Shelby, North Carolina, native Earl Scruggs perfected the three-finger style of banjo that was emerging during his childhood in the Piedmont region of the Carolinas. After playing with the Morris Brothers and Lost John Miller and the Allied Kentuckians, Scruggs joined Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys in 1945. That band, which also included Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts, first assembled all the ingredients of modern bluegrass music. In 1948, he and Flatt formed their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys, and made their first sixteen recordings in Cincinnati for the Mercury label. Included was Earl’s “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” later acknowledged as the definitive banjo instrumental and used in the 1967 movie, Bonnie and Clyde. Cityfolk honored Earl with the Earl Scruggs: Family and Friends banjo workshop and concert at the Nutter Center in 2002. Earl was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985, the IBMA Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2008, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
SCRUGGS, EARL EUGENE (1924-2012)