Don Rigsby is a mandolin player, fiddler, guitarist, and high tenor singer from eastern Kentucky. He played with the Bluegrass Cardinals, J.D. Crowe and the New South, and the Lonesome River Band, and he was a member of the traditional supergroup Longview. He has led his own bands, including Midnight Call and Flashback, and he directed the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University from 2001 to 2010.
Why Rigsby matters
Rigsby is one of the great high lonesome singers of his generation, and his mandolin playing has the same mountain edge. He learned to sing from a tape of Ralph Stanley at age five, and he has spent his career keeping that Stanley and Crowe sound alive. His duet albums with Dudley Connell and his work in Longview set a standard for traditional harmony singing. As a teacher and producer, he has helped others record and learn that tradition.
Life and career
Rigsby grew up in eastern Kentucky. At five he learned to sing from a 1959 tape of Ralph Stanley. He became friends with two of Stanley’s young Clinch Mountain Boys, his cousin Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley. He learned guitar at 12, then fiddle, dulcimer, and mandolin. At Morehead State University he played mandolin in the band TruGrass, and in 1987 he joined Charlie Sizemore’s band for two years.
After graduating in 1990 he moved to Nashville and joined Vern Gosdin’s road band. He played with the Bluegrass Cardinals from 1991 to 1993 and with J.D. Crowe and the New South from 1993 to 1995. He then replaced Dan Tyminski in the Lonesome River Band and stayed six years, recording One Step Forward (1996), Finding the Way (1998), and Talkin’ to Myself (2000). He filled in with the Seldom Scene after John Duffey died. With Dudley Connell and James King he sang in Longview, which made its first album in 1997.
His solo gospel album A Vision came out on Sugar Hill, and the title song of Empty Old Mailbox won SPBGMA Song of the Year in 2001. He led Rock County from 2001 to 2004 and Midnight Call from 2006. In 2016 he formed Flashback with Richard Bennett, Phil Leadbetter, and Curt Chapman, all former members of the mid-1990s New South. He produced Larry Sparks’s album 40, which won IBMA Album and Recorded Event of the Year in 2005, and sang on Alan Jackson’s The Bluegrass Album in 2013.
Playing style
Rigsby plays traditional mandolin with a driving right hand and a lonesome, bluesy feel. His breaks stay near the melody and lean on slides and double stops in the Monroe manner. He plays behind his own singing with a strong chop and short fills.
His tenor is the star of most of his records. He sings with Stanley Brothers phrasing, and in Longview he and Connell sang Stanley-style high baritone harmonies behind James King.
Influences and legacy
Rigsby learned singing from Ralph Stanley’s records and grew up beside Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley. He has played beside J.D. Crowe, Ronnie Bowman, Sammy Shelor, Kenny Smith, Dudley Connell, James King, and Larry Sparks.
He stepped into the Seldom Scene for a time after John Duffey died. His 2013 album Doctor’s Orders: A Tribute to Ralph Stanley features Stanley himself.
Signature tunes and songs
Empty Old Mailbox Little Maggie Kentucky Waltz.
Essential recordings
Longview, with Longview (Rounder, 1997) Meet Me by the Moonlight, with Dudley Connell (Sugar Hill, 1999) Empty Old Mailbox (Sugar Hill, 2000) The Midnight Call (Sugar Hill, 2003) Doctor’s Orders: A Tribute to Ralph Stanley (Rebel, 2013)
Awards and honors
Bluegrass Now Fans’ Choice, Vocal Tenor of the Year (1999) SPBGMA Song of the Year, Empty Old Mailbox (2001) Governor’s Kentucky Star Award (2001) IBMA Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year, as producer of Larry Sparks’s 40 (2005)
Watch and listen
Rigsby plays Bill Monroe’s Kentucky Waltz at Augusta Bluegrass Week. Listen to the tone and the slow, careful phrasing.
What to learn from Rigsby
Learn Little Maggie and sing it the way Ralph Stanley did, then play a mandolin break that copies your own vocal phrasing. Rigsby’s playing grows out of his singing. When your break follows the shape of the words, it sounds like part of the song instead of a separate solo.
Sources
Don Rigsby, Wikipedia Announcing the debut of Flashback, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the mandolin players hub and the mandolin guide. Rigsby grew up beside his cousin Ricky Skaggs. He stepped in for John Duffey in the Seldom Scene. Larry Stephenson also played in the Bluegrass Cardinals.