Earl Scruggs Sometimes you make the music, sometimes the music makes you. The 85-year-old Earl Scruggs, like former bandmate Bill Monroe, is one of those guys who has made music in his very own image, creating a genre from the ground up. Having basically invented three-finger bluegrass banjo (now called simply "Scruggs style" if it's called anything at all), Scruggs melded jazz and blues into what was too often a hopelessly white (if white-hot) art form, and laid the groundwork for all the "newgrass" bands to come later. His picking has slowed a little bit over the years, but Scruggs has always taken good care of himself, so the drop-off is negligible. Besides, did anyone really complain that Babe Ruth didn't hit the ball 500 feet toward the end of his career? No. They just came to see the legend hit one over the wall. Presented by The Neighborhood Theatre, Ovens Auditorium (Timothy C. Davis)
Eyes of the Elders CD Release The show may be listed as Eyes of the Elders, but it's all Stump Dickens these days. After the departure of Josh Panda last year, the guys known as Uncle Fox and Bearcat joined forces with a live band. The guitar of Austin Hill is well known from his solo work and that with Humans, and he brings the same fire to Stump. Christina Swinger's violin is also heavily showcased on the album and brings a classical, eerie and sometimes jazzy element to the groove. The band's celebrating its new seven-song EP. Snug Harbor (Jeff Hahne)