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 ...
The iconic banjo player, who played with Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt, developed a picking technique which defined the sound of bluegrass music.... Bluegrass Legend Earl Scruggs Has Died Banjo player ...
Popular music in North America entered a revolutionary stage in the 1940s, and a handful of recordings from the decade document the shift into music that was more virtuosic than what had come before.