The iconic North Carolina bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs would have turned 100 on Jan. 6. On Saturday, the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby will host a special concert to honor his memory with the Grammy award-winning Travelin’ McCourys and Jerry Douglas, and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka, who spoke with WFAE program director Eric Teel this week about Scruggs’ legacy.
Among the mainstream world, the theme song to the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies" might be the most well-known work of Earl Scruggs. But to anyone in the music world, it's more likely "Foggy Mountain Breakdown."
Eric Teel: Tony Trischka, it's wonderful to talk to you. Welcome to WFAE.
Tony Trischka: My great pleasure. Thank you for the invite.
Teel: You have probably heard that tune, played that tune, taught that tune thousands of times at this point. Is it the Rosetta Stone for bluegrass banjo?
Trischka: I would say probably, yeah. If there was one tune and one tune that really put the banjo on the map, yeah, historically that's it.
Teel: What was it about Earl Scruggs playing that was so innovative?
Trischka: Well, I got friendly with Earl in his later years. He said that what he thought he brought to the banjo was syncopation. For those that aren't familiar with the term or don't know exactly what it means, it just means when you accent but where you don't expect it to be accented. In other words, we expect the accent to always be right on the downbeat. But if the accent falls before or after in different places, it grabs your ear in a different way. What he would do with his right hand with those three fingers was just totally unusual. And I've, you know, delved into banjo history and no one was doing anything like he was doing at that time. And just the power that he had and his timing was immaculate.
Teel: You've been teaching banjo now for what, 50 years, give or take? And in a lot of the educational videos that I found of you, you use the terms bluegrass style and Scruggs' style almost interchangeably. Is it that direct a lineage to the way bluegrass banjo players play now?
Trischka: Yes, they are interchangeable. If you're going to play bluegrass style, you're playing Scruggs' style or a derivation thereof. John Harford once said, “Either you play banjo like Earl Scruggs, or you have to make a conscious attempt not to sound like Earl Scruggs.” It's that intense.
Teel: You mentioned earlier getting to know him a fair bit over the years. Who was Earl Scruggs as a person?
Trischka: I didn't know him, like, deeply, deeply, but he was fairly open with me about certain things. He was a gentleman in certain ways and perhaps a little shy, you know, very laid back. He had strong opinions at the same time. But he was very open. He was very open to different things.
Teel: We're at a point with this concert this weekend of looking back at this significant milestone — 100 years and looking at his place in musical history and his legacy. Is it too simplistic to just think of him as this cornerstone of the traditional style of bluegrass because of the interest he had and doing other things? Are we overlooking the diversity of his musicality?
Trischka: I think so. I mean, again on a simplistic level, you know, you hear "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which is a great tune. He did so much more that we never even knew he did. I got ahold of these jam sessions with him and John Hartford. And he's doing things like "Lady Madonna," "Here Comes the Bride" with John dancing. It's just the two of them. Just at Earl's house. You know, you could say, well, it's limited. It's just “Scruggs' style.” But within that style, he was so creative, even more creative than any of us ever knew.
Teel: So as music director and performer at a tribute concert, how do you pay tribute to someone who is so singularly known for a particular playing style?
Trischka: I think it's hard to cover all the bases. I can't speak to what Jerry (Douglas) or Del (McCoury) or anyone else is going to play, but I'm doing more of an overview of his career, starting with playing "Ruben" and three-finger style. And on from there and you know, two from when he was with Monroe and on in Leicester and then beyond.
What's interesting is there's a whole side of Earl that we didn't even know about, and there's going to be an exhibit that, I guess, is opening that night — on Saturday. Mary Beth (Martin), from the (Earl Scruggs) Center, wrote to me this past January saying that after Gary died, Gary Scruggs passed — he was the last surviving direct member of the family — all of this Earl ephemera and banjos and whatever went to the Earl Scruggs Center. And they were going through things and Mary Beth said they found this Mickey Mouse notebook — like a spiral-bound Mickey, a big color picture of Mickey Mouse on the front. And they opened it up and there, in Earl's own handwriting, were 60 pages of his life no one knew about. Over some period of time, they're not dated. He would just write thoughts about how it was when he joined Bill Monroe or what it was like growing up on the farm. And you know how he was always a home-loving boy. He never wanted to leave home. And look what happened to him. He said, 'Yeah, maybe someday I'll move to Asheville and live up in the mountains and have a beautiful stream running through my house.' He was talking about that sort of thing.
Teel: So for someone that attends the show, or maybe just someone who's hearing our conversation and is inspired to learn a little bit more about the music and to dig into some of the song catalog, what are your recommendations for where someone should start?
Trischka: A lot of things are out of print now, but there's a Columbia recording that basically follows his career from playing with Bill Monroe, the first one he played with Bill Monroe, which was "Heavy Traffic Ahead," and going through to the Earl Scruggs Review and things like that. "Foggy Mountain Banjo" is the classic Flatt & Scruggs and Earl Scruggs album — it's a banjo album, as its name implies. And then "Foggy Mountain Jamboree" is another wonderful Flatt & Scruggs album. And then beyond that, you know, early Bill Monroe, I mean, any Bill Monroe, really.
Teel: Well, I'm so grateful for the time that you've spent to shed a little light on the legacy of Earl Scruggs. And best of luck at the concert.
Trischka: Thank you. I so appreciate. I've really enjoyed it.
