By Graham Lees

RICKY SKAGGS STARTED his career with the Stanley brothers when he and lifetime friend Keith Whitley were invited to join the band in 1970. At the age of five Ricky had played Ruby on stage at one of Bill Monroe's concerts and at seven played mandolin on Flatt & Scruggs television show.

Skaggs played with the modern bluegrass band J.D.Crowe & The New South in the mid 70s, formed his own band Boon Creek and was band leader for Emmylou Harris from 1977-80. He has been voted both the Horizon and Male Vocalist Awards in 1982 and Entertainer Of The Year in 1985 by the CMA.

Ricky Skaggs went to London at Easter 2000, as part of the BBC Radio 2 Festival at London Arena and in March I had the opportunity to talk to him:

GL: Yeah, we need the coffee first thing in the morning. Thanks for taking the time to call me, it's a pleasure to get the opportunity to talk to you and I'm looking forward to seeing you at the show in London?
RS: Yeah, what's everybody thinking about that concert over there?

GL: It's generating a lot of interest, we haven't had a big concert like this for some years.
RS: It ought to be a good show, you should be able to get a little bit of everything.

GL: Good! You have two great bluegrass albums due for release in the UK and have some great musicians in the form of Kentucky Thunder. How long have they been with you?
RS: Well that's been the name of my band since the album Kentucky Thunder came out back in 88/89 on CBS/Epic label... it was a country album. At that time we had won so many awards and I didn't have a name for the band, it was just called the Ricky Skaggs band. We had won a bunch of awards for touring band of the year, because I always had a great band with me. When I make good records I always try to have a good band so that we can play the music like the records were, so the people got their monies worth. About three, three and half years ago Mr Monroe passed away and my father passed away. There was just a feeling that country music had passed away, you know, the kind of country music that you and I both love and a lot of people here in the States really lost traditional country music. It's almost as if there has been a death, because traditional country music as we grew up knowing it and as we love, people like George Jones and Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, can't even get a record deal today.  Photo: Ted Silverman (C) Copyright 2000

GL: We've heard this.
RS: It's just a sad state of affairs. The kind of country music that I was playing, that really enjoyed doing, I did two albums for Atlantic, one called Solid Ground and one called Life Is A Journey. Neither one of those albums did very well over here, because they were very traditional. Ricky Skaggs-type country music, which was laced with some bluegrass overtones and the acoustics. So we just decided that the best thing for us to do was ask Rick Whiteburn who was at Atlantic at the time, if I could get off the label and be released. So they released me and I was able to do a bluegrass album. I really wanted to come back and play bluegrass again. That's what's in my heart!

GL: That is where you started with Ralph Stanley?
RS: Yeah, it is, that was my roots and the foundation of everything I've ever done. My dad had wanted me to do a bluegrass album and a gospel album. I had never had the chance to do those two things while he was alive. That kinda weighed heavy on me as well. So, as soon as I got the opportunity, the first thing I wanted to do was a bluegrass album, then later on we have done a gospel album. I don't think you all have that over there yet.

GL: I haven't seen it. [See review on page 11 - Ed]
RS: Soldier Of The Cross. It's a great record, it's bluegrass and has a lot of great harmonies. Some new songs on it as well as some old ones. Bluegrass Rules was our first effort to come out and of course what we have done with Ancient Tones the follow up, both are Grammy Award winning records.

GL: I believe so, I have just reviewed them both!
RS: So it just seems to be the right place for me to be. We started Skaggs Family Records and it's really the right thing and just feels so right to do. We are signing some different groups. We have Del McCoury on our label and The Whites have just recently done a record for us and will be out sometime in the summer... Jerry Douglas produced that. We have done a record with Vassar Clements and some fun things that we just want to do, but some things that I think make musical sense as well. You know we are not looking to sell 500,000 albums per person, we're hoping just to do records that we can put out into the stores as well as the Internet and be able to do something to promote this kind of music. It seems as though from the fan base, that there is a real return back to roots. Because with the new sounds of country music, I think Nashville would probably even try to drop the name 'Country Music' if they could.

GL: I believe so. In fact Trevor Dann, Head of BBC Music Entertainment, wrote in CMA's monthly Close Up magazine ...You've taken the '& Western' out of 'Country & Western' - now it's time for Country to go too.
RS: Right! I think they would if they could, they know that the name country music is so big and so popular, that it would shoot them in the foot if they did (laughs).Like I said it's a sad state of affairs for the ones who really love it. You know there's a huge song going round that Larry Cordel wrote, called Murder On Music Row.

GL: I have it on George Strait's new album.
RS: Yeah, George and Alan Jackson just recorded that and there again I think some record stations will try to kill that record before it has time to get to the ears of the public.

GL: Is it getting aired.
RS: It's getting aired, yes. There are a lot of radio stations playing it over here and people are ringing in requesting it. I'm sure it will probably be on the CMA this year. It will probably be something that George & Alan will want to do together on the CMA show. It's a big record and I think it makes a tremendous statement out there, because there has been a murder and someone did it and someone got away clean, there were no traces and left no fingerprints, but it hit the heart and soul of country music.

Graham Lees, Dewesbury, W.Yorks. Write to | Website  (To be continued in November....)

28 June 2000