Round Window Radio May 2017
Don't Give Your Heart To A Rambler

This month brings the most traditional bluegrass I have ever recorded. My kickoff for this song is a fairly traditional statement of the melody for “Rambler” using Earl Scruggs’s banjo vocabulary. In 1990 I went to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and saw Strength in Numbers and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and soon after I got a banjo and embarked on this path. In my very first lessons we worked on Earl Scruggs, and as I learned more about this instrument, I quickly discovered that all paths led through Earl.

The technique to play bluegrass banjo like Earl Scruggs is a level of virtuosity not lauded as often as flashier playing. The pyrotechnics are all in the right hand; playing in groups of 4 or 8 notes, with 3 fingers on 5 strings, while pulling a distinct melody line out of the cascade of notes. For the uninitiated, Earl is the father of three-finger bluegrass style banjo playing, which lit the world on fire when he joined Bill Monroe’s band in 1945. All banjo players owe a deep debt of gratitude to Earl for his artistry (dig the first video link below). Earl’s legacy and inspiration to all banjo players is unparalleled, and my entire musical path has been as a result of this musician. It takes countless hours, deep dedication and a serious internal fortitude to pull off execution as clear, crisp and compelling on the 5-string banjo as Earl Scruggs played.

Yet since Earl came on the scene, there have been many other superb practitioners delving into the style with personal tweaks and adjustments to make it their own. My favorite is the one and only J.D. Crowe. His 1975 album J.D. Crowe and the New South set a new standard for bluegrass from that point forward. The band also featured a young Tony Rice on guitar and vocals (which is Corn Yeti’s namesake and inspiration) and an even younger Ricky Skaggs on mandolin. J.D. and Tony went on to form the Bluegrass Album Band creating several albums full of today’s bluegrass standards. Most of my study of traditional bluegrass has come from transcribing endless J.D. solos on those albums. Dig his version of “Train 45” below. The sheer amount of drive and energy in his right hand is mind boggling.

I could go on and on about Earl and JD, let alone Sammy Shelor, Craig Smith, Rob McCoury, Jim Mills, Ton Adams, and the countless others that have offered some lick, some twist of melody, some cool idea that has provided a fresh look at the boundless options within Scruggs-style banjo. As little as I get to play straight ahead bluegrass, I would still consider it my home base, and I revel in the chance to get to play it.

Earl Scruggs: Pike County Breakdown
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HioToEDKl_E

JD Crowe: Train 45
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0Z5LY7LUQ

JD Crowe and the New South
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py9ZPX-8CUE