Every serious bluegrass-music aficionado is well acquainted with both the three-fingered banjo-picking style that gives the genre its pizzazz and the banjo-playing genius who popularized it, Earl Scruggs. Even those who grew up watching the TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies are familiar with one of Scruggs’ most famous compositions, 'The Ballad of Jedd Clampett,' the show’s theme song. In this laudatory, blessedly scandal-free biography, television writer Castelnero and banjo instructor Russell follow the complete arc of Scruggs’ rags-to-riches story, from his impoverished childhood in Flint Hill, North Carolina, to his early livelihood as a traveling musician and later fame as an American music icon. According to the authors, Scruggs’ greatest career highlight came on December 8, 1945 at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, where the banjo player was performing with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. The consummate skill and revolutionary picking style Scruggs displayed that night have been influencing banjo players ever since. Must reading for bluegrass fans and an essential acquisition for every library’s performing arts collection.