We finally got our hands on a copy of the new Earl Scruggs Banjo Songbook from Hal Leonard, which will surely have a place on the bookshelf of every serious banjo player or student worldwide. At least all who have an interest in the music of Earl Scruggs, which should be every five stringer alive.
The book carries the extended title, Selected Banjo Tab Accurately Transcribed For Over 80 Tunes, which perfectly describes its contents. Unlike the evergreen Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo, which serves as both an instructional method and a tune book, the Banjo Songbook is chock full of tab, covering 180 of its 187 pages. Produced in an oversized 9” x 12” format, the pages allow for the tab to be displayed in a large enough font to make them easily readable.
Among the 84 pieces transcribed we find music from the width and breadth of Earl’s career, including recordings with Bill Monroe, his long partnership with Lester Flatt, and classic albums on which he appeared after the dissolution of Flatt & Scruggs. The tabs are arranged in alphabetical order, making it a simple thing to find a particular song or tune, and each shows a recorded source still available for purchase.
For any Earl Scruggs fan, it’s a bit like handing a 7 year old some money and ushering them into a candy store. It hard to decide which treats to sample first among the many on offer. Very few of the tabs presented are for material already included in Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo, and between them both you very nearly have every important Scruggs instrumental he performed. For tunes like Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Lonesome Road Blues, both in the earlier book, we get transcriptions for all the banjo solos together in one place.
On several of the vocal numbers, Earl’s distinctive backup licks are also included, as on Six White Horses, I’ll Just Pretend, and I’d Rather Be Alone. Special pleasures include complete transcriptions for novelty numbers like Mama Blues and Polka On A Banjo, crowd favorites during the days when Lester and Earl stood together on stage.
There are ten tunes in drop C tuning, with favorites like Soldier’s Joy, Farewell Blues, and Dig A Hole In The Meadow among them. Interestingly, each piece has a tuning note as much of the Flatt & Scruggs vocal repertoire was recorded with all the instruments tuned up a half step to accommodate Lester’s vocal range. This is quite handy if you want to play along with the CDs, either by retuning or simply placing a capo at the first fret.
The transcriptions were done by a team including Adonai Booth, Pete Billmann, Jeff Jacobson, Ron Piccione, and David Stocker. Help was also provided by Bob Piekel, a long time Scruggs family friend who is listed as an Editorial Consultant.
The tabs themselves are clear and very easy to read, though I might quibble slightly with the use of grace notes to show slides, hammers, and pull offs, when in many cases they are actually thirty-second notes. But it is a minor concern, and anyone familiar with Scruggs style banjo will readily understand their use.
We can recommend The Earl Scruggs Banjo Songbook unreservedly as a career-wide overview of the great man’s music. It is available for $29.95 from Hal Leonard online, and from retailers everywhere who specialize in acoustic or bluegrass music. Don’t be without a copy.
A complete list of transcriptions follows.
Before I Met You
Big Black Train
Bugle Call Rag
Can The Circle Be Unbroken (Will The Circle Be Unbroken)
Come Back Darling
The Crawdad Song
Daisy May
Dig A Hole In The Meadow
Doin’ My Time
Don’t Get Above Your Raising
Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down
Down The Road
Duelin’ Banjos
Farewell Blues
Fireball
Fireball Mail
Flop Eared Mule
Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Foggy Mountain Rock
Foggy Mountain Special
Get In Line Brother
Gotta Travel On
Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
Have You Come To Say Goodbye
Hear The Whistle Blow, One Hundred Miles
Heavy Traffic Ahead
I Ain’t Goin’ To Work Tomorrow
I Saw The Light
I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)
I Wonder Where You Are Tonight
I’d Rather Be Alone
I’ll Go Stepping Too
I’ll Just Pretend
I’ll Never Shed Another Tear
I’ll Stay Around
I’m Goin’ Back To Old Kentucky
I’m Head Over Heels In Love
If I Should Wander Back Tonight
It’s Mighty Dark To Travel
Jazzing
Jingle Bells
John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man
Just Joshin’
Lonesome Road Blues
Love And Wealth
Love Is Just A Four Letter Word
Mama Blues
Molly And Tenbrooks
Mountain Dew
My Cabin In Caroline
My Home’s Across The Blue Ridge Mountains
My Little Girl In Tennessee
My Long Journey Home
My Saro Jane
Nashville Skyline Rag
Nine Pound Hammer
Nobody’s Business
Nothing To It
On The Rock Where Moses Stood
Pain In My Heart
Petticoat Junction
Pike County Breakdown
Polka On A Banjo
Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms
Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town
Salty Dog Blues
Shortenin’ Bread
Six White Horses
Soldier’s Joy
Some Of Shelly’s Blues
Some Old Day
Somebody Touched Me
Somehow Tonight
Standin’ In The Need Of Prayer
Steel Guitar Rag
Till The End Of The World Rolls Around
‘Tis Sweet To Be Remembered
Toy Heart
We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart
When I Left East Virginia
When The Angels Carry Me Home
Why Don’t You Tell Me So
Will You Be Loving Another Man
You Can’t Stop Me From Dreaming
