Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown: The Making of an American Classic
Thomas Goldsmith
Abstract
Earl Eugene Scruggs (1924-2012) came from the hills of North Carolina and learned the banjo from the days he was too small to hold it properly. While still a schoolboy in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, he developed the high-powered three-finger picking method that both him and the banjo famous. At age 21, he joined the founder of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, on the Grand Ole Opry, completing a sound that Monroe had worked to conceive. Leaving Monroe in 1948, Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt started their own group and made recordings including “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” The lightning-fas ... More
Keywords: Earl Scruggs, banjos, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, bluegrass, country music, Bonnie and Clyde
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 | Print ISBN-13: 9780252042966 |
| Published to Illinois Scholarship Online: September 2020 | DOI:10.5622/illinois/9780252042966.001.0001 |
