hallmw@gmail.com on Earl Scruggs Online Tribute

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:57:39 -0400

this is Anders Steele - editor of Boulder Creek Insider. My day job is serving as a PR person for Slacker Radio - and i thought you all might dig this - it's free and has some great bluegrass. You can tune in on the web or an iPhone, BlackBerry, etc..

Slacker's Bluegrass programmer, Wayne Rice, who for the past 36 years has hosted an award-winning radio program called The Bluegrass Special on San Diego’s top-rated country-music station, KSON-FM 97.3 and 92.1, has created a tribute station for Earl Scruggs. Wayne has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry with bluegrass pioneers Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and toured with such country legends as Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings.

The Earl Scruggs Tribute Station features music from Earl as well as music from those who have been directly influenced by him. The station can now be found in Slacker's "Spotlight Section" on the web, on all leading smarpthones, the iPad and in home devices such as Sony Blu-Ray players and TVs. Here is a direct link to the station:

http://www.slacker.com/station.....gs-tribute

More detail the station as well as Wayne Rice is below. If you have any questions or I can be of assistance, please feel free to email or call.

Best Regards,
Anders

o 831.713.5968
m 831.239.0960

About Wayne Rice:

Wayne Rice plays the banjo and has performed as a member of several bluegrass and country music bands including Brush Arbor, the 1974 recipient of the Academy of Country Music’s Vocal Group of the Year Award. He has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry with bluegrass pioneers Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and toured with such country legends as Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. He also served as Executive Producer of the International Bluegrass Music Awards show in Nashville, Tennessee. For the past 36 years he has hosted an award-winning weekly radio program called The Bluegrass Special on San Diego’s top-rated country-music station, KSON-FM 97.3 and 92.1.

About the Earl Scruggs Tribute Station:

Earl Scruggs may not have invented the banjo but he definitely rescued it from obscurity. His innovative three-finger style which produced an impossible flurry of staccato notes gained national attention when he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry as a 21-year-old member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in the fall of 1945. Bandleader Monroe was deservedly credited with fathering the genre of bluegrass music but it was the impact and the sound of Scruggs’ banjo that defined it forever. Every bluegrass band needs a banjo and every bluegrass banjo player needs to learn to play what is now universally known as “Scruggs Style” banjo. There really is no other way.

But Earl’s music transcends genres and generations. Even while Earl was performing with his bandmate of more than 20 years, Lester Flatt, he was taking his banjo to folk festivals and appearing with the likes of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar and the Byrds. He won Grammy Awards for his work with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, cut sides with Elton John and Sting and at the age of 84 appeared at the Bonnarroo Music and Arts Festival. Today’s genre-bending artists like Mumford and Sons, Trampled by Turtles and the Punch Brothers carry on the unmistakable influence of Earl.

Earl Eugene Scruggs was born in Shelby, N.C. on January 6, 1924. He was only 4 years old when he began strumming the banjo and at age 10 began developing his new picking style, inspired by the sound of Mother Maybelle Carter’s guitar playing that he heard on the radio. He died on March 28, 2012.

Slacker’s Earl Scruggs Tribute station features many of Earl’s classic recordings with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, The Earl Scruggs Revue, and a wide range of special guest stars. You will also hear just a few of the thousands of artists and bands who have been strongly influenced by the greatest banjo player in the history of music, Earl Scruggs.

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Website: http://www.slacker.com/station.....ggs-tribut

Northern California Bluegrass Society - Topic: Earl Scruggs Online Tribute

hallmw@gmail.com on Earl Scruggs Online Tribute