Béla Fleck also plays on “Brown's Ferry Blues,” the first song from an upcoming tribute to Scruggs, who would have turned 100 this year
Bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs was born 100 years ago this week, and tributes to the banjo picker have been plentiful. On Friday, Tony Trischka, Scruggs' own banjo student, released a rollicking version of “Brown's Ferry Blues,” a song that dates back to the '30s, featuring an array of A-list players, including Billy Strings , Béla Fleck and Sam. Bush.
Written by longtime Grand Ole Opry stars the Delmore Brothers, “Brown's Ferry Blues” features Strings on lead vocals, with Fleck and Trischka delivering a pair of banjos. This version appears on Trischka's upcoming album Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs. The record is a collection of songs previously performed by Scruggs and John Hartford that Trischka resurrects with special guests.
Trischka remembers the first time he heard Scruggs play “Brown's Ferry Blues” long before he inherited that unheard batch of songs. “I heard Earl play it backstage at a show in Missouri in 2010. He had his banjo tuned to double C…and as far as I know, he had never used that tuning in a studio or live recording,” he said. “In the various jams with John Hartford that inspired this album, however, he always played it in standard G tuning, which is the setting you'll hear here.”
It will be released on June 7, Earl Jam Also features songs with Vince Gill and Molly Tuttle. The Strings, meanwhile, recently announced a new spring tour. After his winter run, which includes three nights in Nashville, the bluegrass guitarist will return to the road in April with two shows at the Yuengling Center in Tampa before hitting Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota and Illinois until May.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/billy-strings-earl-scruggs-tony-trischka-browns-ferry-blues-1234946085/
