ALBUM REVIEW: Tony Trischka and Friends Find Fresh Way to Honor Earl Scruggs

Even without the historical significance behind its creation, the release of Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs is cause for celebration. Tony Trischka, the driving force behind the project, is an award-winning banjo master himself who has always acknowledged the influence of Earl Scruggs on his own career.

During the height of the pandemic, Trischka was sent some long-shelved recordings of jams that took place in the 1980s and ’90s, usually at Scruggs’ home in Nashville. Sometimes only Scruggs and his friend John Hartford were playing; at other times, they were joined by a full retinue of musicians.

Tony Trischka (photo by Zoe Trischka)

With the same attention he’s long given to Scruggs’ playing, Trischka undertook what can only be described as a labor of love: transcribing the banjo parts in the recordings note for note. There were more than 200 tracks, some of which brought to light songs Scruggs never recorded, and others revealing alternative versions of songs familiar to fans from his performances and recordings.

Ken Irwin, a founder of Rounder Records and more recently Down the Road Records, heard Trischka playing some of the songs in a live performance soon after he began transcribing the recordings and encouraged him to create this album, with the possibility of more to follow. As the project took shape, Trischka enlisted an all-star cast of vocalists and musicians to fill out the tracks.

The opening song and first single released from the project, “Brown’s Ferry Blues,” features Billy Strings on lead vocals and is the only track produced by Béla Fleck. Fleck also plays what Trischka in the liner notes labels a “definitely non-Scruggsy banjo solo” on the track. Trischka and Lawson White produced the other songs on Earl Jam.

While performers on other instruments were given some latitude in their interpretation of the songs for the album, Trischka played the banjo parts just as Earl Scruggs performed them in the jams. In a single exception, he plays in a high-speed jam with Michael Cleveland on fiddle and Jacob Jolliff on mandolin on The Beatles’ “Lady Madonna.”

The 15 tracks selected from the tapes for this album are examples of the variety inherent in a good jam. Bob Wills’ theme song “San Antonio Rose” features Sierra Ferrell singing stunning lead vocals, with Phoebe Hunt and Lindsay Lou forming a tight trio on harmony. Del McCoury, who sang lead vocals as a young man on Bill Monroe’s 1964 recording of “Roll On Buddy,” reprises the lead on this recording with members of his band accompanying. Bruce Molsky on fiddle and vocals joins Trischka for a memorable take on the old-time standard “My Horses Ain’t Hungry.”

The album credits read like a who’s who of bluegrass music across generations: Molly Tuttle, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Mike Bub, and many more. And Trischka’s conversational tone in the accompanying liner notes enhances the listening experience with background details about artistic choices and recording dynamics.

Fans have eagerly awaited the release of this album since last January’s Ryman Auditorium all-star celebration of the 100th anniversary of Scruggs’ birth (ND review), where several of these songs were performed. With the album now available to all, listeners should appreciate every layer of these recordings, but take time to listen to the banjo in particular. Each track serves as a reminder of the genius of Earl Scruggs, from his simplest licks to his solo breaks, and his impact on banjo players and bluegrass music as a whole.

Tony Trischka’s Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs is out June 7 on Down the Road Records.