The Master From Flint Hill: Earl Scruggs by Steve Martin
New Yorker excerpt
Earl Scruggs died March 28, 2012. The bluegrass and wider music worlds mourn and celebrate him.
Sometime after Monroe denied him songwriting credit on “Bluegrass Breakdown,” Scruggs left Monroe, changed the F chord in “Bluegrass Breakdown” to E minor, and wrote “Foggy Mountain Breakdown. ” It became, arguably, the most famous banjo instrumental, a song that speeds along at a clip of eleven notes per second. It is known by most people as the theme from the movie “Bonnie and Clyde,” and also supplied Earl with an income for life.
