The Earl Scruggs Center announces Jerry Douglas and the Earls of Leicester with special guest Del McCoury in Shelby, NC Saturday, February 20, 2016 beginning at 7:30 pm at Malcolm Brown Auditorium in Shelby High School. The event will be emceed by Eddie Stubbs, Grand Ole Opry announcer and WSM Radio Host. The event is a benefit for the Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South to support exhibits, programming, educational resources and operations of the Center which celebrates the life and legacy of legendary banjo player, Earl Scruggs, while sharing the musical and cultural heritage of the community that gave life to Earl and his music.
"It is a gift and an honor that Eddie Stubbs, Jerry Douglas and the Earls of Leicester and Del McCoury would come to Shelby to share their music and their stories about Earl Scruggs and to do so to benefit the Earl Scruggs Center. It demonstrates the incredible impact that Earl had on each of them that they are willing to support us in our purpose of preserving Earl's legacy and this music." Emily Epley, Earl Scruggs Center Executive Director.
Eddie Stubbs moved to Nashville in 1995 to play fiddle for Kitty Wells. He started working part-time at WSM doing historical research and on-air work as needed until he auditioned and got the announcer's position on the Grand Ole Opry. Today he is still the Opry announcer and radio show host on WSM. He is a CMA broadcast personality award-winner and is often referred to as a "walking encyclopedia of country music".
GRAMMY and IBMA award winning band, Jerry Douglas and the Earls of Leicester, encompasses Douglas plus acclaimed writer, producer and solo artist, Shawn Camp on lead vocals and guitar, renowned Nashville banjoist Charlie Cushman on banjo and guitars, second generation fiddle phenom Johnny Warren, and Barry Bales, Douglas' longtime bandmate in Alison Krauss and Union Station on bass and vocals.
The new group is the product of Douglas' lifelong passion for the music of bluegrass pioneers Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and their band the Foggy Mountain Boys, whose seminal work in the 50s and 60s created the template for what we know as contemporary bluegrass, and transcended traditional genre barriers to popularize the music with an unprecedented mass audience.
Joining Jerry and the Earls of Leicester is Del McCoury whose music has, for fifty years, defined authenticity for hard core bluegrass fans. Del McCoury would once have seemed an unlikely candidate for legendary status. Bitten hard by the bluegrass bug when he heard Earl Scruggs' banjo in the early 50s-"everybody else was crazy about Elvis, but I loved Earl," he says with a chuckle-McCoury became a banjo picker himself. He got his first taste of the limelight when he joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in early 1963.
McCoury is something special, a living link to the days when bluegrass was made only in hillbilly honkytonks, schoolhouse shows and on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, yet also a commandingly vital presence today, from prime time and late night talk show TV to music festivals where audiences number in the hundreds of thousands. As part of the Del McCoury band he has earned nine IBMA entertainer of the year awards and two GRAMMYs and shows no signs of slowing down.
According to Jerry Douglas, who also produced several of McCoury's 90s albums, "Del epitomizes the bluegrass musician from the previous era, and also this one," "You can finally make a living playing bluegrass, and a large part of it is because of Del McCoury; he became like the new Bill Monroe.
This is sure to be a night filled with amazing talent, incredible music, and stories about Earl Scruggs that will certainly make for a unique and memorable evening. Guests can enjoy a great show while supporting the Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South. The Earl Scruggs Center celebrates the life and legacy of this legendary banjo player while sharing the music, history and cultural traditions of the area he was born and raised in. State of the art technology, hands on exhibits and engaging programming have brought visitors from 48 states and 13 countries since the Center opened two years ago.
Event tickets are $25, $35 and $45. Tickets can be purchased online www.EarlScruggsCenter.org or by calling the Don Gibson Theatre who will be managing ticket sales 704-487-8114. Tickets are for designated reserved seats.
Event sponsors include: Lead Sponsor City of Shelby, Lead Sponsor Cleveland County and Supporting Sponsor Boiling Springs, NC.
The Earl Scruggs Center is open Wednesday 10 am-6 pm, Thursday - Saturday 10 am - 4 pm and Sunday 1 pm - 5 pm. Learn more about the Earl Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from the American South and upcoming events and programs by calling 704-487-6233 or visiting www.earlscruggscenter.org.
The Earl Scruggs Center is a project of Destination Cleveland County, Inc., a citizen-driven award winning unique public/private partnership, and non-profit 501(c)3.
Provided by Emily Epley