For his 99th birth anniversary, WNCW honored the late great Earl Scruggs by sharing portions of interviews with artists who knew him, broadcasting stories ranging from brief encounters in young adulthood, like Sierra Hull’s memories of Earl, on to years of friendship and collaboration with guests like John McEuen and Pete Wernick (note: Sierra Hull will also be our featured guest in her upcoming episode). These conversations were rich and deep, and helped me understand Earl Scruggs as the man in ways that were at turns surprising, but always inspiring. I asked everyone here essentially the same two questions: tell us your favorite memories or stories about Earl, and talk about his impact as an artist and how that legacy continues since he has been gone. It all adds up to three and a half hours of audio (!), and it should be no surprise that there is a ton of gold to be mined in all those conversations; here is a synopsis, a sampling of everyone’s thoughts, insights and memories. This episode hones in on the stories that reveal Earl Scruggs as a humble genius, a quiet and kind man who was in so many ways the same farm boy and mill worker from the foothills of western North Carolina even after living in a mansion in the heart of Nashville. Plus, there is plenty of talk about the genius and enduring legacy of Earl Scruggs, whose namesake lives on in the form of not only his vast catalog of recordings, his songwriting and revolutionary playing style, but also in the Earl Scruggs Center in his home county, housed in the county courthouse built in 1907 in downtown Shelby NC, as well as the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, which began in 2022 and continues on Labor Day weekend in 2023 in nearby Tryon NC.

In this episode we welcome Kristin Scott Benson, Travis Book, Alison Brown, Sam Bush, Jeff Hanna, Vince Herman, John McEuen, Jim Mills, Earl’s nephew J.T. Scruggs, Pete Wernick, and even my dad, who gives us a glimpse of what a Scruggs family gathering was like in the 1950s.

Songs heard in this episode:

“Earl’s Breakdown” by Flatt & Scruggs

“You Are My Flower” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, from Will the Circle Be Unbroken, excerpt

“Hot Corn Cold Corn” by Flatt and Scruggs, from Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall, excerpt

“Some Of Shelley’s Blues” by The Earl Scruggs Revue, excerpt

“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” by Flatt & Scruggs

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Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, and to Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Artist stereotypes do not apply

How many times have parents cringed when their children fell in love with a musician? Let's be honest, the world has looked askance at artists of all stripes (with notable exceptions) for most of our history. Musicians tend to be thought of as people who may be great at their art but who are nonetheless pretty bad at life skills like paying bills, getting to work on time, and sticking with the missus.

Aaron turns all those stereotypes on their head; he is not only a fantastic songwriter and musician, but he also runs his own construction business and is a devoted family man living a stone's throw from where he grew up in the western NC mountains. He is as meticulous and intense about his guitar and ballads as he is about his green built homes and raising his two girls.

As you'll see in our pilot episode, Aaron does both life and art exceptionally well. The folks around him are a big part of that.