{"id":7768,"date":"2024-08-26T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T18:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainebluegrass.org\/?p=7768"},"modified":"2024-08-26T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T18:58:11","slug":"earl-scruggs-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/bluegrass-express\/earl-scruggs-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Earl Scruggs and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Banjo legend Tony Trischka brings Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs to Maine\u2019s Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival<\/em><\/h4>\n
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Photo Credit: Greg Heisler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the lockdown days of the pandemic, Tony Trischka got an unexpected package in the mail: A thumb drive filled with homemade recordings of Earl Scruggs trading tunes with his musical compatriot John Hartford and other musicians.  <\/span><\/p>\n

After listening to hundreds of songs, he started transcribing, hoping to get down on paper the magic that he heard coming from Scruggs\u2019 banjo. This year, he took the project a step further, bringing together an all-star cast of pickers such as B\u00e9la Fleck, Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings to bring those transcriptions to life. The result is <\/span>Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs<\/span><\/i>, a 15-track album released in June on Down the Road Records. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trischka was kind enough to speak with Bluegrass Music Association of Maine board member Taylor Smith in advance of his visit to Thomas Point Bluegrass Festival, which is hosting the Maine debut of the Earl Jam project. Trischka\u2019s band takes the stage on Friday night of the festival, which runs from August 29 through September 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was your reaction when you first heard those recordings of Earl and John Hartford and others?<\/b><\/p>\n

I was totally excited. I immersed myself in the music of Earl Scruggs more than I maybe ever had. This giant avalanche of incredible music was suddenly in my lap. It was almost overwhelming\u2014but I didn\u2019t feel smothered, I just felt excited.<\/span><\/p>\n

What did you find most interesting about the recordings?<\/b><\/p>\n

His playing was always great in these jams. His timing was always impeccable, and his ideas were great. And even playing tunes that they decided to play in the moment that he might never have played before, there was never a stumble, never a false moment. He was always on it perfectly, amazingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were various revelations. One was the tunes that we had never heard Earl play before, like Chinese Breakdown, Here Comes the Bride, San Antonio Rose and Brown\u2019s Ferry Blues. And then there were tunes like Cripple Creek\u2014there were five or six different versions from various jam sessions. The first couple of versions were great. And then the third or fourth version, he suddenly does these highly syncopated blues licks. And Cripple Creek is not a blues tune. <\/span><\/p>\n

Then in Brown\u2019s Ferry Blues, there are multiple versions. In one version, he\u2019s just sliding up and down, back and forth\u2014like big slides up and down the neck, back to back. I thought that was crazy, because he\u2019s never done anything like that on record before. So, well, that had to go on the album. <\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond just transcribing Earl\u2019s playing from these recordings, why did you want to make an album from this material? <\/b><\/p>\n

I wanted to do the album because I wanted people to understand what Earl played in these jams. He\u2019s still my biggest hero\u2014the greatest banjo player ever and the greatest there ever will be. He was such an important figurehead in bluegrass and, historically, this is new information that we never knew about before. It just adds history of the story of bluegrass.<\/span><\/p>\n

To do the album, I took all of these transcriptions that I\u2019d done and played note for note what Earl played in the jam sessions on the recordings. Everyone else on the album is playing what they want to play, but I\u2019m playing exactly what he played because of my love for him and his music. I also wanted to share this with people because I\u2019m a teacher and this is new stuff I want to share with everyone. I love sharing what I\u2019m excited about. <\/span><\/p>\n

Earl Scruggs was a foundational part of bluegrass music as we know it, but he also liked to push the boundaries of the genre. Do you feel a certain kinship with Earl in that respect?<\/b><\/p>\n

I saw a quote from him recently that has become my favorite Earl quote: \u201cYou can\u2019t encore the past. If I see a bright light shining out there, I want to go toward it.\u201d I love that. He had the idea to really stretch things. After Flatt & Scruggs broke up, he was somewhat at loose ends. His sons were jamming in the garage, and he said, \u201cHey, can I join you?\u201d And that became the Earl Scruggs Revue. They put out a whole bunch of albums with electric guitar, electric bass and drums. It was this mixture of rock and bluegrass. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing that Earl said was that he wanted to bring people joy through his music, which I thought was just a wonderful thing to say. <\/span><\/p>\n

What bright, shining light are you moving toward these days?<\/b><\/p>\n

That\u2019s very interesting. Well, I\u2019m in the middle of this Earl world. There\u2019s going to be a second Earl Jam album because I recorded 26 tracks. So we\u2019ve got 11 new tracks and have more to come. So I\u2019m in this Earl world for another year and change. But it\u2019s really funny because right before you called, my daughter was saying that this would be a great time to go do some of the progressive stuff like you used to do. Our son is a great drummer\u2014a really incredible drummer\u2014and I\u2019d like to do something with him and kind of figure out my own sort of Scruggs Revue. I\u2019ve also been putting music to Emily Dickinson poems, and have recorded four tunes with wonderful singers like Abigail Washburn. And that\u2019s something I\u2019d like to complete at some point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who are we likely to see on stage with you at Thomas Point Beach?<\/b><\/p>\n

Michael Daves is the guitar player and singer\u2014he\u2019s amazing, and he\u2019s my main squeeze, as it were. I\u2019ve got Nate Lee playing fiddle, Maddie Witler on mandolin and Jared Engel on bass. Michael, Nate and I just played the Philadelphia Folk Festival a few nights ago, so we\u2019re pretty warmed up from that and will be in fine fettle when we do Thomas Point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of Thomas Point Beach, I hope you enjoy a lobster roll while you\u2019re up here in Maine. <\/b><\/p>\n

I better get one. I want a lobster roll. I don\u2019t care where it comes from, but I want one.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Banjo legend Tony Trischka brings Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs to Maine\u2019s Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival During […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluegrass-express","category-festivals","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainebluegrass.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}