Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
It will be a toe-tapping good time when 15-time Grammy Award winner Ricky Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder, return to The Lyric. Skaggs, whose music spans the country music spectrum from bluegrass to gospel to mainstream, is a multi-talented musician who plays the mandolin, fiddle, Mandocaster and banjo. For his Lyric show, he and the band will perform songs from his long and illustrious career, including “Sis Draper,” “Return to Sender” and “Road to Spencer.”
Skaggs was born in Kentucky and began playing the mandolin when he was 6. When bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe came to Martha, Kentucky to perform, the audience wouldn’t let him leave until “Little” Ricky Skaggs, 6, came on stage with his mandolin. A year later, he appeared on television with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. He was still a teen when he began his professional bluegrass career, joining Ralph Stanley’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. Skaggs never looked back.
Not content with the status quo, the musician pushed the limits of the bluegrass genre with progressive bands such as Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe and the New South. By the late 1970s, he had turned his focus to mainstream country music and joined Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. In 1981, he released his debut album, Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine, which topped the country charts with two Number One hits. In 1997, he returned to his bluegrass roots with Bluegrass Rules! A series of Grammy-winning albums with his band, Kentucky Thunder, followed.
Legendary guitarist Chet Atkins said that Ricky Skaggs “single-handedly saved country music,” and the musician has the awards to go along with the praise. In addition to his 15 Grammy Awards, Skaggs has won 8 Country Music Association Awards, including the prestigious Entertainer of the Year Award in 1985. He was a 2018 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. For the last two decades, he has continued to make his mark in the world of country music, releasing the popular album Mosaic with the Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Gordon Kennedy. The song “Return to Sender,” from that album, was nominated for two
Grammys in the gospel genre. In 2010, Skaggs was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and received the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. In 2020, he received the National Medal of Arts.
Skaggs returns to The Lyric with Kentucky Thunder, eight-time winners of the IBMA’s Instrumental Group of the Year. “This group of guys meets my approval every night,” Skaggs said. “Each and every one of the pickers in Kentucky Thunder totally amazes me in every show…, and that, to me, outweighs any award we could ever win.”
The all-star lineup of Kentucky Thunder includes Russ Carson on banjo, Jake Workman on lead guitar, Dennis Parker on baritone vocals and guitar, Gavin Kelso on bass, Mike Rogers on tenor vocals and rhythm guitar, and Billy Contreras on fiddle.
In a long career, Ricky Skaggs has spent “a life full of music.” Come enjoy it with him.
