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Brian Murphy - Posted - 11/28/2023: 06:49:32
Seriously, say you're playing a gig and Earl Scruggs shows up, comes back stage and wants you to pick for him. Could your fingers even move? This is what John McEuen posted on FB:
"In the fall of 1970 Earl Scruggs came to see me play with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band show at Vanderbilt University, where his son Gary was a student.
Gary had heard Bojangles on the radio a couple of months earlier, and got the Uncle Charlie album to play for his dad. He took it home without listening to it, not knowing Earl's hot instrumental Randy Lynn Rag was on it till he bought the album...
Gary told me years later when he put that album on he played Shelly’s Blues (which starts with banjo and harp), then Bojangles...Earl thought they were "nice'. Then, not knowing how it was, he played Randy Lynn…and Earl's "eyes lit up...".
When I asked Earl that night at Vandy why he came to see us (I did not know any of the previous story yet), I will never forget him saying "I wanted to meet the boy who played Randy Lynn Rag the way I intended it to be."
Well, as you can tell, I never forgot that! Bill had his video camera there, and captured the whole thing!
Earl plays, I play, Gary and Randy, Les…it is 1970 and this is the first time we have met each other. Go back there with me. This is what started the Circle album.
Please share!"
vimeo.com/555958511?fbclid=IwA...0PmcxF0lA
Edited by - Brian Murphy on 11/28/2023 06:50:14
Fretting Fingers - Posted - 11/28/2023: 07:25:27
I have never seen this one. Thanks for posting Brian!
chuckv97 - Posted - 11/28/2023: 08:44:43
Very cool. John was a wizard on the ol’5.
Leslie R - Posted - 11/28/2023: 09:05:00
I knew John was a good player, but I never knew he was that good.
I remember seeing him on the Tonight Show. He played a mystifying version of Dixie. It was stunning what he could do.
Old Hickory - Posted - 11/28/2023: 09:20:05
Note Earl's look at the end of the tune that I see as genuine enjoyment -- including after a solo in which John has played at least one melodic phrase (borrowed from Doug Dillard, it sounds to me). Earlier in the tune John played a Reno-esque phrase.
Tony Trischka once said in a camp session I attended that Earl enjoyed hearing melodic banjo. He just didn't want to play it himself.
Stu D Baker-Hawk - Posted - 11/28/2023: 11:16:25
quote:
Originally posted by chuckv97
Very cool. John was a wizard on the ol’5.
From all recent accounts, he still is!
chuckv97 - Posted - 11/28/2023: 11:53:32
The versions of Randy Lynn Rag and Clinch Mountain Backstep on that Uncle Charlie album set my hair on end back in the day. That album and the Dillards “Copperfields” album convinced some of my rock-fan friends that the banjo was pretty cool.
The Old Timer - Posted - 11/28/2023: 15:25:08
Fascinating! I like Earl's little eyebrow lifts and comments and chuckles. Soft-spoken as always.
Andrew Roblin - Posted - 11/29/2023: 07:33:37
Wow! That really put a smile on my face.
Thanks. :-)
RB 250 - Posted - 11/30/2023: 10:30:56
Very nice.
Earl was always promoting and accepting of the use of the 5 string in musical styles other than just bluegrass. Another of his contributions to the revitalization of the instument.
