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- Earl Scruggs
Classic Bluegrass Live 1959-1966
Vanguard Records
- By William Michael Smith
 There
seems little point in waxing eloquent about the banjo work of
Earl Scruggs. The virtuoso fountainhead banjo picker is not only
held in highest esteem in the traditional bluegrass world, but
is also an icon to Boomers for having been one of the earliest
traditionalists to embrace the popular music of the '60s.
Classic Bluegrass Live 1959-1966 is a telling document
because in it we can literally hear the developments that led
to the 1969 split between Flatt and Scruggs. The album contains
tracks from three live performances, Scruggs' historic 1959 appearance
at the inaugural Newport Folk Festival with Hylo Brown and The
Timberliners, and his 1960 and 1966 Newport appearances with
Flatt and Scruggs.
Banjo was all the rage in the evolving folk movement in 1959
and Scruggs was invited to the festival as its premier devotee.
As the invitation was issued to Scruggs rather than to Flatt
and Scruggs, Lester Flatt refused to appear. Scruggs arranged
a temporary marriage of convenience with Brown, who was also
on the bill. Ironically the eight tracks with The Timberliners
are the strongest performances on the album. While in spots Scruggs
simply leaves the bassist grasping for the next note, these tracks
have an impromptu spontaneity and spirit that brush aside any
flaws. Brown's vocals on tracks like "John Henry" and
"Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" are old school Appalachia,
true coin of the bluegrass realm, and have none of the sterility
of Flatt's stylized, calculated, and occasionally rote singing.
The centerpiece performances are Scruggs' famous breakdowns,
"Earl's Breakdown," "Cumberland Gap," and
his signature piece "Flint Hill Special," which display
all of his playfulness (elongating notes by turning the tuning
keys) and his finger-picking wizardry.
The 1960 Flatt and Scruggs performance features a hungry band
that included legendary dobro picker Josh Graves and fiddler
Chubby Wise. The picking is breathtaking and the singing, particularly
the harmonies on "Salty Dog Blues" and the gospel classic
"Cabin On the Hill," marks the epitome of the bluegrass
art. But there is already evidence of commercial considerations,
of recognition that the Newport audience primarily consisted
of commercial opinion leaders, the educated Northern folk crowd.
The renditions are true to Flatt and Scruggs' studio albums,
but there is already a notable staleness to classics like "Jimmy
Brown The Newsboy." The 1960 performance is technically
superior, but lacks the spontaneity and energetic excitement
of the impromptu 1959 show with The Timberliners.
By the time Flatt and Scruggs took the stage at the 1966 festival,
they were international superstars and the most visible band
in bluegrass. "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme
for the wildly successful television series "The Beverly
Hillbillies," had catapulted Flatt and Scruggs out of the
realm of bluegrass and folk into the arena of popular music.
As always the picking is spectacular, but Flatt's insistence
on traditional limits reveals a band that has developed little
since the 1960 performance. Scruggs, Wise, and Graves are technically
impeccable, but even the genuine instrumental fire of 1960 is
for the most part gone. Although still a superior band, they
are essentially sleepwalking. The only fireworks are associated
with Scruggs' instrumentals like "Foggy Mountain Chimes."
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" is marred by Flatt's hokey
commentary during Scruggs' instrumental break, when Flatt enlists
Graves to dance ("I'll take Granny's part if you'll take
mine") and then comments "ain't it awful what a fella
will do to keep outta work." They couldn't miss a lick if
they tried, but the artistic strain between the Flatt and Scruggs
is obvious.
Within three years, the most successful band in bluegrass
would rupture beyond repair. Paired at Columbia Records with
Bob Dylan's producer Bob Johnston, who insisted they broaden
their repertoire beyond traditional bluegrass, the duo played
their last show together February 22, 1969 at the Grand Ol' Opry.
To fulfill contractual obligations, they recorded 17 Dylan compositions
with Johnston in August, 1969. Scruggs went on to work in the
new musical pastures of country-rock with his sons as the Earl
Scruggs Revue and to play and record with a hodge-podge of artists.
He was a vital force on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will
The Circle Be Unbroken, which is credited with legitimizing
a union between the Nashville traditionalists and the new breed.
Flatt soldiered on as a traditional bluegrass act until his death
in 1979.
Even with its evidence of the creative tension between Flatt
and Scruggs (which in effect mirrors a rift that exists today
between traditionalist -- recently dubbed Bluegrass Nazis by
one influential player -- and newgrass elements), Classic
Bluegrass Live 1959-1966 is a must-have historical document
for collectors. It is also a fine primer in the art of bluegrass
banjo picking as practiced by the acknowledged giant of the instrument.
Contact William Michael Smith at wms-at-rockzilla.net
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