If you follow national music news, you don’t need me to tell you that world-renowned bluegrass banjo artist Earl Scruggs passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. If you’re a bluegrass or country music fan, you don’t need me to describe for you his style of banjo picking and the resulting sound. But I thought I would pull together some of the articles I read while looking for more about the life of this performer I used to watch occasionally on my parents’ country music television picks.

So here they are: The Tennessean, with its story (my personal favorite) of the man who brought people of all music styles together by simply playing music right along with them; The New York Times; the Los Angeles Times; celebrity tributes on CBS; and NPR’s The Record, including the accompanying radio clip.

Rest in peace, Earl. Rest in peace.

The Pennsylvania State University has announced a call for papers for Woody@100: Woody Guthrie’s Legacy to Working Men and Women, conference and concert to be held at Penn State, September 7-9, 2012. The event is part of a year-long centennial celebration of Guthrie’s life and work created by the Grammy Museum and the Guthrie Foundation and Archives.

As described in the Penn State press release, “papers may address any aspect of Guthrie’s legacy and influence with regard to folk music, art, literature, rhetoric, philosophy, media studies, politics, and culture; labor history; gender, free speech, and class issues; the history of social movements; the global fight against fascism; and/or the work of the many writers, artists, and musicians whom Guthrie inspired and influenced.”

Those interested in contributing should send 200-word abstracts to woodyguthrie.psu.conference@gmail.com by April 1, 2012. (The deadline has apparently been extended from the date originally posted on the PSU site.)