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After his interview with Thomas Goldsmith, Bill turns to Earl’s banjo-and-fiddle duet accompaniment style, analyzing “Grey Eagle” from a 1950s radio broadcast with fiddler Benny Martin and “Fiddle and Banjo (Stoney Point)” with fiddler Paul Warren, from Flatt and Scruggs’s December 1962 Carnegie Hall concert. Bill also takes a look at “Across the Blue Ridge Mountains” (also known as “My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains”) from Flatt and Scruggs’s 1963 Vanderbilt University concert in Nashville, discussing Earl’s solo and analyzing the different backup approaches Earl uses throughout the song.
| SESSION 1: Earl Scruggs with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, 1946–47 |
| Earl Scruggs with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, 1946–47 |
Bill starts Earl Scruggs: A Player’s Guide by talking about Earl Scruggs’s early years and then he looks at his playing with Bill Monroe from 1946 to 1947, with tab for “Cripple Creek,” “Molly and Tenbrooks,” “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me,” and “Blue Grass Breakdown.”
Recommended Reading:
Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown: The Making of an American Icon, by Thomas Goldsmith, 2019, University of Illinois Press, week one pages 27-43. Goldsmith's book is available on Amazon (Kindle, paperback, hard cover). The first assignment of pages 27-43 can be read on the "Look Inside" feature.
Recommended Listening and Viewing:
EARL’S INFLUENCES
“Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” by Charlie Poole and his North Carolina Ramblers, 1925
“The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man,” Parker and Woolbright
VIDEO: Snuffy Jenkins demonstrates clawhammer as well as two-finger and three-finger picking with Pappy Sherrill. Includes a fragment of “Cumberland Gap.”
“Sally Ann / Sally Goodin’ (medley),” Snuffy Jenkins from American Banjo: Three-Finger and Scruggs Style, (Smithsonian Folkways)
EARL WITH BILL MONROE AND HIS BLUE GRASS BOYS, 1946-47
Live Grand Ole Opry recordings with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. Newly discovered 12-minute audio, from at least two different performances, includes “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me” and “Cripple Creek.” Great audio quality in comparison to many of the live cuts currently available.
“Will You Be Loving Another Man” with Bill Monroe, recorded September 17, 1946.
“Blue Grass Breakdown” with Bill Monroe, recorded October 27, 1947.
“Molly and Tenbrooks (The Race Horse Song),” with Bill Monroe, recorded October 28, 1947.
| Session One Tab for “Cripple Creek,” “Molly and Tenbrooks,” “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me,” and “Blue Grass Breakdown” (Available to subscribers) |
