Thursday, January 19, 2012
Country Life Earl Scruggs, The Master from Flint Hill
Posted by Jim Ridley on Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 9:45 AM
Some nights he had the stars of North Carolina shooting from his fingertips. Before him, no one had ever played the banjo like he did. After him, everyone played the banjo like he did, or at least tried. In 1945, when he first stood on the stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and played banjo the way no one had ever heard before, the audience responded with shouts, whoops, and ovations. He performed tunes he wrote as well as songs they knew, with clarity and speed like no one could imagine, except him. When the singer came to the end of a phrase, he filled the theatre with sparkling runs of notes that became a signature for all bluegrass music since. He wore a suit and Stetson hat, and when he played he smiled at the audience like what he was doing was effortless. There aren’t many earthquakes in Tennessee, but that night there was.
The beginning of a gorgeous tribute to Earl Scruggs, "The Master from Flint Hill." The publication: The New Yorker. The author: Steve Martin.
(H/T: James Nix.)
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