The Earl Scruggs Banjo Songbook: Selected Banjo Tab Accurately Transcribed For Over 80 Tunes!
If you are a bluegrass banjo player, you are probably already searching the internet for a place to buy this book simply by reading the title (if you don’t have it already). I’m not sure that I could say anything in this review to change your mind. So, my job in writing this review is not only easy, but perhaps unnecessary. Eighty-four of Earl Scruggs’ solos presented over 180 pages—that says it all. Like the ShamWow guy used to say on TV—“I don’t know…it sells itself.”
I like that this book covers a broad selection of tunes that span the majority of Earl’s career—from his time with Bill Monroe, through the Flatt & Scruggs years, and on into the Earl Scruggs Revue timeframe. Many of the tunes were taken from the 2004 release The Essential Earl Scruggs, and many others came from the Flatt & Scruggs television show volumes Best of Flatt & Scruggs TV Show. Tunes from many other classic albums are also represented. The song selection is great. To view a listing of the tunes, search on Hal Leonard’s website.
I also love the fact that with the presentation of each banjo tab, the recorded source is listed. Earl would play these tunes a bit differently every time he performed or recorded them. By knowing the exact recorded source that the transcriber used, I can go online and find that exact recording and listen to Earl play it. That is a tremendous help. The book printing and format is high quality and the tab is printed big enough that it is easy to read. I also like that the various tunings are explained in detail in a chart at the front of the book.
Most anyone who is thinking about buying a transcription book would certainly ask a question about the accuracy of the transcriptions. After sending out early copies of the book, Hal Leonard received feedback regarding accuracy and turned to Bob Piekiel as an editorial consultant. In an article in Banjo Newsletter about this book, Piekiel said, “Yours truly helped the editors at Hal Leonard correct the problems, so this new batch of books should be spot-on the way Earl actually played these selected versions of tunes.” The group of transcribers who worked on this book include: Adonai Booth, Pete Billman, Jeff Jacobson, Ron Piccione, and David Stocker. The book’s forward was written by Jim Mills.
Anyone interested in playing Scruggs style banjo should have a copy of this book in their library. Highly recommended!
Just a thought…
Earl Scruggs and several of the “Scruggs Style” banjo pickers worked in cotton mills. I also did this while attending college and I wonder if the sound of looms somehow influenced the timing, etc. This might make a good article to explore this possibility. Don Reno, Earl Scruggs, Buck Trent, Bobby Thompson all either grew up in mill towns or worked in the mills or both. Just a thought…
Hi Dan,
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the Peer Int’l 1968 book ‘Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo’. It presents tab and musical notation transcriptions of his famous solo’s from the early days of Flatt and Scruggs. They were produced by Bill Keith who showed them to Scruggs. Unfortunately, Keith was given little credit for his work in this book. The sad tale of how this transpired was told in Bill Keith’s ‘Banjo Hangout’ blogs from 2005. Perhaps it’s because this sad situation exposes the darker side of Louise Scruggs? I would hope you could praise Keith for his work here in any case. I expect these transcriptions would be pretty accurate, with Scruggs himself as an editor.