Earl Scruggs & Friends - Earl Scruggs & Friends
Earl Scruggs reinvented banjo playing in the mid-40's with his five-finger style of playing,
which overwhelmed the usual "clawhammer" style that had classified mountain music before
his time. He took this new sound to his band, Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, and a "new
kind" of music was born. With the Blue Grass Boys, and then later with his buddy Lester
Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Earl Scruggs's style of banjo playing made "bluegrass"
music what it is today.
The album starts out with the comfortable voice of Elton John re-working his old "Country
Comfort," with Earl's stalwart banjo, then proceeds with Dwight Yoakam's original "Borrowed Love," his Kentucky voice seeped in authenticity; this is followed by the guttural and oddly comforting old-shoe voice of Billy Bob Thornton rendering "Ring of Fire." As excellent as the beginning is, the disc only gets better from there. Travis Tritt and Gary Scruggs join voices on "True Love Never Dies," Melissa Etheridge gives a soulful performance on "The Angels," and Sting is delightful on "Fill Her Up."
Of course, right in the middle is the fantastic re-working of Earl Scruggs' old standard, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." This song deserved a Grammy decades ago, when it first came out under the banner of Flatt & Scruggs. The "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" has been the theme song of movies (notably "Bonnie and Clyde"), and a standard for real country music through the years. Here Earl plays with fellow banjo virtuoso, Steve Martin (yes, the comedian, who still picks a mean banjo), as well as Glen Duncan, Randy Scruggs, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Gary Scruggs, Albert Lee, Paul Shaffer, Jerry Douglas, and Leon Russell. Other "friends" on the final tracks of the disc include Rosanne Cash, John Fogerty, Don Henley, and the great Johnny Cash. This is an album every country music fan MUST have. It's a joy forever.
Reviewed by Kathy Coleman.
