DESCRIPTION:
In loving memory of Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 -- March 28, 2012).

I've been practicing this tune for a while now, it still needs a lot of improvement, especially the floating finger technique on the 3rd break, along with timing, which is a little off... but it was one of those extremely rare days here in the far-north of Scotland that is warm enough to allow you to pick outside, so I took the opportunity to make this video. Believe me, those warmer days don't come by very often 'round these parts. Well, I hope y'all like it nevertheless. This version was taken from Geoff Hohwald's book "Banjo Songs", which is a mighty fine book to learn from.

The scenery around me is the shore of the North Sea, in the northernmost region of the Scottish mainland, Caithness.

I made the Earl Scruggs banjo head myself. It features an iconic picture of him, a replica of his signature and an Appalachian foggy mountain in the background, an obvious reference to his famous "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" tune, which happens to be my favorite tune of all time and one of the tunes that drove me to start learning the banjo 5 years ago. If you are interested in purchasing or having a custom banjo head made for you, just search for "custom banjo head" on eBay, and you will find it. Free shipping worldwide, beauty and sound quality guaranteed, as you can see in this video.

An interesting thing that happened after I recorded the video is that the whole seashore was engulfed in a thick fog. I didn't pay attention to the coincidence until I got home and realized the Earl Scruggs FOGGY mountain reference on my own banjo - it was as almost as if Earl himself sent a thick fog from up yonder as a sign. I know, sounds cliché and made-up, and I wish I had recorded the fog and added it somehow to the video, but I swear to God that it did happen. Coincidence, maybe, we have thick fog here sometimes. Either way, it was pretty cool. Maybe someday I learn the Scruggs version of FMB and wait to get foggy to shoot a video, but since those thick fogs are rare and pretty random, might be difficult to have the opportunity again. But again, it was very cool.

Thank you for stopping by and have a nice day!

Video made in Scotland, May 24, 2012.