Homefires VIII

As a ten year old, this boy picked up an old instrument and played it a new way. His self-taught style has since become the way to do it, and stands as the signature sound for an entire genre of music. Bow your head when you say his name.

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Trambo got it. From Shelby, North Carolina, it's Earl Scruggs.

Earl Scruggs grew up in a home full of musical instruments. His brother Junie would hog the banjo, so Earl played the guitar. Earl played it the way his idol, Mother Maybelle Carter did -- three-finger style.
When he finally got his hands on the family banjo, instead of playing it two-finger style, as was the norm, he played that instrument three-finger style as well. As he played, his little fingers developed what is now called "the Earl Scruggs roll"; the signature sound of Bluegrass music. Never has one person so dominated an instrument as Earl Scruggs does the five-string banjo.
While mandolin-playing bandleader Bill Monroe is commonly known to the public as the Father of Bluegrass, many musicologists say the actual birth of Bluegrass can be dated to the day little Earl Scruggs started playing the banjo "his way." Earl's style, which gave the banjo player the ability to provide rhythm and melody at the same time, became the sound of Bluegrass itself.

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