Tony Trischka’s EarlJam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs

Presented by Common Ground Downtown, a partnership of Common Ground on the Hill and the Carroll Arts Center. Tony Trischka is considered the consummate banjo artist and perhaps the most influential banjo player in the roots music world. For more than 50 years, his stylings have inspired a whole generation of bluegrass and acoustic musicians with the many voices he has brought to the instrument.

Tony Trischka will be honoring the music of Earl Scruggs, pioneer of the three-finger banjo style and one of the two most important musicians in bluegrass. Trischka recently came into possession of extremely rare recordings of jam sessions with Earl Scruggs and John Hartford, and he’ll be debuting Scruggs’s note-for-note solos from a few of these. Never-before-heard Earl Scruggs material!

Together with his ace band—Michael Daves on vocals and guitar, bassist Jared Engel, fiddler Brittany Haas and sometimes Maddie Witler on mandolin — they will trace the story of Scruggs from his childhood to his final years.