Ricky Skaggs (born 1954) is a mandolin player, singer, and bandleader from eastern Kentucky. He sang and played mandolin on stage with Bill Monroe at age six. He apprenticed with Ralph Stanley, the Country Gentlemen, and J.D. Crowe, became one of the biggest country stars of the 1980s, and returned to bluegrass in 1997 with Kentucky Thunder. He has won 15 Grammy Awards and entered both the Bluegrass and Country Music halls of fame in 2018. His fiddle years, from Ralph Stanley to the New South, have their own page.
Why Skaggs matters
Skaggs took bluegrass to country radio and then brought country’s audience back to bluegrass. Four of his number one country singles came from bluegrass sources, including Monroe’s Uncle Pen. When he formed Kentucky Thunder, the band set a standard for hard-driving, precise traditional bluegrass and won IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year eight times. On mandolin he is a direct link to Monroe, and he now plays the 1923 Gibson F-5 Lloyd Loar that Pee Wee Lambert played on the early Stanley Brothers records.
Life and career
Skaggs was born on July 18, 1954, in Louisa, Kentucky. His father gave him a mandolin in the winter of 1959 and showed him three chords. Within a year Ricky was on stage with Bill Monroe, and at seven he played with Flatt and Scruggs on their Martha White TV show. He also sat in with his idols, the Stanley Brothers. As a teen in Columbus, Ohio, he went to see Earl Taylor and spent years on the fiddle.
In 1970 he met guitarist Keith Whitley at a talent show. Ralph Stanley heard them filling time before one of his shows and hired them. After high school in 1971 they joined the Clinch Mountain Boys full-time and recorded Cry From the Cross with Stanley. About two and a half years later Skaggs joined the Country Gentlemen on fiddle. In late 1974 he joined J.D. Crowe and the New South, and played on the 1975 Rounder album J.D. Crowe and the New South, known by its catalog number, 0044. He then formed Boone Creek with Jerry Douglas and Terry Baucom, and in 1979 joined Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, where he arranged her 1980 album Roses in the Snow.
His Epic albums Waiting for the Sun to Shine (1981), Highways and Heartaches (1982), and Don’t Cheat in Our Home Town (1983) made him a star. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1982 and won CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1985. In 1997 he went back to bluegrass with Kentucky Thunder and started Skaggs Family Records. Bluegrass Rules! (1997) sold more than 200,000 copies. Kentucky Thunder’s albums won Grammys for Best Bluegrass Album many times, and he received the National Medal of Arts in 2021.
Playing style
Skaggs plays Monroe style with a clean, modern finish. His attack is strong and his timing is exact, with every downbeat placed. He uses Monroe’s blues notes and slides, but his tone is brighter and his phrasing tidier. On slow songs he plays a smooth tremolo, and on fast instrumentals he plays long, clear lines at high speed.
He is also a great rhythm player. His chop in Kentucky Thunder is crisp and loud, and it drives the whole band. Because he plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo too, he arranges a song from the whole band’s point of view.
Influences and legacy
Skaggs learned from Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and Flatt and Scruggs. He played beside Keith Whitley, Ralph Stanley, J.D. Crowe, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, and Emmylou Harris.
Kentucky Thunder has been a training ground for top pickers, including guitarists Cody Kilby, Clay Hess, and Jake Workman. Seeing a young Skaggs on TV with Flatt and Scruggs made Sam Bush want to play mandolin. Skaggs owns Pee Wee Lambert’s old mandolin.
Signature tunes and songs
Uncle Pen Highway 40 Blues Country Boy Crying My Heart Out Over You Don’t Cheat in Our Home Town.
Essential recordings
J.D. Crowe and the New South (Rounder, 1975) Highways and Heartaches (Epic, 1982) Bluegrass Rules! (1997) Ancient Tones (1999) Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947 (2008)
Awards and honors
CMA Horizon Award and Male Vocalist of the Year (1982) Grand Ole Opry member (1982) CMA Entertainer of the Year (1985) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Bluegrass Rules! (1998) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Ancient Tones (1999) IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year, with Kentucky Thunder (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) Musicians Hall of Fame (2016) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2018) Country Music Hall of Fame (2018) National Medal of Arts (2021) 15 Grammy Awards from 29 nominations
Watch and listen
Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder play Pig in a Pen. Listen to his chop drive the band, then his clean break.
What to learn from Skaggs
Learn Uncle Pen the way Skaggs plays it, with the Monroe phrasing intact. Then work on his exact timing. Set a metronome on beats two and four and play the break until every downbeat lands dead center. Skaggs’s playing shows that Monroe’s style sounds even stronger when every note is in its place.
Sources
Ricky Skaggs, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Ricky Skaggs, Wikipedia Kentucky Thunder, Wikipedia
Related players
See the mandolin players hub and the mandolin guide. Skaggs played with Bill Monroe as a boy and owns Pee Wee Lambert’s mandolin. Marty Stuart followed a similar path from bluegrass to country stardom. His fiddle work is on his fiddle page.