Ricky Skaggs
LPAC News:
Bluegrass and country music legend Ricky Skaggs—winner of 14 Grammy awards and 8 Country Music Awards—performs with his band, Kentucky Thunder at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 West San Francisco St., Santa Fe, NM 87501.
TICKETS: $46-$75. Available at Lensic.org, TicketsSantaFe.org, 505.988.1234, and the Tickets Santa Fe Box Office at The Lensic.
Ricky Skaggs—born in 1954 in the small town of Cordell, Kentucky—has been playing mandolin and performing since he was a 6. With Bill Monroe as a mentor and a family who supported him at every turn, Skaggs became a professional musician at 15, when he joined Ralph Stanley’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. Skaggs was a star in the bluegrass world by the time he was 21, and when he moved into the country genre, in the late 1970s, he took that world by storm, as well. In 1982, he was made the youngest member (at the time) of the Grand Ole Opry.
Over the course of his 40-plus year career, Skaggs has won 14 Grammy Awards, 8 CMA Awards, 9 ACM Awards, 11 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Awards, 9 ICM Awards, 2 Dove Awards, 3 honorary Doctorate degrees,and countless other honors. He has had 12 Number One singles on the Billboard Country charts and 12 Top 20 Country albums.
Skaggs counts the current configuration of Kentucky Thunder among the best group of musicians he has ever worked with.
“This group of guys meets my approval every night,” Ricky says. “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 Paul Brewster (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar), Scott Mulvahill (bass, bass vocals), Russ Carson (banjo), Jake Workman (lead guitar), Mike Barnett (fiddle) and Dennis Parker (baritone vocals, guitar).
