Posted by Bob Lackey on July 08, 19102 at 19:03:53:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Dueling Banjos???? posted by Jay on July 07, 19102 at 22:13:24:
I think I bought my copy of Earl's album in the early 70's. It was just after the Burt Reynolds movie "Deliverance" came out. Another bluegrass group did the offical soundtrack and scored a big hit with the song. Just a banjo and a guitar. But the record listed the writer of the song as "traditional" and no money was received by the writers.
Arthur Smith and Don Reno sued Warner Brothers over that and won a big settlement. I think they got several hunderd thousand dollars as the soundtrack album sold over a million copies.
Earl's album was called Dueling Banjos and it was all instrumental. It had Dueling Banjos, Fireball Mail, Rueben, Randy Lynn Rag and many others.
I need to go find my old copy. But I think Vassar was the fiddle player and Uncle Josh was on dobro and there were Randy, Gary and Steve.
BTW, I just read on the internet that the banjo Earl has been using since 1948 was purchased by Don Reno from Snuffy Jenkins in 1943 for 50 dollars and Don traded it to Earl in 1948 for the banjo Earl was playing at the time.
I wonder what the banjo is worth now??