Earl Scruggs at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival

by Ben Fitzgerald, 07/27/2004

As Earl Scruggs prepared to make his first ever appearance at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, dark, heavy clouds moved across the valley toward the campgrounds. These were not your everyday rain clouds. This was a black, swirling bank of portentous, ozone-enriched downpour, stubbornly unaffected by the golden rays of the setting sun. Its imminence was electrifying.

With the Navy Band, Country Current, having just finished a blazing set of hard-driven, straight down the line bluegrass music, and the sound crew beginning its preparations for Earl and his seven piece band, festival goers scurried to batten down the hatches, grab rain coats, and to gape in awe-inspired wonder at the impending doom rolling across the mountains. With the seats filling with fans and the sky with lightning, the sound crew seemed to be stuck in a holding pattern. The crowd grew restless. Whooping hollers filled the air with each flash of lighting. Calls of “Good enough, let her rip” and “Bring out the Duke” landed on deaf ears. It felt great. Even the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival rarely sees this level of excitement.

Finally Ron Thomason, Dry Branch Fire Squad’s leading man and the festival’s host, took the mike. After a heartfelt introduction, he proudly welcomed, “The Legendary Earl Scruggs!” Then, as Earl hit the stage to an uproar of cheers, the first clap of thunder rolled across the sky. And it was clear to all, not even the gods were going to miss this one.

And then he picked the banjo. At 80 years of age, Earl Scruggs sounds as good as he ever did, the strength and timing of his right hand undeterred by the passing years. Backed by the likes of Bryan Sutton on guitar, Glen Duncan on fiddle, Andy Hall on dobro, John Jorgensen on mandolin, electric guitar and clarinet, and son Gary on electric bass and lead vocals, the music pouring out of the speakers was everything you’d expect it to be – matched only by the rain pouring out of the sky. But when Scruggs is playing Salty Dog Blues, you listen!

Three songs later the unimaginable happened. They stopped. The tarps came out and the musicians left the stage. “We don’t want to electrocute the performers,” announced one of the organizers. I guess not, but would have a few bolts of lightening really made a difference to these guys?

After 20 or 30 minutes of waiting happily in the rain, the speakers crackled back to life, entertaining the crowd with “music while you wait.” The CD selection was a good one, and clearly a Scruggs recording. But then… “Ladies and Gentlemen, you’re listening to the sounds of Earl Scruggs and friends live, backstage at Grey Fox.” Another surge of excitement and energy moved through the crowd. The rain kicked it up a notch.

Backstage, the musicians were on fire. Relaxed and hidden from the crown, they were free to improvise. We were getting a taste of what a jam session on Earl’s porch must sound like. This was the real deal. This was pure. In the pouring rain, without a soul on stage, the crowd was riveted. Empowered.

And then the rain stopped. The ensuing performance took us into the night with classic Flatt and Scruggs tunes – Reuben’s Train, You are My Flower, Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, The Balled of Jed Clampett, and Earl’s Breakdown. But the true showstopper was a mind blowing rendition of the crowd-pleasing Foggy Mountain Breakdown that challenges Hot Rize’s performance last year of the same song for greatest Grey Fox moment of the last five years.

Needless to say, the event was the highlight of what was an overall outstanding weekend of bluegrass music. It’s performances like this, combined with the mountain landscape, warm-hearted humanity and sheer magnitude of the festival that transcends Grey Fox from ordinary life into a state of otherworldliness.

Click here to visit Earl Scruggs at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival website