Multi-instrumentalist and singer Ricky Skaggs is a legend of bluegrass and country music. His 15 Grammy wins and place as a member of the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Bluegrass Hall of Fame would be enough to explain his significance, but he’s also a direct link to mythic folk heroes of American music. He connects past styles with the present, helping keep those traditions alive for future generations.
“My first show was with Bill Monroe,” Skaggs told CityBeat. “I was six years old and started playing when I was five. So, just getting to do that at an early age, I think really made an impression on me. Those people were very kind, very nice to me to share the stage and let me get up and play with them and the thing with Flatt and Scruggs, (a guest appearance on a TV variety show) you can see that on YouTube, I was seven then.
“So, doing that at an early age was definitely something that’s kept me going with it. And doing it so much that you don’t have any other vocation to fall on. I’m gonna have to ride this horse ‘til it falls over, you know?”
Things seem to be holding up just fine more than fifty years into a career that would be hard to match — in any genre.
Skaggs joined the legendary Ralph Stanley as a member of the Clinch Mountain Boys while still a teenager, after opening for the legend with the Stanley Brothers tribute he and Keith Whitley, another future star, had at the time.
The Stanley Brothers, along with a seemingly endless list of legends and building blocks for modern popular music, made records for the legendary Cincinnati label King Records. Skaggs recalls a story Stanley told him of The Stanley Brothers’ King days. “Yeah, Ralph told me one time back when I was working his band, they did a session up there at King and they finished the song and come in to listen to a playback and James Brown was standing there in the control room and had been listening to the Stanleys and loved it. I said, ‘man, that’s awesome.’”
Skaggs later went on to play progressive bluegrass in bands in the ‘70s, including Boone Creek, a band he formed with Vince Gill and Jerry Douglas before working with Americana star and songstress Emmylou Harris’ The Hot Band.
By 1980, Skaggs had launched a solo career and became a major label country star with hits like “Highway 40 Blues,” “Country Boy” and “Uncle Pen,” written by Monroe. He also earned 11 No. 1 singles, four No. 1 albums, the start of his 15-Grammy run, along with CMA (Country Music Association) and ACM (Academy of Country Music) awards by 1980. He helped to redefine and give new life to the country genre. Nashville legend Chet Atkins even said Skaggs saved country music.
He also produced a comeback record of sorts for Dolly Parton, 1989’s White Limozeen, before moving toward his roots in bluegrass music in the ‘90s. With his band, Kentucky Thunder, Skaggs has helped to maintain the virtuosity and charm of bluegrass for new generations while earning seven No. 1 albums on the bluegrass charts, several more Grammys and the National Medal of Arts in 2020.
Throughout this month, Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will be performing in theaters and halls around the southeastern United States. And this time around, with an additional purpose: “This time of year, people are worried about money sometimes and they’re worried about this, that and the other and all this going on in the Middle East and everything, but you know, if we can offer 90 minutes of joy and peace for a crowd of people that wants to come hear us and just have a lot of joy and fun. So, that’s why we’re doing this as much as anything. As a Christian it’s a great time to talk about Jesus, you know, the reason for Christmas. We do songs that certainly talk about that as well.
“We’re doing the old Bill Monroe classic, ‘Christmas Time's A-Coming;’ ‘Let It Snow;,’ James Taylor and I did a song back in the mid-‘80s and it’s a duet we did called ‘New Star Shining.’ (They’ll also be playing) a song called ‘Go Thee Down.’ It’s about the angels appearing to the lowest class people in Israel, the shepherds. Those guys worked the hardest and made the least money. It’s a beautiful song.”
On the origin of the Christmas shows, Skaggs says the shows originally started out in the past as family Christmas shows that his musical family decided to take on the road after finding themselves singing around the house at Christmastime. The Christmas shows were born partly out of generations of musical traditions between the families.
Skaggs’ wife is Sharon White of longtime country family band The Whites. “Sharon’s family, The Whites, came from Texas. They had singers in their family for generations and I certainly have had with the Skaggs’ and my mother was a Thompson and my grandmother was a Ferguson. We just had music, old time fiddling, banjo playing and guitar playing, mandolin, we’ve had those traditions for generations in my family.”
Skaggs talks about the continuing of those family traditions with his own kids. “It’s really something to pass traditions down. They love tradition, especially a lot of old oral history that we have. It means a lot, especially seeing as my daughter, Molly Skaggs, rewrote the old gospel song called “There Ain’t No Grave,” and man, I think she had more views on YouTube on that song than I think I’ve had in the 25 years of YouTube for me. She’s out there singing and working for a ministry over in North Carolina with a band called Cageless Birds and they do some really, really great music and my son Luke, he produces and does a lot of sessions and overdubs and works for a lot of other people. They’re both in it pretty strong and really making a living doing it.”
With the kids now grown and his wife, Sharon, currently taking care of her dad, Buck White, full-time, the family won’t be able to take part in the tour. Skaggs returns this year with Kentucky Thunder and a special guest musician.
“It will be very much a bluegrass presentation, for sure. A full band and a friend of mine, Jeff Taylor is gonna be our guest on the show this year,” Skaggs said. “He’s a great piano player and he plays the accordion. Accordion is great at Christmastime and he also plays penny whistle and we do some kind of Celtic things so he’ll be playing that, as well. We do the hits all year long, so we can kind of set those aside and just kind of focus on Christmas songs for these shows.”
Our conversation touches on Cincinnati a couple of times, as well. Skaggs seems to light up at the mention of the WCKY Jamboree that I had read he listened to as a kid. He immediately mentions names like Jimmie Skinner, the musician and songwriter who had a mail order record business out of Cincinnati that advertised on WCKY and DJ Wayne Raney.
We also talked a little about the history of country music in Cincinnati at King Records in Evanston and Herzog Studios in Over-the-Rhine. “I know that history, for sure. Reno Smiley, Mac Wiseman. King Records was a big deal and they really gave a voice to lots of people from the mountains,” Skaggs said.
Apart from the city’s music history, Skaggs is also fond of another Cincinnati export — Graeter’s ice cream. “I can't wait to get there and have a nice Christmas quart of Graeter’s.”
Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder play Memorial Hall at 8 p.m. Dec. 7. More info: memorialhallotr.com.
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