Earl Scruggs And Friends

 (23 customer reviews)

I had a pretty unusual upbringing. I spent a lot of time on my grandfather's ranch when I was a kid and he listened to a lot of Lester and Earl, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams. At home, my parents were more into the likes of Creedence, Skynrd, Aerosmith, The Doors, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. Well, I'm quite a bit older now and I still get strange looks from the record store clerks for some of the things I buy there. I mean, I doubt if there are many other twenty year olds out there who are going to buy this cd. (there may be a few, let's hope). This puppy really shines. There are quite a few on here that you would expect to show up (Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill) and there are even a few suprises (Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, Sting, and John Fogerty). Perhaps the biggest suprise of all is Billy Bob Thornton's rockin' cover of "Ring of Fire". I mean, wow. It's the old Cash favorite like you've never heard it before. Disregard what Rich...Read more

First, my tastes: I'm a bluegrass fan, a jazz fan and a rock fan. Springsteen, U2, Miles Davis and Earl Scruggs are my favorite artists. I don't care for contemporary country music at all. As for Earle, I have only listened to his Flatt & Scruggs work to date. Now that you know where I'm coming from... this is a great CD. The amazon review blasts the billy bob thorton song, which isn't my favorite, but it isn't that bad. And the Sting song had to grow on me. On first listening, I thought it was corny. And you might think (as the amazon reviewer says) that the Foggy Mountain Breakdown instrumental would "break down" under the weight of 10 artists. It might have, if they hadn't done a great job in the liner notes of clarifying who is playing each solo. This makes it pure fun, to sit back and visualize Steve Martin, Albert Lee and the rest having their turn.Earl show tremendous taste on this CD. He can obviously still cut loose when its called for, but its the subtle,...Read more

It is wonderful that Earl Scruggs is performing new music. He is at the top, top level of musicians and has inspired banjo performers for the past fifty years. Unfortunately, this CD is a bit of a disappointment. It is nice that he tries to play with other musicians and tries to mix a variety of styles. The problem is in the choice of those musicians. Elton John's early work was ok, but for the last twenty-five years he has been the king of vanilla pop and is about the last choice for an album like this. He delivers a sterile and flowery performance that does not fit with Earl's playing. Sting, Don Henley and some of the other performers fall into much the same category. There are some positive standouts. John Fogerty meshes with Earl in a great performance that really captures that country-bluegrass feel. As another reviewer wrote, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Earl's trademark song, is a little overblown with ten musicians each performing a break on it. A more stripped-down version...Read more