Ricky Skagg's mission is to teach the iPod generation about Bill Monroe and bluegrass music.
"They're picking up on it," he said in a phone interview. Skaggs' recording, "Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947" on Skaggs Family Records, debuted at the top of Billboard's Bluegrass albums in July. It was the fourth debut at the top for the singer whose career started with bluegrass in childhood and has veered back to his roots after a long trek through country.
Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder, will perform Saturday, Nov. 15, at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Center for the Arts.
A 13-time Grammy winner, he collected more awards, including Musician of the Year recently, at the 14th Annual Inspirational Country Music Awards.
"There's a real link to Celtic music from the 17th century," he said. "They were clearing out Scotland and Ireland because they could make more money raising sheep than people. And there was the potato famine (in Ireland). The early immigrants brought their music to the hills and hollows of Appalachia. That's where
News You Can Use |
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What: Bluegrass concert Who: Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder When: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 15 Where: University of Wisconsin-Platteville Center for the Arts Cost: $30 general admission, $28 senior citizens, $22 younger than 18. |
The music of the eastern mountains, he said, is evident in the sounds of the Stanley Brothers, Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley and Jean Ritchie.
"Jean Ritchie was singing 200-year-old songs from Scotland and Ireland. She got popular on the Smithsonian circuit and (took the songs) to music schools in the U.S. and Europe -- back to where it came from. We tell those stories," he said.
In 1980, when he was working with country singer Emmylou Harris, they were invited to a Celtic music party while touring in Ireland.
"I thought I'd died and gone to eastern Kentucky," he said. "I couldn't believe how much a part it played in bluegrass music."
Skaggs, who grew up in Cordell, Ky., learned to play the mandolin at 5, performed with Monroe at age 6 and with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at 7.
"I knew they were big; they'd been on TV," he recalled. "I was so shy. When the (taped Flatt and Scruggs) show came on, we all sat in the living room, and I watched it until I heard my name. Then I headed for my bedroom and hid my eyes."
It wasn't until he was in his 40s that someone handed him an old Flat and Scruggs videotape.
"There I was with my Vacation Bible School haircut."
He said he wanted to make "Honoring the Fathers" to pay tribute to Monroe and others "who paid such a price" to establish bluegrass as a musical identity.
When rock 'n' roll took the wind out of old-time music, musicians like the Stanley Brothers would perform for just enough money to eat a meal and put gas in the tank, he said.
But bluegrass festivals in the '60s started to bring new popularity. The college market took to it and the Smithsonian Institution then Europeans fell in love with it, he said.
"When I came back (to bluegrass) in '96, that was big news, that a successful country artist would leave for a small, insignificant music."
The music itself brought him back, he said.
"It's like they say about the economy, 'It's the music, stupid.' It's the best thing I could have done. Country music has gone through a hard time in the last 10 years. Every time country music loses its way, the bluegrass music chart goes up. People will always look for pure music."
