Earl Scruggs,the most influential banjo player in the history of bluegrass music,died Wednesday morning (March 28) at a Nashville hospital at age 88.
Through the medium of television in the 1960s, Scruggs and his musical collaborator,Lester Flatt, introduced the banjo -- and bluegrass music --into millions of households each week through their performance of the theme for The Beverly Hillbillies television series. It is reported that their appearances on the popular program resulted in skyrocketing banjo sales in the U.S.
More than sixdecades after Scruggs picked his first notes with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, bluegrass fans and scholars are still debating the origins of the music. Some say it begins and ends with Monroe,while countless others cite Scruggs' contributions (along with those of Flatt,Cedric Rainwater and Chubby Wise) as the genre's defining moment
