Jacob Burleson

Joins Alison Krauss and Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas for their 2026 Tour Photo by Thomas Crabtree One of the most memorable things to come from my many interviews with friend and IBMA Hall of Fame musician J.D. Crowe centered on what he learned from Earl Scruggs. With Crowe and Scruggs both playing the banjo, with each entering the top tier of the players of that instrument, Crowe did learn a lot from Scruggs about technique, drive, and approach. But Crowe also gained a different kind of knowledge from the North Carolina legend. In my 2002 interview with Crowe for the now-defunct Gritz Music Magazine, run and edited by the late and great Michael Buffalo Smith, Crowe said the following: “If you are going to play music for a living, do it as a business. Don’t give it away. That’s what most of these acts have done through the years, they have given it away. Never do that. Earl Scruggs is still making money. He is smart at it. He knows how to make a dollar, him and