The Earls of Leicester at the 2024 Earl Scruggs Music Festival – photo © Bryce LaFoon
When it comes to comfort and convenience, music festivals can vary in terms of what they offer. For the most part, those elements aren’t always synonymous.
Happily then, the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, which took place over Labor Day weekend at Mill Spring, North Carolina’s Tryon International Equestrian Center, can claim both. With only two stages — the Flint Hill main stage, presented by WLOS TV and the smaller, more intimate Foggy Mountain Stage, courtesy of Lakeside Mills — the need to make big choices, as you must at most larger festivals, is almost entirely avoided. For the most part, the schedules coincide, and when they don’t, the relative proximity of the two venues allows ample opportunity to catch the majority of the music regardless.
Given the fact that this was only the festival’s third year, the number of marquee names was impressive indeed. Given the headliners alone — Tanya Tucker, Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives, Old Crow Medicine Show, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Steeldrivers, and Mighty Poplar — might be the envy of any three day festival of comparable size and stature. Notably too, with Jerry Douglas co-hosting the event with J.T. Scruggs, chairman of the Earl Scruggs Center and nephew of the legendary festival namesake, there was clear credence when it came to honoring the legendary banjo musician who cast such a wide influence on modern music. First as a member of Bill Monroe’s band, then in partnership with longtime collaborator Lester Flatt, and later on his own, Scruggs did as much as anyone to cement the five string banjo into the American musical consciousness.
“I put in my suggestions, but for the most part, the talent is chosen by Claire Armbruster, who does the same the some thing for the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival,” Douglas said in a backstage interview when asked about his role in selecting the artists. This festival allows for broader musical parameters than Grey Fox would. “There’s no boundaries for this festival really. In theory, it’s the Earl Scruggs festival, so there’s a certain allegiance obviously to Earl Scruggs, and he’s always referenced in so many of the sets. And I’m glad to be playing with most of the acts that come across the stage.”
Indeed, Douglas was a constant presence throughout the festivities, courtesy of his solo sets, performances with his tribute band, the Earls of Leicester, and his near constant guest appearances with nearly every band on the Flint Hill Stage throughout the festival’s run. In addition, the Earls paid homage to Flatt & Scruggs’ legendary Carnegie Hall concert which, aided and abetted by various walk-on guests, included any number of songs from that historic recording.
“I know most of them, so I have a rapport with them,” Douglas continued. “They’re all asked if they would like me to sit in with them, and they all check yes. So I’m on stage all day long, but that’s okay. I love playing music. I love all these people. They’re all great friends of mine. If it wasn’t that way, I would slip out. Sometimes I’ll get to somebody’s show and I’ll just go, ‘man, I just want to watch your show. I don’t want to play. If I’m playing and I’m not listening to you, I’m trying to listen to me, and I’d rather listen to you. So if you don’t mind, would you be so kind. Is that alright?’ It’s not that I get tired of playing. I’ll stand up there all day long.”
Naturally, Mr. Scruggs’ influence and ideals were summoned consistently throughout the festival, with each performer expressing an individual desire to further his legacy through the music made on their own. That’s not to say each of these acts refrained from creating a formidable impression of their own. The Grascals, Darrell Scott’s String Band, and singer/songwriter Pony Bradshaw opened the festival on Friday with an array of dynamic performances before ceding the stage to The Steeldrivers, whose infectious energy received a rousing reception from an eager and appreciative audience. Indeed, their signature song, I Choose You, proved an ideal choice for an audience all too willing to be among the chosen.
The Earls of Leicester took the stage next, and decked out in their vintage stage gear, they were well equipped to evoke the imagery of their famous forebears. More than any other outfit there or then, they provided the sound and spirit needed to keep the Flatt & Scruggs legacy alive.
By the time Yonder Mountain Stringband took the stage to cap the evening’s festivities, the audience’s anticipation had reached a peak. Although they bask in bluegrass tradition, the Yonders assume a rock and roll sensibility that takes them beyond any preset boundaries, with both energy and exuberance.
Meanwhile, over on the Foggy Mountain Stage, a more compact crowd was treated to solo performances from Darrell Scott, Shawn Camp, and Larry & Joe, among others, each offering a quieter, more contemplative tribute to tradition within their own individual offerings. The general tone fell to mellower musings.
Given the excitement and energy generated on day one, day two had a mighty high bar to reach in terms of continued enthusiasm. Fortunately, there was no let-down when it came to equaling that intensity, The young outfit, Twisted Pine, preceded by Shadowgrass, made multiple appearances, with both bands holding court on the two stages at different times, and then guesting on the Earls’ Flatt & Scruggs Carnegie Hall tribute. A succession of other acts followed, including Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, and the exceptionally expressive Lindsey Lou. Young Wyatt Ellis took his turn on Foggy Mountain Stage, and as always, the 14-year-old impressed the crowd with skills and dexterity way beyond his years. It’s little wonder that he’s been effortlessly embraced by the bluegrass community overall.
Saturday night concluded with two peak performances, the first courtesy of Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, which includes bassist Chris Scruggs, who just happens to be Earl’s grandson. Dressed to the tees in their stage clothes finery — no small feat considering the oppressive heat — Stuart himself, a bluegrass child prodigy known for playing with Lester Flatt and in Johnny Cash’s backing band, summoned up Scruggs’ spirits on more than one occasion. “What’s that I hear?,” he inquired. “Earl said play a Merle Haggard song!” He and the band complied courtesy of a rollicking version of Haggard’s classic, Mama Tried.
“The first albums I ever owned were by Flatt & Scruggs and Johnny Cash,” he continued. “Some 53 years ago, Lester Flatt offered me a job. So tonight I can’t think of a better place to be.” With a set list that included such classics as Pretty Boy Floyd, Green County Blues, The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’, Orange Blossom Special, and the Byrds’ The Reason Why — the latter resurrected from Stuart’s tour with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman commemorating the 50th anniversary of Sweetheart of the Rodeo — Stuart and company epitomized one of the major reasons why the Earl Scruggs festival effectively celebrates essential American music both past and present.
Speaking of which, Old Crow Medicine Show capped the evening with a performance that brought the music full circle. Their kinetic front man Ketch Secor went all out to entertain the audience with his amusing antics, leading the other band members to follow suit while taking turns front and center. Their set leaned heavily on covers — Proud Mary, the Grateful Dead’s U.S. Blues, and a stirring version of The Weight among the many highlights. If one ensemble could be considered over the top and intent on indulging in visual and visceral entertainment, Old Crow Medicine Show could claim to have ably accomplished both.
Despite the reverence for timeless tradition, the festival delved into diversity as well at every turn. Miko Marks turned in two sets of stirring soul, while Sunday night headliner and the main stage closer, Tanya Tucker, proved that a variety of sounds and styles could comfortably coexist within the weekend’s offerings. So too, performances by Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light and Martha Spencer & The Wonderland Band offered opportunity to enjoy the sounds of mainstream music. Veteran Peter Rowan and Sam Grisman, son of Rowan’s former helmsman in Old & In the Way — the early bluegrass offshoot that also included Jerry Garcia — illustrated how the threads of bluegrass found populist appeal in the late ’60s and early ’70s. So too, Darin & Brooke Aldridge’s Sunday Morning Bluegrass Gospel performance, and the evening appearance by bluegrass super group Mighty Poplar, demonstrated why that crossover continues to flourish with such extraordinary agility and finesse.
“There’s really room for both,” Jerry Douglas insisted. “It’s really great to see how the older guard will be nice and pay it forward to the younger guard. This is one of the genres that does that. The music has taken in other influences. No music is pure, unless you want to play pure jazz. Old time music can be so pure that it sounds wrong, even to the educated ear. You have to go back into it and find out what the wrong part is. People just didn’t play in a certain time signature. When that part of the tune was over, they went to the next part. That’s sort of the difference.”
Douglas should know. He began playing with Earl Scruggs in the early ’80s. “I saw the Earl Scruggs Revue review several times when I was out on the road when I was with the Country Gentlemen, but before that, I had seen him in 1963 and 1966, That might have been one of the impetuses for me to actually jump in. The beginnings of what I feel was bluegrass music had gone away. We had to fill a hole.”
In many ways, what Jerry Douglas learned from Earl Scruggs, both personally and professionally, more or less epitomizes the spirit of the this fabulous festival overall.
“I put him on as high a pedestal as anybody ever will,” Douglas maintains. “I figure there’s so much of me that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for him. After I got to meet him, I just saw what a gentleman he was and how nice he was to everybody. I’d see that man come back to the bus with his hand have totally turned black after shaking hands with two or 300 people.”
That spirit of connection and congeniality makes this festival what it is. Earl would no doubt be particularly proud.
All photos © Bryce LaFoon.
