[78-L] I'll take Three Finger Earl any day

[simmonssomer]

Well, at least I didn't descend to call it sh-t kicker music. That should be 
a plus for me.
And I want you to know that Minnie Pearl was one of my favorites.
and...I proudly own a CD of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass boys and also one of the 
Kumquat Club Eskimos.
All of which proves that I'm not agin mountain music.  Let 'er rip...but 
mebbe with five fingers.

Al



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cary Ginell" <soundthink at live.com>
To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 6:21 PM
Subject: [78-L] I'll take Three Finger Earl any day


>
> The comment was not made with regard to Reser and Scruggs' relative 
> technical abilities. The key word here is "influential," and using that 
> barometer, Scruggs beats Reser by a country...pardon me, a "hillbilly" 
> mile, to use the pejorative, outdated word you employed. Anyone who knows 
> anything about Scruggs knows that he did not limit his abilities to 
> bluegrass music - which, by the way, has a lot more to do with jazz and 
> improvisation than most people realize. After he broke up his partnership 
> with Lester Flatt, he started one of the first fusion country/rock bands, 
> the Earl Scruggs Revue. Listen to Earl's banjo along with such rock icons 
> as Sting, Melissa Etheridge, John Fogerty, and Don Henley is a revelation. 
> I can't even fathom how the Clicquot Club Eskimos (which most people can't 
> even pronounced without tripping over their tongues) can compare to the 
> Foggy Mountain Boys or Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in world-shattering 
> influence. Go to Japan some day - they have blueg
> rass festivals there, with each and every banjo player playing Scruggs' 
> three-finger technique. There's nary a Harry Reser festival to be found. 
> Get with it, Al. Earl Scruggs was an earth-shaker, on par with Armstrong, 
> Crosby, Bernstein, and anyone else you want to mention in the 20th 
> century. "Three Finger Scruggs" was a giant among giants and there should 
> not be an argument there at all.
>
> Cary Ginell
>
>
>> From: simmonssomer at comcast.net
>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>> Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:08:24 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Earl Scruggs has died
>>
>> Well Erwin, if you have to ask you obviously don't know.
>> A good place to start would be his Columbia recordings with his own band 
>> or
>> The Clicquot Club Eskimos or the Okeh Syncopaters or The Six Jumping 
>> Jacks,
>> Then...compare his virtuosity with Three Finger Scruggs. In my opinion he
>> was the foremost banjoist and bandleader of the twenties and thirties and
>> was not
>> limited to hillbilly music. (-:
>>
>> Al Simmons
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Erwin Kluwer" <ekluwer at gmail.com>
>> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 4:40 PM
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Earl Scruggs has died
>>
>>
>> > what about Harry Reser??????
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 10:17 PM, simmonssomer
>> > <simmonssomer at comcast.net>wrote:
>> >
>> >> Uhhhh...what about Harry Reser ?
>> >>
>> >> Al Simmons
>> >>
>> >> ----- Original Message -----
>> >> From: "David Sanderson" <dwsanderson685 at roadrunner.com>
>> >> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> >> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 3:08 PM
>> >> Subject: Re: [78-L] Earl Scruggs has died
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> > On 3/29/2012 2:44 PM, Erwin Kluwer wrote:
>> >> >> RIP Earl!
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Few musicians were as influential as Earl..
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On par with Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Blind lemon Jefferson,
>> >> Chuck
>> >> >> Berry, Bill Monroe,,,,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Erwin
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 7:08 AM, Cary Ginell<soundthink at live.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >>> The legendary bluegrass musician was 88. No one person was more
>> >> >>> influential on an instrument than Scruggs was on the five-string
>> >> >>> banjo.
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>> Cary Ginell
>> >> >
>> >> > Influential, yes, but interesting in that he was not a leader and
>> >> > creator like Monroe and others. I suppose a good comparison is Chet
>> >> > Atkins, or Merle Travis. Scruggs took the indigenous three-finger 
>> >> > banjo
>> >> > style he learned in North Carolina and turned it into a polished,
>> >> > sophisticated way of playing.
>> >> >
>> >> > His final steps toward the style seem to have been taken when he was
>> >> > first with Bill Monroe - there are live recordings of him at that 
>> >> > time
>> >> > where his smooth flow of notes has yet to appear. And I wonder how 
>> >> > much
>> >> > Monroe himself had to do with developing Scruggs - Bill was very 
>> >> > much a
>> >> > teacher and maestro to the musicians who worked with him, always. 
>> >> > And
>> >> > there is partly the question of timeliness - without a venue that
>> >> > Monroe's creation of Bluegrass offered, what would Scruggs have done
>> >> > with his music?
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > David Sanderson
>> >> > East Waterford Maine
>> >> > dwsanderson685 at roadrunner.com
>> >> > http://www.dwsanderson.com
>> >> >
>> >> > _______________________________________________
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