Biography of Ricky Skaggs

For someone still in his thirties, Kentuckian Ricky Skaggs has already produced a career's worth of music. At age seven he appeared on TV with Flatt and Scruggs; at 15 he was a member of legendary Ralph Stanley's bluegrass band (with fellow teenager, the late Keith Whitley). None of the contemporary stars, male or female, has better credentials than Ricky. The term "multi-talented" lacks the power to characterize this extraordinary singer and instrumentalist. Not only can he sing and pick with the best in progressive country, his broad and deep experience in traditional music separates him from the crowd. In the estimation of many, he is without peer as a combination vocalist and intrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo). After playing with Ralph Stanley for three years, Ricky moved on to progressive bluegrass bands, The Country Gentlemen and J. D. Crowe and the New South. With his own band, Boone Creek, he mixed the old and the new, adding Django Rheinhardt. Ricky took Rodney Crowell's place in Emmylou Harris's Hot Band in 1977, and the band's excellent Roses in the Snow album showcased Ricky's versatility. Two #1s came out of his Waiting for the Sun to Shine self-produced album (1981), and the awards started arriving.Skaggs is largely responsible for a back-to-basics movement in country music. He showed many that a bluegrass tenor with impeccable taste and enormous talent can sell traditional country, at a time when pop music has invaded the land of rural rhythm. His re-make of Bill Monroe's "Uncle Pen," for example, was the first bluegrass song since Flatt And Scruggs's the "Ballad of Jed Clampett" to reach #1 in the charts. ~ David Vinopal