stanley-three-finger · rosenberg1967-sound-to-style

On this recording Ralph Stanley played the banjo in a traditional two-finger style. Between the time "Little Maggie" was recorded and the next Stanley Brothers recording session, Ralph Stanley learned to play banjo in the smooth three-finger style used by Earl Scruggs. There is some confusion about the way in which Stanley learned the style. Some musicians assert that he learned directly from Scruggs during their joint tenure at WCYB. Ralph Stanley, however, insists that he learned directly from the playing of Snuffy Jenkins, the North Carolina banjoist who was responsible for much of Scruggs' style. ... This was almost certainly done to allow the banjoist to play a complex melodic backing-similar to Scruggs'-while Lambert was singing