Banjo picker and bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs passed away today in Nashville. Scruggs' son Gary said his father passed away Wednesday morning at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital. Gary Scruggs said his father died of natural causes. He was a titan in his field, an innovator, and it was a supreme pleasure to interview Mr. Scruggs and his son Gary many years ago, as one of my first assignments for L.A. RECORD. He will be missed. -D. M. Collins
Earl Scruggs, the bluegrass legend, was 88. I'm mostly familiar with him through The Complete Earl Scruggs , a fantastic documentary tracing Scruggs' attempts to keep his banjo style relevant as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others became the folk scene's vanguard. (Both appear in the doc, as do the Byrds and many others.) You can watch it above; my longer obit is at Billboard .
MUSIC NEWS - Bluegrass music legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs died this morning at 88. Scruggs, who helped change country music with Bill Monroe and later with guitarist Lester Flatt died in a Nashville, TN hospital of natural causes announced his son, Gary. Mr Scruggs was an innovator and pioneered the modern banjo sound. His use of three fingers rather than the clawhammer style raised up the banjo from a part of the rhythm section, or a comedian's prop, to a lead instrument. His unique string-bending and lead runs became known around the globee as "the Scruggs [...]
The Stones weren't the only ones to meet a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis - listen to what happened when five other artists did the same thing...
Hardly Strictly just announced their 2011 line up! Here it is, with tunes from some of our favorites: Jonathan Wilson A.A. Bondy - "When the Devil's Loose" Dive Bar Dukes Justin Townes Earle - "Harlem River Blues" Wendy Bird Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit Elbow - "With Love" Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson Thurston Moore - "Benediction" Cass McCombs Dark Star Orchestra South Memphis String Band Seamus Kennedy David Bromberg Quartet Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard Kieran Kane Kevin [...]
San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival will once again provide broke festival fanatics with one last chance for a weekend full of music before the harsh reality of winter sets in. Set for September 30 - October 2 at Golden Gate Park, this year's edition offers Robert Plant & the Band of Joy, Bright Eyes, Bob Mould, Broken Social Scene, and Buckethead for the price of your attendance - aka, it's free. Other notable acts include John Prine, Bill Kirchen, Gomez, DeVotchKa, Gillian Welch, Dr. John & the [...]
On July 25th, 1965, one of the most fabled concert moments in history occurred when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI. In homage to that man's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," this year's George Wein's Newport Folk Festival line-up was revealed with the help of fans turning over cards displaying the artists' names. And like years past, those names make one hell of a lineup. The Decemberists, Emmylou Harris, and Elvis Costello (solo acoustic) will all make return appearances, this time as headliners. Other familiar faces making a [...]
Certainly one of the most widely known and popular (in the United States) of all Christmas songs. Sing along: (This YouTube video - which bills itself as the "Original Jingle Bells Animation Clip" - includes clips from a variety of sources, including animated cartoons, Christmas movies and TV shows, with karaoke-style sing along lyrics overlaid. It's quite well done, I think.) I've got versions of "Jingle Bells" from a whole bunch of artists, though predictably more from the jazz and pop side [...]
"Country music needs traditional country music, in my opinion, now as much as ever before." - Marty Stuart
Every year in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, there is a music festival that brings together hundreds of thousands of people and is a proven success - and it's not Outside Lands. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is the name, and the free three-day fest is in its 10th year. And judging by the lineup that dropped last night, this may be one of its best years. The names that stand out are frankly shocking gets for a free and ticketless festival: Joan Baez, Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes, and the Godmother of Punk herself, Patti Smith. Other [...]
Bill Monroe - It´s Mighty Dark To Travel ( buy ) Let´s hear it for Bill Monroe (1911-1996), master mandolin player and father of bluegrass music. A true original, he was one of a select group of performers to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Since you ask: Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash were the others. The fine It´s Mighty Dark To Travel , a Monroe composition [...]
photo: Don Fisher The Byrds entered 1971 heading in opposite directions. As a live unit, there's no question that the band was at its career apex. The Clarence White-Gene Parsons-Skip Battin rhythm section was borderline monstrous. If anything, Roger McGuinn was the musical weak link, a disturbing trend that would replicate itself in the studio. I will diatribe later about McGuinn's abandonment of the songwriting and bandleading process. However, let's focus on White's 1971, a promising and underappreciated year of achievement. [...]
Everyone's favorite "occasionally blugrass" festival kicks off today in San Francisco. Check out the full three-day lineup and stage times over at Hardly Strictly's official site or enjoy some MP3s from some of this year's highlights. Friday: John Prine - "The Great Compromise" Lyle Lovett - "Record Lady" Saturday: Gillian Welch - "The Devil had a Hold of Me" Steve Earle - "Ellis Unit One" Laurie Lewis - "Who Will [...]
Everyone's favorite "occasionally blugrass" festival kicks off today in San Francisco. Check out the full three-day lineup and stage times over at Hardly Strictly's official site or enjoy some MP3s from some of this year's highlights. Friday: John Prine - "The Great Compromise" Lyle Lovett - "Record Lady" Saturday: Gillian Welch - "The Devil had a Hold of Me" Steve Earle - "Ellis Unit One" Laurie Lewis - "Who Will [...]
Billy Bragg has been mixing pop and politics and hoping to save the youth of America since he started out as 'one-man Clash' in 1977. After projects with Wilco and Woody Guthrie, he will present the U.S. premiere of his vocal version of Beethoven's 'Ode To Joy' in Santa Monica. This interview by Dan Collins.
When in doubt: Minutemen. That's a personal code and I'm passing it along to you free of charge. Don't forget it. Etch it in your brain. Not many people got a code to live by anymore. To that end, I've found that playing Double Nickels On The Dime at least once a month is an excellent way to combat the effects of suburbansuckrockitosis. And if you're older than 35, doubling your dosage is highly recommended. However, before you start cueing up Double Nickels ... [...]
This has to be one of the longest gestating posts in the history of the internets. Seven months. But, I didn't become an American hero by letting a couple dozen soul-crushing roadblocks stop me. So, let's get our Clarence White on. "We're getting standing ovations for the first time. We're tighter and more together. We're a much, much better band." --Roger McGuinn in Rolling Stone , late 1969 1970 was The Byrds' last great year of sustained excellence. They played around 200 gigs in the US and Europe and were [...]
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