Ricky Skaggs talks about playing with Bill Monroe for the first time.
Ricky Skaggs’ recently Grammy® nominated album, Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute To 1946 and 1947 on Skaggs Family Records marks a new landmark in a career with no shortage of landmarks.
A tribute to Bill Monroe and the “Original Bluegrass Band” who birthed the genre in ’46 and ’47, the album brings Skaggs’ musical journey full circle.
Long before a string of 12 No. 1 country singles in the 1980s and a collection of 13 Grammy Awards, Ricky Skaggs first performed in front of an audience at Monroe’s side at the age of 6, and one year later he made his television debut with “Original Bluegrass Band” members Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt.
‘Honoring the Fathers‘ pays tribute to the men who helped to launch his 37 year career in music, as well as educate younger generations about where the music came from.
The album’s genesis came when Skaggs discovered a stash of live recordings that document the “Original Bluegrass Band” at its peak.
“Mr. Monroe and the Original Bluegrass Band truly made country music history,” said Skaggs. “Those five men laid the foundation stones that everyone else has built upon. They created a whole new vocabulary of musical licks, solos, backup fills, vocal arrangements and rhythms. They created the genre known as Bluegrass music. We wanted to tell their stories through music, honoring their arrangements and their tempos, bringing 1946 to the present for the next generation of listeners.”