Wednesday, February 12

Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends

with live music at evening shows
by Megan Lynch & Larry Chung

The Red Vic Movie House, San Francisco

2 pm, 7:15 pm and 9:15 pm - $6.50
General admission. All ages.

Just two years after ending his partnership with Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs (plus sons Randy and Gary) traveled across the country, recording a new album with an all-star mix of musical collaborators: Bob Dylan, Doc Watson, Joan Baez, and more. Documentarian David Hoffman tagged along, capturing the performances in informal, often intimate settings. We catch a tantalizing glimpse of Clarence White as Scruggs joins The Byrds (for a rendition of Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere"). The banjo innovator shares memories with the Morris Brothers, his first band, in front of the auto body shop they retired to run. Backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Scruggs' former boss Bill Monroe leads a jam that evolves into a breakneck medley, as if daring the musicians to keep up with the changes. He even stops by an electronic music studio for a duet with a Moog synthesizer.

At that moment in American cultural history, playing banjo with Joan Baez and Bob Dylan was as much of a political risk as a musical one, but in part Scruggs' interest in younger, newer music matched his openness to new ideas. At the 1969 Vietnam War Moratorium in Washington, D.C., he openly voices disgust at U.S. policy, and plays "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" to entertain a sea of protesters.

This film has never been released on video, and has rarely been seen since its original public television broadcast in 1972. As a musical time capsule, Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends is essential viewing.

Filmmaker David Hoffman will appear in person. Live pre-show music will be provided by the fiddle-banjo duet of Megan Lynch & Larry Chung (Cabin Fever) at evening shows.