Banjo player and songwriter Tony Trischka gives an engaging and educational solo performance that takes an in-depth look at the life and music of Country Music Hall of Fame member Earl Scruggs. This program was recorded on September 22, 2024, as part of the Museum’s Musician Spotlight series, which highlights touring and recording musicians in Americana, bluegrass, and country music and beyond.

Throughout this program, Trischka touches on Scruggs’s childhood, his early musical roots, and the development of his groundbreaking three-finger banjo-picking technique, known as “Scruggs style.” He also discusses the formation of Flatt & Scruggs and the crucial role that Louise Scruggs—who acted as the duo’s manager—played in shaping their career. In addition to bluegrass traditionals and compositions by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Trischka performs John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” to demonstrate Scruggs’s melodic playing style and conducts a singalong of the “The Beverly Hillbillies” theme song, which Flatt & Scruggs recorded and which became a chart-topper.

Trischka has released seventeen solo albums—including 2024’s Grammy-nominated “Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs”—and has collaborated with Béla Fleck, Steve Martin, Ronnie McCoury, Tony Rice, Earl Scruggs, and Molly Tuttle. He has won multiple International Bluegrass Music Association awards and was named a United States Artists fellow in 2012.

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