Backstage at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in North Carolina, Marty Stuart has just finished a whirlwind set on the Flint Hill Stage. A blitzkrieg of country, bluegrass, and rock, Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives are a living bridge between the tones and textures of the past and the evolution of those genres rushing headlong into the 21st century.
“[Scruggs] was a little bit of a North Star,” Stuart tells Rolling Stone about the late banjo great. “A bit of a blueprint because he just lived his musical life. He was a great role model for what I do. He was a forward thinker.”
In 1979, a 20-year-old Stuart was hanging out in Nashville with Bob Dylan, who asked Stuart if the iconic bluegrass duo of Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt ever talked anymore. Stuart, who was in Flatt’s band said that, sadly, it was no longer the case but that he was optimistic it would happen.
“I said, ‘They’re gonna get ‘round to it,’” Stuart recalls. “[Bob] said, ‘Abbott and Costello were always gonna get ‘round to it, but then [Costello] died.’ My heart sank and I went to a payphone and called Earl.”
At that time, Flatt was in the hospital with heart failure. It had been years since Flatt & Scruggs broke up one of the most successful acts in bluegrass and country music in 1969, even longer since the duo first came into the national spotlight as members of Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s.
On Stuart’s recommendation, Scruggs went to the hospital and made peace with his old bandmate before Flatt died in May 1979 at age 64. This year marks the 100th birthday of the late Scruggs, who died in 2012 at 88.
When Scruggs first appeared with Monroe, the “Father of Bluegrass,” on the Grand Ole Opry in December 1945, his signature three-finger banjo-picking technique, now known as “Scruggs Style,” forever changed the course of the genre.
“Anyone who makes art, that growth and willingness to be curious and explore change is something that’s not just beneficial, but crucial,” says Chris Scruggs, grandson of Earl and bassist for the Fabulous Superlatives.
From there, Earl Scruggs became a household name in the 1950s and 1960s as part of Flatt & Scruggs. Throughout his life, Scruggs remained a musical sponge, eventually finding himself in jazz, blues, and rock circles. He was continually in search of new musicians to play with and learn from, and never afraid to evolve, which fell in stark contrast with many bluegrass purists.
“The actual rebellion and exploration is just getting closer to ourselves,” says singer-songwriter Lindsay Lou. “But what’s most authentic is who we are in this moment. If we’re always aiming for that, then we’re always doing the right thing.”
Located at Tryon International, an equestrian center and event facility right down U.S. 74 from Scruggs’ hometown of Shelby, the annual festival welcomed Stuart and Lou alongside Old Crow Medicine Show, Tanya Tucker, Yonder Mountain String Band, the Steeldrivers, Peter Rowan, the Earls of Leicester, and Darrell Scott.
“There is no more singularly important banjo player than Earl,” says Dave Johnston, Yonder Mountain’s banjoist. “All the smoothness and melodic formations that we hear on the banjo are deeply connected to Earl’s style. I like to believe that he’s still exploring — as long as he is, so will he inspire me.”
Earl Scruggs Music Festival also drew artists from the Americana, bluegrass, and folk realms, too, including Pony Bradshaw, Mighty Poplar, Sam Grisman Project, Miko Marks, and mandolin phenom Wyatt Ellis.
“Bluegrass can be primitive and virtuosic at the same time,” Mighty Poplar banjoist Noam Pikelny says. “There’s a level of volatility in the music, one that, at any moment, could go in any direction, and that’s appealing to us.”
Once again, Jerry Douglas was the master of ceremonies. For Douglas, an iconic dobro player in his own right, the yearly celebration of Scruggs is of the utmost importance when it comes to the legacy and perpetuation of the banjo great and his contributions to the “high, lonesome sound.”
“Bill Monroe had a great idea for [bluegrass]. He was looking for a new kind of music,” Douglas says. “But he didn’t have it until Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt played with him on the Opry [in 1945].”
The legacy of Scruggs remains a vital source of inspiration for Douglas. The 16-time Grammy winner will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame later this month at the IBMA Award Show in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Jerry Douglas and the Earls of Leicester salute Flatt & Scruggs. Photo: Jess Maples
Douglas held triple-duty during the festival. Between his Flatt & Scruggs tribute group the Earls of Leicester, his solo band, and also jumping onstage with an array of artists on the bill, Douglas, like Scruggs, is focused on collaboration.
In a poignant moment, he joined Peter Rowan and the Sam Grisman Project for a rendition of Rowan’s “Thirsty in the Rain” from his 1982 album The Walls of Time. (Douglas played on the record.)
“I’m the same friend that you knew when,” Rowan sang while storm clouds overtook the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. “We wandered thirsty in the rain.”
“Bluegrass hits the parts of music Bill Monroe called the ‘ancient tones,’” the 82-year-old Rowan tells Rolling Stone afterwards. “And Earl awakened something in Bill in such a beautiful manner, [where] suddenly Bill was liberated in his own style.”
Throughout the gathering, there were countless reminders of Scruggs — from impromptu jam sessions in tucked-away corners of the property to artists sharing Scruggs stories onstage — with all roads leading to the Earl Scruggs Center, an elaborate museum in the Cleveland County Courthouse in downtown Shelby.
“[Years ago], I asked Earl to sign my banjo. I took the back of the banjo off and my underwear fell out. It was used as a muffle,” Darrell Scott chuckles backstage before his Foggy Mountain Stage set.
A storied singer-songwriter, Scott is well-known for hopping genre fences from country to bluegrass, Americana to folk, and beyond. It’s something that he not only sees as solidarity with Scruggs’ ethos, but also with the names currently overtaking the national scene, like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Sierra Hull.
“I have all sorts of loves of music that pulls me towards blues, rock, or country,” Scott says. “What I do is what Earl did.”