NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who helped profoundly change country music with Bill Monroe in the 1940s and later with guitarist Lester Flatt, has died. He was 88.

When Bill Monroe came up with bluegrass–“this high, lonesome sound,” as people called it at the time–banjo players used the clawhammer style. They flailed with their fingers and hands to play chords.

When he was three years old, Jerry Douglas heard the groundbreaking banjo licks of Earl Scruggs on the turntable each morning during breakfast at his childhood home in northeastern Ohio. “And we’d ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - It may be impossible to overstate the importance of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs to American music. A pioneering banjo player who helped create modern country music, his sound ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – It is impossible to overstate the importance of Earl Scruggs to American music. A pioneering banjo player who helped create modern country music, his sound is instantly ...