EARL SCRUGGS STEVE MARTIN DUELING BANJOS EARLSCRUGGS DEAD AT

Scruggs died Wednesday morning at age 88 of natural causes. The legacy he helped build with bandleader Bill Monroe, guitarist Lester Flatt and the rest of the Blue Grass Boys was evident all around Nashville, where he died in an area hospital. His stringbending, mindblowing way of picking helped transform a regional sound into a national passion. It s not just bluegrass, it s American music, bluegrass fan turned country star Dierks Bentley said. There s 17 or 18yearold kids turning on today s country music and hearing that banjo and they have no idea where that came from. That sound has probably always been there for them and they don t realize someone invented that threefinger roll style of playing. You hear it everywhere