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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 3: Earl Scruggs and the Mercury Sessions (1948–50) Part 2 |
| SESSION 3: Earl Scruggs and the Mercury Sessions (1948–50) Part 2 |
Bill continues his discussion of Flatt and Scruggs’s groundbreaking Mercury Sessions, focusing in this session on the songs “Farewell Blues,” “Doin' My Time,” and “I’ll Never Love Another.” He also reviews “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” from the last session.
Reading Assignment
Chapter 10, “The Number One Banjo Player,” from Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown: The Making of an American Icon, by Thomas Goldsmith.
Listening Assignment
“Farewell Blues,” “Doin' My Time,” and “I’ll Never Love Another” from the Mercury Sessions.
“Farewell Blues” by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings
There are a lot of versions of “Farewell Blues” from the 1920s forward but this one, recorded before Earl was born by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, seems to have a few more of the themes that Earl must have heard to improvise over.
| “Doin’ My Time” Tab (Available to subscribers) |
| “I’ll Never Love Another” Tab (Available to subscribers) |
| “Farewell Blues” Tab (Available to subscribers) |
