Earl Scruggs, the bluegrass banjo player whose hard-driving picking style influenced generations of players and helped shape the sound of 20th-century country music with his guitar-playing partner, Lester Flatt, died on Wednesday.

If you ever watched "The Beverly Hillbillies" on TV, you know of Scruggs and Flatt. :clap:

If you didn't know Earl Scruggs, you didn't know banjo... rrlqQ1_vZVE
RIP

Last man standing, as it were. They're all gone now.

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Nobody did it better than his rendition of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown". Thanks Earl, RIP.

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He will be missed for sure

A fair number of Flatt and Scruggs albums in my record box. I believe they are all in good shape. Will have to dig a couple of them out and add a few more tracks to the iTunes collection.

Thanks for the posting! Great fan of Earl and Lester. I wonder if Earl and Lester will make up in Heaven? Those two hated each other for the longest time. Interesting fact was how Earl could change the pitch of the string WHILE he was playing. Don't know if he was the first to do that but boy he was good at it!

While many associate their music with the Beverley Hillbillies, Foggy Mountain Breakdown is always associated, in my mind, with Bonnie and Clyde (the chase scenes in the movie). I think the true hallmark of a really talented musician is that they can make the most difficult music look easy and fun to play, and he managed to do that.

RIP

RIP fantastic Banjo Master.

Sad news, indeed.