- published: 11 Jun 2009
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Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a three-finger banjo-picking style (now called "Scruggs style") that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music.
Although other musicians had played in three-finger style before him, Scruggs shot to prominence when he was hired by Bill Monroe to fill the banjo slot in his group, The Blue Grass Boys. He later reached a mainstream audience through his performance of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the theme for the network television hit The Beverly Hillbillies, in the early 1960s.
Scruggs was born and grew up in the Flint Hill community in Cleveland County, North Carolina, to Georgia Lula Ruppe and George Elam Scruggs, a farmer and bookkeeper, who played banjo and died when Scruggs was four years old. His older brothers, Junie and Horace, plus his two older sisters, Eula Mae and Ruby, all played banjo and guitar. Scruggs' mother played the organ.
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music were highly regarded. He performed with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, for over 15 years until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm.
Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina. According to Watson on his three-CD biographical recording Legacy, he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!" presumably in reference to the literary character Sherlock Holmes's sidekick Doctor Watson. The name stuck ever since.
An eye infection caused Doc Watson to lose his vision before his first birthday. He was taught by his parents to work hard and care for himself. He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired, The Governor Morehead School, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician.
Martin came to public notice in the 1960s as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later as a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor, as well as an author, playwright, pianist and banjo player, eventually earning him an Emmy, Grammy and American Comedy awards, among other honors.
In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics. He was awarded an Honorary Academy Award at the Academy's 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013.
While he has played banjo since an early age, and included music in his comedy routines from the beginning of his professional career, he has increasingly dedicated his career to music since the 2000s, acting less and spending much of his professional life playing banjo, recording, and touring with various bluegrass acts, including Earl Scruggs, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2002. He released his first solo music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, in 2009, for which he won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.
Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs And Friends - Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Earl Scruggs And Lester Flatt - Cripple Creek
The Golden Hits Of Lester Flatt And Earl Scruggs (Full Album)
Doc Watson & Earl Scruggs Play At Doc's Home
Vintage Josh Graves with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs - The Bluegrass Legend - Family & Friends (1972)
Earl Scruggs & Steve Martin - Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Best
The Bluegrass Masters: Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs
Earl Scruggs Ricky Skaggs Travis Tritt Vince Gill Jerry Douglas Bluegrass Celebration 2002 H26
Sometimes I feel like an innocent one
To deserve this fate what I have I ever done
I know that I made all the rules
But time can even change the hopeless ways of fools
I love you tonight like I did yesterday
I won't think of tomorrow or the price I pay
I drink from the well my soul is dry
I never know why
All I want is for your love to be all mine
But the angels won't have it
All I want is just a little peace of mind
But the angels won't have it
I thought I had a piece of my soul left to sell
I guess it's just as well
'Cause the angels won't have it
Who's looking after this see-through heart
Someone up there isn't doing their part
Oh Cupid you foolish boy
You should take better aim with your brand new toy
I love you tonight like I did yesterday
I don't think of tomorrow or the price I pay
I drink from the well my soul is dry
I never know why
All I want is for your love to be all mine
But the angels won't have it
All I want is just a little peace of mind
But the angels won't have it
I thought I had a piece of my soul left to sell
I guess it's just as well
'Cause the angels won't have it
So if I die before I wake
The innocent one whose heart could never break
Lift me up take me out of this bed
Watching the angels shake their heads
Don't feel sorry for me baby honey don't you cry
You can sell all of my clothes you will forget me by and by
I'll be riding that train I'll be singing that song
But I won't be gone for long
'Cause the angels won't have it
All I want is for your love to be all mine
But the angels won't have it
All I want is just a little peace of mind
But the angels won't have it
I thought I had a piece of my soul left to sell
I guess it's just as well