Earl Scruggs R.I.P.

Genius of the Five String: Earl Scruggs, 1924-2012

I learned today of the death earlier this week of Earl Scruggs. Not everyone likes bluegrass music (due to the fall), but anyone who heard or saw him would have to be amazed at the musical innovation and ability of Scruggs.

Traditionally, the banjo had been played in what was called a clawhammer style. Largely, it was being strummed with the right hand with some chording of the left. Scruggs began using his thumb and index finger to pick notes, then added a third finger to the mix. To this he added speed and incredibly dexterity. He had picked up the banjo as a way of finding consolation after his father's death. In North Carolina, the word was that if you threw a rock, you would hit a banjo picker. And he rose above even the many other good players of his time.

By the 1940s, he left working the factories and farms and took to music. Bill Monroe was still in the developmental stages of creating bluegrass music. (Of course, like Calvinists arguing theology, country musicians argue about whether bluegrass music was created by Monroe. Ralph Stanley insists that he does not play bluegrass. "Bill's music and mine and Carter's was different." Not even Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til could sort the differences and they tried.)

Dave Aikman was playing banjo for Monroe. You will remember Dave Aikman as Stringbean. He was a comedian and a fair banjo picker who only clawhammered the instrument. He really couldn't keep up with what Monroe was doing.

The Golden Age of Country Music:  Bill Monroe on mandolin, Lester Flatt on guitar, and Earl Scruggs on the banjo, playing the Purina Dog Chow portion of the Grand Ole Opry

Monroe heard and witnessed Scruggs' playing and hired him on. As Bill said, "We pitched the music higher and faster than it had ever been done before." In the post-war world, where everything was speeding up and radio was the medium of information, Monroe's creation was coalescing into a musical genre. As President Ronald Reagan later told Monroe, "You are the only American to have created a whole separate form of music." (Later that day, Monroe was nearly arrested when a gun was discovered in his briefcase and he reported that he had been to the White House. He demanded to be released since he was playing the Opry that night. He was fined and released.)

One of the legendary bluegrass acts of all time:  Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggws

Scruggs and Monroe's lead singer, Lester Flatt, broke with the Bluegrass Boys around 1948 and started "Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys." For at least a couple of decades, Monroe was furious at them and would not speak to them. And Elvis crashed the entire and revamped the entire music scene.

Then came the 1960s. A folk music revival suddenly put Bluegrass musicians on the center stage.

Add to that, the Beverly Hillbillies show began and the theme was a Flatt and Scruggs song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." At least 3 times, Flatt and Scruggs showed up on the Beverly Hillbillies as a friend of the Clampett family.

Then Flatt and Scruggs played the theme song to the movie "Bonnie and Clyde"--previously known as "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," now also known as "The Bonnie and Clyde Theme."

The two best Flatt and Scruggs albums ever were "Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall" and the recording they did for the Bonnie and Clyde movie. That latter record does not seem to be out there anywhere. My brother-in-law loaned me his copy back in the 1960s, but apparently sold it in a garage sale. "Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall" was re-released in an expanded CD form a few years back. (I want it.) When you hear those Yankees hollering out "Martha White!" after every song, it is thrilling. Lester Flatt finally responded, "I keep hearin' folks yellin' for 'Martha White.' I didn't know y'all had heard of that way up here. Don't know if we can remember it or not. Only been singin' about ten year." The audience exploded when they performed it.

Scruggs and Flatt broke up some years later. Earl Scruggs wanted to play more progressive, upbeat bluegrass with his sons. Flatt wanted to stick to the traditional stuff. Scruggs and Flatt talked of some reunion playing around 1979 when Flatt was recovering from heart problems. He died soon after.

Scruggs got some special attention some years later when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band got him, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmie Martin, Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, and Merle Travis together for the first of a series of great recordings called "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." That collection is priceless for the music and the talk.



A musical gold mine



The Best Books and Best Author of 2011

After all the excitement and wonder, here is the winner for 2011:

Number 1. 

The Most They Every Had and Ava's Man  by Rick Bragg.

In several cases this year, the coveted "Ben House's Favorite Books" recognition is going to authors for more than just one book and for more than what I read this year.  Exhibit 1 is Rick Bragg.  How in the world did I miss him for so long?  One night, I stumbled across a review of one of his books.  I wrote the title and author down and ordered a used copy.  I think it was All Over But the Shoutin'.  One blurb compared Bragg to Faulkner.  I am always both drawn to and suspicious of anyone compared to Faulkner, even Faulkner.  I know one thing:  Rick Bragg and I could have grown up together.  At least, we could have lived in the same town, attended the same classes, roamed up and down the same streets.  However, we probably would not have been friends.  He might have punched me out.  He would have run me off the road.  But I wish I could have learned something of writing and living from this man.  He is first class.

This short book describes the hard-scrabble life of folks in Alabama who worked in the cotton mills.  Tough lives.  They had more grit than I can imagine.  Every whiner and complainer of our time should read this book.  Every spoiled brat who thinks he is a victim, should read this book.  Everyone who griped today about not having enough or having to work too hard, should read this book.  Anyone left?  They should read this book also.

Ava Bundrum was Rick's grandma.  Charlie was her husband.  What a rough, tough, unbreakable man.  Worked hard to feed and shelter his family.  Roofed houses and made bootleg whiskey.  Every small town Southerner has met Charlie Bundrum many time.  And, hallelujah, he got saved near the end.

The Salt of the Earth:  Rick Bragg and His Mother

Every Southern boy wishes he had gone to the trouble to write something as nice and purty about his mamma as Rick Bragg did here.  This is the story of a modern day saint (in either Protestant or the Medieval RC sense).  Her boy wasn't such a saint, but this much can be said for him:  He loves his Mamma and is a great example of the commandment--Honor Your Mother.



For Rick Bragg, honoring his father was much harder.  His dad was not a good man, or a good husband, or a good father.  Yet, he had his qualities, tried to fight his demons, and was blessed far more than he deserved.  Rick (and I hardly ever feel comfortable calling an author by his first name) paired his recollections of his father with his own experience in raising a step-son.  He struggled to find the ways to be a good father, never having had much of an example.  This fellow can sure make me laugh or cry at will.

Rick Bragg:  Seems out of place leaning against pillars.  Ought to be on a front porch.

Recap of the winners:

1. The Most They Ever Had and Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg


2. A Song I Knew By Heart by Bret Lott

3. Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris and the Roosevelt trilogy

4. Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge and Now We Are Enemies by Thomas Fleming.

5. King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller

6. Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century by John R. W. Stott

7. Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition by James K. A. Smith

8. Washington by Ron Chernow

9. Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham

10. Think by John Piper

Number 2 Winner for 2011--Bret Lott

You think that you know something about books and authors and then you get surprised.  While I have been laboring away through the years reading, teaching, and buying books, I discover that I have overlooked an author.  In this case, a contemporary.  Amazingly, successful and thoroughly Christian in his life and worldview.  And a novelist.  And if not a Southerner completely, one who has resided in the South. 

Second place for best books and authors for 2011 goes to Bret Lott.

Author Bret Lott.  Does he look like any you know?

The book that propelled Bret Lott into the finals was A Song I Knew By Heart.  This book is a re-telling of the Book of Ruth from the Bible.  Lott is well equipped to write such a story since he believes the Bible and recognizes that stories keep on repeating themselves in all kinds of ways.  I almost could not get into this book.  It was a sad story that I was reading at a sad time in my life and the life of my church family.  But Ruth chapter 1 is a sad chapter.  And yet, the Book of Ruth is a comedy, not meaning that Ruth is hilariously funny, but that in a literary form, it begins in sadness or chaos and ends in happiness and marriage.  (I preached through Ruth as an Advent series that past December and January.  Parts of it are actually quite humorous.)



The Story of Ruth retold.

Lott dealt with the topic of forgiveness in A Song I Knew By Heart.  He also dealt with that theme in the first of his books that I read:  Ancient Highway.  (See my previous blog post on Ancient Highway: http://benhouseblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/ancient-highway-by-bret-lott.html.)  By using the outline and characters from Ruth, Lott was able to set the story in modern America and show how God's grace is always sufficient, whether one strays away to Moab or falls short in our own times. 

  

This discovery of Bret Lott's writings has led to a frantic work of catching up on him.  Currently, I am reading his book on writing, titled Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of the Writer's Life.  Also I just recently finished his novel The Man Who Owned Vermont and a collection of short stories titled The Difference Between Men and Women.  I just keep reading and promoting Lott's work, but as it has happened, I have never purchased a new book by him.  All the books I have were either found on the bargain table at our local BAM or purchased used (and cheap) or received as gifts.  I hope a reader's gratitude is better than royalties.

I will soon be reading what may be his most well known novel, Jewell.  And I ordered several more of his books just this week.  One of the best ways to be introduced to Lott, however, is in a collection of Christian short stories, titled The Best Christian Short Stories.  Lott's testimony of his faith is given in the introduction where he says, "My name is Bret Lott, and I believe..."  That statement is followed by the Apostles' Creed.  Not much getting around that statement. 

One of my best vicarious experiences this past year was when Nick, my son at Wheaton College, got to hear Bret Lott speak.  Nick had previously mentioned to me that Lott and I resembled each other somewhat. After seeing and hearing him, Nick said, "He's a lot bigger than you are."  At six foot, four inches, with an impressive array of books, Bret Lott surely is lots bigger.

Best Books of 2012--Third Through 10th Places

I am beginning to fear that this year will slip away before that most important bit of book news is announced: Not the Pulitzer Prizes or the Nobel Prize for Literature.  Those are both somewhat overrated.  I am talking about my yearly announcement for the best books I read in the previous year.  To increase speculation and excitement, I am holding off on the first and second place winners.

But there are some great books and authors listed below.

3. Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

A great man, an outstanding leader.  Where is the TR of our time?

Consider the whole three volume set as the winner.  I read the first volume just after I got out of college, and now over 30 years later, Morris finished the set and I finished the reading.  TR was an incredible man.  You don't have to agree with all his actions and views to admire him.

4. Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge and Now We Are Enemies by Thomas Fleming.
I am increasingly convinced that Thomas Fleming is one of our greatest historians.  Now We Are Enemies was his first book and has been reprinted recently (50th anniversary edition).  Washington's Secret War shows how Washington understood both wars he was in:  One was political and one was military.  Fleming writes history as it ought to be written.  I look forward to reading more of his books



5. King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller
Whether this is read in conjunction with studying the Gospel of Mark, or read for devotional reading, or read as a model for preaching, this is a great book.  I am increasingly sold on Tim Keller's writing and thinking.



6. Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century by John R. W. Stott
I first read this book back in 1994.  After Dr. Stott's death last summer, I decided it was time to read it again.  Being back in the pulpit, I found this book incredibly helpful. I look forward to reading it again before too long.

Stott was one of the most respected evangelical leaders in the world.

7. Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition by James K. A. Smith
This book could have been and should have been written to me many years ago.  This was a really fun book.  I want to teach through it soon.  It brought back many memories.



8. Washington by Ron Chernow
I often regretted getting into this book because of its length and I have read quite a few books about Washington over years. Yet, this work, read a very little at a time, is a thorough and rich biography of an incredibly difficult man. In an election year where we yearn for someone of ability and nobility, it is well to reflect upon George Washington.  This book did win the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.  Nice consolation since it came in eighth place.



9. Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
Dr. Baucham spoke at the Atlanta Association of Classical Christian Schools conference this past June.  Great speaker and the author of a hard-hitting book on family issues.CCS conference in June. Family matters are more important than politics right now.  This books needs to be widely read and distributed.




10.  Think by John Piper
This book and the Baucham book are published by Crossway Books.  I read this book twice and have become yet another fan of John Piper.  This book has more focus on the Bible rather than on logic or reading skills.

Helpful in creating thinking skills to apply to Scripture reading and study.

Current Readings Include

It is March and spring has been arriving early and in full force.  There is nothing like beautiful spring weather to inspire reading.



A study of I Corinthians 13

 Loving the Way Jesus Loves by Phillip Graham Ryken is a study of I Corinthians.  Dr. Ryken makes the excellent point that the only one who has perfectly fulfilled 'the love chapter' is Jesus, so he links the precepts that Paul gives (such as "love is patient") with the teachings and example of Christ.  This book is published by Crossway.



After reading Keller's book on the Gospel of Mark, I have been committed to reading anything I can find by him.  This has been a very enjoyable book.  I am suffering from a deficit of reading good books about marriage and family.  Thankfully, my poor family has been faithful at providing me an atmosphere where I don't have to read such books as emergency manuals.



Charles Murray is a provocative, controversial author

With books like Losing Ground and The Bell Curve, Charles Murray has had a career of writing books that are controversial, but highly thought provoking.  This book, Coming Apart, covers the state of White America from 1960 to 2010.  This is a study of classes and culture.  From my beginnings in this book, I think I will find lots to learn.

Many readings, many blessings.

Don't tell my junior high students how far behind I am on my readings from this book.  I am counting on my past 4 to 6 readings of it, plus hoping to get caught up in the next few days.  Everytime I read and teach this book, I am astounded at Washington's perseverence and dedication to learning.  This is one of my all time favorite works.  Every kid of every age should read this book at least a couple of times in their life.