Some of the performers helping celebrate Earl’s 100th Birthday: (left to right) Stuart Duncan, Abigail Washburn (seated), Gena Britt, Bryan Sutton (seated), Sierra Hull (seated), Jim Mills, Sam Bush and Del McCoury. Photo by Gary Hatley
Earl Scruggs’s 100th Birthday Celebration at the Ryman
On January 6, 2024, Earl Eugene Scruggs, the most influential and imitated banjo picker on the planet, would have turned 100 years old. To celebrate the occasion, Jerry Douglas served as musical director and assembled some of the best and brightest pickers in bluegrass for a magical three-and-a-half hour show in the historic Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville.
The tribute included ten banjoists (three women and seven men): Abigail Washburn, Jim Mills, Gena Britt, Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Peter Wernick, Charlie Cushman, Rob McCoury and Justin Moses, along with Alison Brown, who sported a classic Flatt & Scruggs bowtie from the headstock of her banjo. Others honoring Scruggs’s legacy included The Earls of Leicester, The Del McCoury Band, Sam Bush, Bryan Sutton, Sierra Hull, Michael Cleveland, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, Jerry Pentecost, and Harry Stinson.
The night of music began with comments from the Scruggs family. First, JT Scruggs, Earl’s nep
