Posted by Ted Whisnant on August 14, 19101 at 18:27:19:
On the wall of my study is a letter from Earl written in 1967. At that time Lester and Earl and the Foggy Mtn. Boys were touring college campuses, particularly in the southeastern U.S. I was a college student trying to get a break in the music industry. Earl tried, but, in truth, I had no real talent. My father was a fiddler, and he recruited Earl to play with the band on a radio show my Dad had in Shelby. I am a native of Boiling Springs, N.C., though I have not lived there in 35+ years. Once when I was directing a bluegrass revue in Western North Carolina, I called on my Dad to come to Asheville and hear a young man I felt was really good on the banjo. His name was Marc Pruett. My Dad listened and said, "Marc has a lot of talent. He's going to be really good someday. He's been smart enough to listen closely to Earl, and there's no way to go wrong if you do that." Earl was and is the best, but Marc, true to my Dad's words, turned out to be a very fine picker himself. Marc is the banjo picker on Ricky Skaggs' album entitled "Bluegrass Rules."