum's website, bluegrass historian Neil V. Rosenberg
described Scruggs' style as "a 'roll' executed with the thumb and two fingers of
his right hand" that essentially made the banjo "a lead instrument like a fiddle
or a guitar, particularly on faster pieces and instrumentals. This novel sound
attracted considerable attention to their Grand Ole Opry performances, road
shows, and Columbia recordings."
In 1945, Scruggs met Flatt when
he joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, for whom Flatt was the guitarist and
lead vocalist. Along with the group's mandolin-playing namesake were fiddler
Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts (alias: Cedric Rainwater).
Scruggs and Flatt left Monroe in
1948 to form the Foggy Mountain Boys, according to the Country Music Hall of
Fame website. Along with guitarist/vocalists Jim Eanes and Mac Wiseman, fiddler
Jim Shumate and Blue Grass Boys alum Rainwater, the group played on WCYB in
Bristol, Tennessee, and recorded for the Mercury label.
He married Anne Louise Certain
that year. In the '50s she became Flatt & Scruggs' business manager. They
were married for more than 57 years until her death in 2006.
The Foggy Mountain Boys' roster
changed over the years, but Flatt and Scruggs became the constants, the
signature sound of the group on radio programs, notably those sponsored by
Martha White Flour, and as regulars at the Grand Ole Opry. They became
syndicated TV stars in in the Southeast in the late 1950s and early '60s, and
they hit the country charts with the gospel tune "Cabin on the Hill."
But it was during an appearance
at a Hollywood folk club that brought them into contact with the producer of
"The Beverly Hillbillies" and led to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." It was their
only single to climb to No.1 on the country charts.
The 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde"
featured their 1949 instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," with its
distinctive Scruggs-style banjo solo perhaps the most ubiquitous of bluegrass
sounds.
The duo split in 1969, and
Scruggs' fame as a solo and featured act continued to grow, even as his most
iconic licks echoed through the years among his acolytes -- basically, anyone
who played banjo, and many who picked other instruments.
Playing "Foggy Mountain" on
banjo became a staple of Steve Martin's comedy routine, and blossomed into a
reverential tribute. In November 2001, Martin and Scruggs were joined by Vince
Gill, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas and others on "Late Show With David Letterman"
to play a fiery version of the song -- soloing alternately on banjo, guitar,
mandolin, fiddle, steel guitar and harmonica. Even Paul Schafer took the chorus
for a spin on piano.
In an article in the New Yorker
in January, Martin wrote, "A grand part of American music owes a debt to Earl
Scruggs. Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl
has, putting him in a category with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins,
and Jimi Hendrix."
Flatt & Scruggs were
inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985, six years after Lester
Flatt's death. In 1991, Scruggs, Flatt and Monroe were the first inductees in
the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
His sons Gary and Randy both are
accomplished musicians and songwriters, and played with their dad in a 1973
album, "The Earl Scruggs Revue."
[video=youtube;drHCosJWH0Q][/video]
He is pretty much the co-creator of Bluegrass music. R.I.P
One of my faves.