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Composed

More than 150 songs and instrumentals, many co-written with Lester Flatt

  • “Cabin on the Hill” (Billboard peak at #9, 1959 for Flatt & Scruggs)
  • “The Legend of the Johnson Boys”  (Billboard peak at #27, 1962 for Flatt & Scruggs)
  • “My Saro Jane” (Billboard peak at #40, 1964 for Flatt & Scruggs)
  • “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (Billboard peak at #58, 1968 for Flatt & Scruggs)
  • “Don’t Get Above Your Raising”  (Billboard peak at #16, 1981 for Ricky Skaggs)
  • “Earl’s Breakdown”
  • “Flint Hill Special”
  • “Randy Lynn Rag”

Early Influences

  • Rex Brooks
  • Dennis Butler
  • Maybelle Carter
  • Smith Hammett
  • Fisher Hendley
  • Snuffy Jenkins
  • Mack Woolbright

Came to Fame With

  • Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, 1945-1948

Performed With

  • Carolina Wildcats, Gastonia, NC, 1939
  • Morris Brothers, Spartanburg, SC, 1939
  • Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers, Asheville, NC, 1942
  • “Lost” John Miller, Knoxville/Nashville, TN, 1945
  • Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, 1945-1948
  • Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, 1948-1969
  • Earl Scruggs Revue, 1969-1980
  • Solo act with various collaborators, 1980 – 2012

By the Way

  • Finger-picked guitar on gospel and Carter Family songs, to differentiate the Foggy Mountain Boys’ sound from Bill Monroe’s.
  • A pre-teen in 1949 and 1950, J.D. Crowe sat on the front row as often as he could, to study Earl Scruggs’ banjo playing at WVLK in Versailles, near Lexington, Kentucy
  • Wrote the banjo instrumental “Randy Lynn Rag” in honor of Randy Lynn Scruggs’ birth in 1953.
  • Wife Louise Scruggs (1929-2006) was the first prominent female business figure in country music.
  • Piloted his own plane to distant concert appearances, beginning in 1957.
  • Wrote “Earl Scruggs and the Five-String Banjo” and invented Scruggs tuners, used to accurately and quickly change a string’s pitch during performance.
  • Spoke publicly against the war at the 1969 US Vietnam Moratorium in Washington, DC.
  • A catalyst in organizing appearances by country music legends on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s historic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album, 1971.

Led the Way

  • Introduced “Scruggs-style,’ the model for virtually every subsequent banjo player in bluegrass music
  • Co-led the first nationally and internationally prominent bluegrass ac
  • Grand Ole Opry member, 1955-1969
  • Country Music Hall of Fame, 1985
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 1991
  • National Medal of Artistic Achievement, 1992
  • Million-Air Award from BMI celebrating one million broadcasts of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” 1994
  • Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental, 2002
  • Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, 2003

From the Archives

Album by Earl Scruggs and the Earl Scruggs Revue Live at Kansas State.

From the Archives: Album by Earl Scruggs and the Earl Scruggs Revue Live at Kansas State. Donated by Henry Horrocks.

Concert poster for Flatt & Scruggs, sponsored by Martha White Flour & Corn Meal.

From the Archives: Concert poster for Flatt & Scruggs, sponsored by Martha White Flour & Corn Meal.

Promotional photo of Earl Scruggs created by Columbia Records.

From the Archives: Promotional photo of Earl Scruggs created by Columbia Records. Donated by Raymond Huffmaster.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs with the Foggy Mountain Boys at the Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada 1968.

From the Archives: Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs with the Foggy Mountain Boys at the Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada 1968. Photo by Ron Petronko.

“I never felt that I should quit what I had done all my life after I left Monroe, and let him go ahead and do it, and me try to learn a new style.”
Quoted in Willis, Barry, America’s Music: Bluegrass, 1989.
“We did a live TV show in 1960 for NBC…where I met this sax man named King Curtis… King turned me on to the new sound, and that stuck in my mind… I guess I’d just gone my limit with bluegrass.”
Quoted by Lawrence Talbot in Bear Family box set Flatt & Scruggs 1964-1969, plus
“You just can’t make a living on the road unless you’ve got a record on the charts or some tie in with a TV show or something. We were forced to do something that was of commercial benefit to us, regardless of the flack.”
Quoted by Lawrence Talbot in Bear Family box set Flatt & Scruggs 1964-1969, plus
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