What would an International Bluegrass Music Association awards show be without Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder in contention for Instrumental Group of the Year? After all, Skaggs and company have claimed this honor eight times in the last decade, making them as close as it gets to defending champs.

Skaggs and his strong group of pickers are back this year, in the final list of five up for the honor. And you have to start with the boss, Mr. Skaggs, himself, still stellar with his mandolin work. (Not to mention, with a new Ricky Skaggs’ Limited Edition Distressed Mandolin model now for sale through Gibson. It’s closely modeled after his 1923 Lloyd Loar F-5.)

Others in this group of super-pickers are Andy Leftwich on fiddle; Cody Kilby, lead guitar; Mark Fain on bass; Ben Helson and Paul Brewster on rhythm guitar; and Jim Mills, Skagg’s highly decorated banjo player. Mills, himself, has won IBMA’s Banjo Player of the Year six times and he’s seen one of his solo CDs take IBMA’s Instrumental Album of the Year award. Henson is the newest member of the group, filling the slot left vacant when Darrin Vincent teamed up with Jamie Dailey in their new band.

“This group of guys meets my approval every night,” Skaggs says on his Web site. “Each and every one of the pickers in Kentucky Thunder totally amazes me in every show … and that, to me, outweighs any award we could ever win.”

Website: http://rickyskaggs.com/

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Band Discography:

Awards & Honors

Other Media:
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder with Bruce Hornsby at the 2008 Merlefest playing “Uncle Pen” & “Valley Road”

• Blue Highway
• Dan Tyminski Band
• Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper
• Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
• The Infamous Stringdusters

Who’s going to win the 2008 IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year? Vote for your Favorite below!

http://publicity.rounder.com/?id=artistTour.php&musical_group_id=7135

Share This

The Gibson Originals Ricky Skaggs Distressed F-5 mandolin

So, you’d like to own Ricky Skaggs’ 1923 Lloyd Loar F-5 mandolin?

Sorry, it’s not for sale — but you can come close.

Gibson Originals is releasing the Ricky Skaggs Limited Edition Distressed Master Model mandolin. The instrument is the result of a year-plus of Gibson luthiers working with Skaggs on the project.

According to Gibson, “this signature model mandolin is closely based on Ricky’s 1923 Lloyd Loar F-5—an instrument revered for its tone and playability.”

The Ricky Scaggs Distressed F-5 mandolin has a spruce top, flame maple back and sides, and ebony fingerboard with mother-of-pearl dot inlays. Classic appointments include a flowerpot headstock inlay, silver-plated, hand-engraved hardware, and a vintage reproduction bridge. The hand-rubbed, ultra-thin Cremona Sunburst finish is carefully aged by the skilled luthiers at the Gibson OAI division in Nashville.

Each mandolin in this limited 30-instrument run comes with a certificate of authenticity, and is personally inspected by Skaggs to insure it meets his standards for tone, playability, and appearance.

The hardshell case for this mandolin is protected by a custom-embroidered Small Dog cover, and the instrument comes with a Tone-Gard back isolator.

The Gibson Web site lists the mandolin, but not its price. If you’re interested, check this one out with a Gibson dealer who can get that magic suggested retail price for you.

Share This

Ricky Skaggs’ latest release, “The High Notes,” will be marketed exclusively through Cracker Barrel stores.

Fans of breakfast fare at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store outlets can now get some bluegrass with their grits and gravy.

Rickey Skaggs’ new CD, “The High Notes,” is being market exclusively at Cracker Barrel stores across the country. The recording includes many of Skaggs’ hits on the country charts, all done with a bluegrass sound.

“Many of Ricky’s fans know his most popular songs as country music hits, but when they hear them done bluegrass style, they will be amazed,” said Peter Keiser, vice president of marketing at Cracker Barrel. “We are very pleased to offer this exclusive CD in our stores, where it joins exclusive releases from other popular country artists including Josh Turner, Sara Evans, Alison Krauss and Union Station, and most recently Aaron Tippin.”

Skaggs plays mandolin, guitar, banjo, and the fiddle on this CD, which includes 12 hits such as “Crying My Heart Out Over You,” “Honey (Open That Door),” “Cajun Moon,” “Highway 40 Blues,” and eight other popular songs.

“I have wanted to record bluegrass versions of my No. 1 country hits for a long time,” Skaggs said in a news release that’s posted on the Skaggs Family Records Web site, http://skaggsfamilyrecords.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm.

“It’s so great to sing these hit songs again,” he said. “Many of them I haven’t sung since the 1990s, and I think the bluegrass tracks came out better than the originals. This project was a lot of fun to do, and I’m so pleased Cracker Barrel asked me to work with them.”

Skaggs is one of country music’s most popular performers and influential musicians, with 12 No. 1 hits and dozens of awards, including thirteen Grammy^® Awards and eight Country Music Association awards, including Entertainer of the Year. He is a member of the Grand Old Opry^® and regularly entertains audiences there with his versatile musicianship.

Ricky Skaggs’ last four albums have all debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass chart.

The complete track list of “The High Notes” follows:

1. Crying My Heart Out Over You
2. Heartbroke
3. Highway 40 Blues
4. I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could
5. You’ve Got A Lover
6. Cajun Moon
7. Honey (Open That Door)
8. Cat’s In The Cradle
9. Uncle Pen
10. Country Boy
11. Lovin’ Only Me
12. Somebody’s Prayin’

Although the CD is available at Cracker Barrel stores, it can also be ordered online by going to http://shop.crackerbarrel.com

Share This

Nashville, Tenn. — Sugar Hill Records is set to release two new titles as part of their Americana Master Series. Ricky Skaggs: Best of the Sugar Hill Years and Doc Watson: Best of the Sugar Hill Years will both hit the streets on July 8th, 2008. Researched and compiled from each artist’s body of work on the label, these tracks were culled from radio chart toppers, fan mail, downloads, and songs and tunes that are recurrent favorites at live performances.

Doc Watson

Doc Watson “Americana Master Series - Best of the Sugar Hill Years” (Sugar Hill Records)

Doc Watson has been an iconic influence on every acoustic guitar player that has come in his wake. A recipient of the National Heritage Award and the National Medal of Arts, Watson’s contribution to the American folk idiom is immeasurable. For the Americana Master Series, Watson’s Sugar Hill releases - which span over 40 years from 1960 through 2006 - were meticulously combed for the best representation of both the virtuosity that embodies his work, as well as its breadth.

From bluegrass selections that exemplify the flat-picking that has become Watson’s calling card to gospel and traditional tunes featuring his soulful vocals, the collection draws upon solo work as well as duets with son Merle and collaborations with Bryan Sutton and Marty Stuart. Also included are tunes featuring the guitarist on banjo and slide guitar, demonstrating the icon’s virtuosity and deep connection to Appalachian roots music.

Doc Watson: Best of the Sugar Hill Years Track listing:

1. Slidin Delta 2:00
2. My Dear Old Southern Home 2:22
3. Country Blues 3:24
4. You Must Come In At The Door 2:14
5. Greenville Trestle High 3:26
6. Bright Sunny South 2:34
7. Let The Church Roll On 2:55
8. My Little Woman, Youre So Sweet 2:19
9. Watson Blues 3:31
10. Wreck Of The Number Nine 2:51
11. Solid Gone 3:01
12. Whiskey Before Breakfast 2:53
13. What Does The Deep Sea Say 3:30
14. Your Lone Journey 2:45

Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs “Americana Master Series - Best of the Sugar Hill Years” (Sugar Hill Records)

By the time Ricky Skaggs launched his solo career on Sugar Hill in 1979, he’d already amassed a resume that most retirees would envy. He’d been a member of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys and the legendary Country Gentlemen. He’d made vital recordings with his friend and collaborator Keith Whitley. He’d been in Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, and he’d been part of the pioneering neo-bluegrass band Boone Creek, whose album One Way Track had in fact been Sugar Hill’s first release as a label.

For all he did to bring roots to country, this collection is basted in bluegrass, a hand-picked anthology of the hand-picked music of Skaggs in his early years. Classics like “I’ll Stay Around” and “Little Cabin Home On The Hill” from Sweet Temptation show an artist who had internalized the sound and tone of the founding fathers, while Tony Rice’s guitar solos introduce overtones of innovation. With the string of Grammy-winning discs since, he’s returned to the form and function of his Sugar Hill years. He’s always been ahead of the curve with yesterday’s sounds, and you can hear why in these cuts.

Ricky Skaggs: Best of the Sugar Hill Years Track Listing:

1. Daniel Prayed 2:14
2. Ill Stay Around 2:35
3. Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow 2:41
4. Little Cabin Home On The Hill 3:21
5. Drifting Too Far From The Shore 2:15
6. Little Community Church 2:37
7. Im Not Broke, But Im Badly Bent 2:14
8. Head Over Heels In Love With You 2:13
9. The Old Crossroads 2:42
10. No Mother Or Dad 2:40
11. If I Needed You 3:15
12. Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies 2:34
13. I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome 2:15

Share This

Ricky Skaggs “Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass - Tribute to 1946 and 1947 (Skaggs Family Records)”

Nashville, Tenn. — Ricky Skaggs has earned his fourth consecutive debut at the top of Billboard’s Bluegrass albums chart with his new record “Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947” on Skaggs Family Records.

Skaggs’ streak of debut success began in 2006 with the Grammy Award-winning “Instrumentals,” and continued in 2007 with his collaboration with Bruce Hornsby and the album “Salt of the Earth” with the Whites, which also won a Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album.

His latest CD features 12 of the songs with which Bill Monroe and the “original bluegrass band” created the genre.

“Honoring the Fathers’“has been met with thumbs-up reviews. USA Today said Skaggs and his ace pickers Kentucky Thunder “set the modern standard” for bluegrass, while Billboard praised the disc as “nothing short of brilliant.” The New York Times said of the disc: “There is an unmistakable integrity to his effort here … it’s subject, like its execution, comes across as admirably vivid.”

Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will headline the New York City portion of the 8-city Green Apple Festival, with a show at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park on Sunday (April 20). The third annual Green Apple Festival is “America’s Largest Earth Day Celebration,” culminating in a series of eight free festival shows occurring simultaneously at landmark locations across the U.S.

Share This