Posts Tagged: #bluegrass

More Banjo!

You can never have enough banjo as far as I’m concerned. So I’m doing another banjo related post. Probably because mine are stuck behind a bunch of moving boxes where I can’t get to them. I had them accessible, but my wife blocked them in. Hmm, wonder if that was by design? Nahh, you can never get enough banjo!

Anyway, here is the great Doug Dillard and his band with the equally great Vassar Clements on fiddle. If Doug looks vaguely familiar he and his musical family were called the “Darlings” when they stopped by to jam with Andy Griffith at the sheriff’s office.

Play it Like Earl…

Just about every aspiring banjo player starts off wanting to sound like Earl Scruggs. While Earl didn’t invent playing the banjo with three fingers, he certainly was the one that perfected it and brought it to popularity.

Earl was right there next to Bill Monroe when Bill was becoming the father of bluegrass. Then Earl was right there next to Lester Flatt when bluegrass invaded our living rooms and movie theaters.

In 1969, after 20 very successful years, Flatt and Scrugs decided to part. Flatt wanted to stick to traditional music, and Earl wanted to keep branching out.

In 1969 he formed the Earl Scrugs Revue with his three sons and continued to branch out and expand “banjo music” until his bad back forced him off the road in 1982.

Here’s a snippet from their appearance on Austin City Limits

So while it’s fun to “play it like Earl”, it’s also fun to remember Earl always liked to find new ways to play it.

Happy 80th Eddie Adcock

Yesterday, one of the remaining living legends of bluegrass banjo celebrated his 80th birthday. Eddie Adcock was one of Bill Monroes Blue Grass Boys. He was an originalCountry Gentelmen. He started the first “Newgrass” group, II Generation, with his wife Martha. He has played country rock and outlaw country. He’s done just about everything but brain surgery in his awesome career.

Oh wait, did someone say brain surgery? In October 2008 Eddie was facing giving up playing due to hand tremors. While under local anesthesia forDeep Brain Simulation surgery Eddie played his banjo so the doctors could check out what was happening in real time.

And here’s a whole range of Eddies mastery

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