Banjo legend Tony Trischka brings Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs to Maine’s Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival
Photo Credit: Greg Heisler
During the lockdown days of the pandemic, Tony Trischka got an unexpected package in the mail: A thumb drive filled with homemade recordings of Earl Scruggs trading tunes with his musical compatriot John Hartford and other musicians.
After listening to hundreds of songs, he started transcribing, hoping to get down on paper the magic that he heard coming from Scruggs’ banjo. This year, he took the project a step further, bringing together an all-star cast of pickers such as Béla Fleck, Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings to bring those transcriptions to life. The result is Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs, a 15-track album released in June on Down the Road Records.
Trischka was kind enough to speak with Bluegrass Music Association of Maine board member Taylor Smith in advance of his visit to Thomas Point Bluegrass Festival, which is hosting the Maine debut of the Earl Jam project. Trischka’s band takes the stage on Friday night of the festival, which runs from August 29 through September 2.
What was your reaction when you first heard those recordings of Earl and John Hartford and others?
I was totally excited. I immersed myself in the music of Earl Scruggs more than I maybe ever had. This giant avalanche of incredible music was suddenly in my lap. It was almost overwhelming—but I didn’t feel smothered, I just felt excited.
What did you find most interesting about the recordings?
His playing was always great in these jams. His timing was always impeccable, and his ideas were great. And even playing tunes that they decided to play in the moment that he might never have played before, there was never a stumble, never a false moment. He was always on it perfectly, amazingly.
There were various revelations. One was the tunes that we had never heard Earl play before, like Chinese Breakdown, Here Comes the Bride, San Antonio Rose and Brown’s Ferry Blues. And then there were tunes like Cripple Creek—there were five or six different versions from various jam sessions. The first couple of versions were great. And then the third or fourth version, he suddenly does these highly syncopated blues licks. And Cripple Creek is not a blues tune.
Then in Brown’s Ferry Blues, there are multiple versions. In one version, he’s just sliding up and down, back and forth—like big slides up and down the neck, back to back. I thought that was crazy, because he’s never done anything like that on record before. So, well, that had to go on the album.
Beyond just transcribing Earl’s playing from these recordings, why did you want to make an album from this material?
I wanted to do the album because I wanted people to understand what Earl played in these jams. He’s still my biggest hero—the greatest banjo player ever and the greatest there ever will be. He was such an important figurehead in bluegrass and, historically, this is new information that we never knew about before. It just adds history of the story of bluegrass.
To do the album, I took all of these transcriptions that I’d done and played note for note what Earl played in the jam sessions on the recordings. Everyone else on the album is playing what they want to play, but I’m playing exactly what he played because of my love for him and his music. I also wanted to share this with people because I’m a teacher and this is new stuff I want to share with everyone. I love sharing what I’m excited about.
Earl Scruggs was a foundational part of bluegrass music as we know it, but he also liked to push the boundaries of the genre. Do you feel a certain kinship with Earl in that respect?
I saw a quote from him recently that has become my favorite Earl quote: “You can’t encore the past. If I see a bright light shining out there, I want to go toward it.” I love that. He had the idea to really stretch things. After Flatt & Scruggs broke up, he was somewhat at loose ends. His sons were jamming in the garage, and he said, “Hey, can I join you?” And that became the Earl Scruggs Revue. They put out a whole bunch of albums with electric guitar, electric bass and drums. It was this mixture of rock and bluegrass.
Another thing that Earl said was that he wanted to bring people joy through his music, which I thought was just a wonderful thing to say.
What bright, shining light are you moving toward these days?
That’s very interesting. Well, I’m in the middle of this Earl world. There’s going to be a second Earl Jam album because I recorded 26 tracks. So we’ve got 11 new tracks and have more to come. So I’m in this Earl world for another year and change. But it’s really funny because right before you called, my daughter was saying that this would be a great time to go do some of the progressive stuff like you used to do. Our son is a great drummer—a really incredible drummer—and I’d like to do something with him and kind of figure out my own sort of Scruggs Revue. I’ve also been putting music to Emily Dickinson poems, and have recorded four tunes with wonderful singers like Abigail Washburn. And that’s something I’d like to complete at some point.
Who are we likely to see on stage with you at Thomas Point Beach?
Michael Daves is the guitar player and singer—he’s amazing, and he’s my main squeeze, as it were. I’ve got Nate Lee playing fiddle, Maddie Witler on mandolin and Jared Engel on bass. Michael, Nate and I just played the Philadelphia Folk Festival a few nights ago, so we’re pretty warmed up from that and will be in fine fettle when we do Thomas Point.
Speaking of Thomas Point Beach, I hope you enjoy a lobster roll while you’re up here in Maine.
I better get one. I want a lobster roll. I don’t care where it comes from, but I want one.