Weekend Music

Master of the bluegrass banjo Earl Scruggs (January 6, 1924- March 28, 2012) is being honored today with a Google doodle, so we decided to honor him today, too.  Although perhaps best known from his musical partnership with Lester Flatt, Scruggs also performed early in his career with the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, and later with the Earl Scruggs Revue.  Hope you enjoy some great three- finger banjo pickin' with "Train Number Forty-Five."

Weekend Tribute Song

Earl Scruggs, one of the legendary figures in bluegrass music, died Wednesday at age 88. Teaming with guitarist Lester Flatt, they were one of the most popular acts in bluegrass/country music in the '50s and '60s. His three-finger picking was his signature style, later emulated -- but never equaled -- by other banjo players. Scruggs was also one of the few bluegrass musicians to perform at anti-war rallies in the late 1960s at a time when that could have cost him his career. When his instrumental, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," was featured in the wildly popular 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, he became nationally known. RIP to a good man.