Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends

July 26, 2023 10:20 AM

Earl Scruggs [Wikipedia], the renowned banjo player and bluegrass pioneer, began exploring collaborations with musicians from other genres, ... artists like The Byrds, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez. This was a bold move for Scruggs, who was known for his traditional bluegrass roots. ... The result of Scruggs' quest to collaborate with these artists was [David Hoffman's] 90 minute primetime television documentary "Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends," which aired in 1972. It showcased Earl Scruggs playing banjo with well-known musicians such as The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Doc Watson and many others.
posted by hippybear (9 comments total)

Earl Scruggs appearance with Lester Flatt on the Beverly Hillbillies really stuck with me all these years.
posted by fairmettle at 10:32 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Bluegrass has a history of making interesting mixes with other genres.
posted by Naberius at 10:40 AM on July 26, 2023

It's weird to hear Earl Scruggs called "traditional bluegrass" when he was one of the inventors of what was then a brand-new genre. I suppose all innovators who make something stick seem traditional much later, but Scruggs was all about making new things throughout his career. Bluegrass only predates rock n roll by a decade or so.
posted by rikschell at 12:52 PM on July 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

Those are the words of the filmmaker, not mine. The entire post is taken from the video description on YouTube.
posted by hippybear at 1:01 PM on July 26, 2023

I'm not sure how that has any bearing at all on this documentary.
posted by hippybear at 2:25 PM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Bluegrass has a history of making interesting mixes with other genres
Eugene Chadbourne's collaboration with string band Red Clay Ramblers: (full album album YouTube link) Country Protest - per Discogs they are on the Track A1 medley, A2 (The Wild Angels), B2 (W Va Special), and B4 (Buffy St. Marie cover Universal Soldier.)
posted by larrybob at 3:16 PM on July 26, 2023

For my final pre-pandemic holiday video playlist (I put them on the giant video wall at work parties), I included Earl Scruggs and Bluegrass All Stars version of Jingle Bells (YT Video).

I chose it because Scruggs facial expression ranges from almost dour to wistful to intensely focused, which is exactly the kind of spice I like to pepper into my holiday playlists for a diverse work audience.
posted by JDC8 at 8:40 PM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Personally, I also/still don’t know what you meant when you stated the tag line of a racist song that also romanticizes the (white) rural while being created by an urban musician (who may have made that rural to urban transition himself? I neither know nor care about that detail). The whole part where its original use was as a racist dog whistle tag line does put it in a context that requires a much higher bar for use outside of that context. “Ironic” racism is generally against site rules here, if that was your intent, for example.
posted by eviemath at 3:57 AM on July 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Great documentary. I've seen it before, but thanks for posting this.
posted by freakazoid at 6:06 AM on July 27, 2023