@AdamAsh,
Thanks for posting your poll response! I hope others will continue to take the poll and comment too. I am still thankful to @Dragonslayer for posing the question to contemplate.
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I see your points… but for me… as I tried to explain in my response… is that Earl was critical… not that there were or were not other 3-finger pickers. There certainly was from what was shared.
To me, the question was whether we, as a community would all be enjoying our community as banjo fans if Earl had not been - well, the original Earl.
In my view, it was about so much more… but the future emergence of Bluegrass as centered around his playing in those years was sooo influential.
We will never know for sure if the emergence would have progressed exactly the same without Earl. What we can all agree, Earl was a strong catalyst to influence its’ popularity, his style and the far reaching affect of his playing… even to crossing over into TV pop culture with his Beverly Hillbillies theme song.
That said, now looking at it… The question was would any of us be here. Individually, I oppose my own response is that undoubtedly, some of us would surely be here - without Earl.
I interpreted “any of us” as… All of us - collectively.
Or… stated differently, would Bluegrass Banjo be as popular today if not for Earl. Probably, I misunderstood…?
I still feel strongly that many of us would not have been here… as Banjo fans if it wasn’t for the sheer brilliancy of Uncle Earl. Where it really shines through to me was the way he was so humble but the deep admiration and respect from artists of HIS time, let alone all of us who followed afterwards.
Long may Earl’s music and style live!