The great banjo player Earl Scruggs has died at the age of 88. You may not know the name but you've heard his music. He played the The Ballad of Jed Clampett (the Beverly Hillbillies theme), the theme from Petticoat Junction and Foggy Mountain Breakdown (the theme from the movie Bonny and Clyde).
He was one of those rare musicians who change the way an instrument is played, how it sounds and how it is used. Prior to Scruggs the banjo was a rhythm instrument strummed in the 'clawhammer' style. He invented the driving three finger picking style now almost universally used on banjo. He was also in the first bluegrass band, Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, and so was a founder of that genre.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...a165605D45.DTL
http://www.bluegrass-museum.org/gene...yBluegrass.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIKdswTJ2vY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyzxv...eature=related
