peermusic Acquires the Song Catalog Bluegrass Music Legend Earl Scruggs and the Majority of the Song Catalog of GRAMMY® Winner Gary Scruggs

Independent music publishing company, peermusic, has acquired the entire music publishing catalog of bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs and the majority of the song catalog of Gary Scruggs, as announced today by Kathy Spanberger, President & Chief Operating Officer – peermusic Anglo American Region and Michael Knox, President, peermusic Nashville. During his lifetime, Earl Scruggs was a collaborator with and close friend to many at peermusic, including peermusic founder Ralph S. Peer. Peermusic have served as the publishers of the Earl Scruggs song catalog from the time the songs were written. Through this deal, peermusic acquires the US rights it was previously administering for Earl Scruggs as well as some of the songs that were previously controlled by the Scruggs estate. The deal also includes the acquisition of the majority of the song catalog of the late Gary Scruggs, GRAMMY® award-winning songwriter, musician and eldest son of Earl and Louise Scruggs. 
 
“It’s a rare opportunity to acquire these incredible catalogs of songs in this competitive music rights landscape, but what makes this most meaningful to us is the decades-long relationship that peermusic has enjoyed with Earl Scruggs and Gary Scruggs. This deal really exemplifies everything a relationship between a songwriter and a publisher should be. Earl and peermusic worked together successfully for decades to share his music with the world, and peermusic continues that tradition with the songs of Gary Scruggs. We thank Jesse, Jaime, and the Scruggs family for this opportunity—the entire team at peermusic is honored to continue championing and protecting Earl and Gary’s incredible legacy of music so that these songs can be enjoyed for generations to come,” said Kathy Spanberger.
 
“The Scruggs are multi-generational music royalty who have worked with the Peers, a multi-generational family of music publishers since Day 1. The history here is incredible. There are few artists that have defined an entire genre the way that Earl Scruggs and Gary Scruggs have with bluegrass or that so popularized a single instrument across genres as Earl did with the banjo—we’re delighted to continue our work with the Scruggs family and to represent their interest in some of country music’s most beloved songs,” said Michael Knox. 
 
“We are now the third generation of the Scruggs family to be working alongside the team at peermusic. Our grandfather trusted peermusic as his music publisher from the beginning of his career and the team at peermusic has been like a family to us throughout these many years. Keeping these song catalogs with peermusic is an easy decision for us because we know how much they have done to support The Scruggs family—and they know these song catalogs inside and out. We’re thrilled to have these songs looked after by Kathy, Knox and the peermusic team,” said Jesse and Jaime Scruggs, the grandsons of Earl Scruggs and the sons of Gary Scruggs, in a joint statement.
 
Earl Scruggs was recognized with numerous accolades for his immense contributions to bluegrass and country music throughout his lifetime. Scruggs is inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame as well as being a recipient of four GRAMMY Awards, a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award, and a National Medal of Arts.
 
An exceptionally gifted songwriter and 5-string banjo player, Earl Scruggs was a bluegrass icon who revolutionized the genre with a unique three-fingered picking style that has since become a hallmark of bluegrass banjo. He began his career in 1945, when he joined Bill Monroe’s band and met Lester Flatt. The two were mainstays of Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys for a little over two years before striking out on their own.
 
Performing as Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, the band eventually began playing major folk festivals as well as some of the nation’s biggest stages, including Carnegie Hall and the Newport Folk Festival. During this era they became arguably the most well-known bluegrass band in the nation and shared the stage with other music legends like Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and Maybelle Carter of the legendary Carter Family. Among their most famous records are “Earl’s Breakdown,” “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” (which is the iconic opening and closing theme for The Beverly Hillbillies) and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (a song Scruggs wrote and recorded in 1949, which was featured prominently in the 1967 film Bonnie And Clyde).
 
In 1969 Scruggs began pursuing a solo career by enlisting his sons Gary and Randy to perform with him as the Earl Scruggs Revue. The group found success recording for Columbia Records throughout the 1970s. Though Scruggs’ output of original bluegrass material was prolific, he also saw the value in interpreting popular music with a bluegrass approach, making him one of country music’s first true crossover artists. Among his most popular covers is Donovan’s “Colours,” a song that is also published by peermusic. Scruggs’ work from this era helped elevate bluegrass as a genre by exposing it to new audiences nationwide.
 
GRAMMY-winning performer Gary Scruggs, was the eldest son of Earl Scruggs and played alongside his legendary bluegrass father as well as in a duo with his brother Randy Scruggs. Born in 1949 and immersed in the music world from a young age, Scruggs picked up guitar and bass early on, and contributed to Flatt and Scruggs' albums while still a teenager. He and his younger brother Randy formed The Scruggs Brothers, releasing two projects together:1970's All the Way Home and 1972's The Scruggs Brothers. Together with their famous father, the two brothers then formed The Scruggs Revue, touring extensively under that billing and forming connections with other country and rock acts of the day, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
 
That friendship eventually gave way to the creation of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band-led Will the Circle Be Unbroken album, a 1972 collaborations project that featured contributions from titans of the bluegrass and country genres such as Roy Acuff, "Mother" Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Merle Travis and many others. Gary Scruggs played on several of the tracks on that project; the album has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress.
 
Over the course of his career, Gary Scruggs would go on to serve as a backing musician and producer for Waylon Jennings, and also earned a Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy award for his performance as part of the Earl Scruggs and Friends' rendition of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in 2001. He retired from touring in the mid-'80s, but continued his work as a songwriter, and wrote or co-wrote hundreds of songs over the course of his career. Gary worked with a wide range of musicians, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Doc Watson, The Byrds, Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash, Charlie Daniels, Steve Martin, Patty Loveless, and many others.
 
On May 22nd of this year, the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum officially accepted the donation of Earl Scruggs' iconic Granada banjo into their permanent collection. Jesse and Jaime Scruggs along with the peermusic team were on hand. The event was hosted by Vince Gill, music was provided by The Earls of Leicester, Sierra Ferrrell, and Alison Brown, who performed Earl’s Breakdown on Earl’s Granada. For that tune the Museum brought out a number of instruments that had been used by Flatt & Scruggs, including Lester Flatt’s D-28, Josh Graves’ Dobro, Paul Warren’s fiddle, and Curly Seckler’s mandolin. 

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ABOUT PEERMUSIC:

 Founded by Ralph S. Peer in 1927, peermusic is the world’s largest global independent publishing company and operates 38 offices in 31 countries.  With well over a quarter of a million titles in the company’s catalogue, and songs that vary from country, blues, jazz and pop to Latin, concert and rock‘n’roll, peermusic is the largest privately owned company of its kind in the world. For further information about peermusic, go to www.peermusic.com. For breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos, follow @peermusic on Twitter and Instagram.