Ricky Skaggs

In the days of big hair and spandex, long before George Clooney made bluegrass seem safe for the masses, Ricky Skaggs brought the high-lonesome sound above-ground. His hot-pickin' hit "Country Boy" was a hillbilly holler to every city slicker who ever hid a down-home heart deep inside. Skaggs let his honky-tonk side shine through by adding some steel-guitar lilt to the Stanley Brothers' classic bluegrass hanky-panky hoedown "Don't Cheat In Our Hometown." But the scope of Skaggs' vision reached beyond country music; even Harry Chapin's folk-pop smash "Cat's In the Cradle" is fair game for a twang-y tune-up in the country king's capable hands.

Skaggs goes old-school in Next Steps

Even though Ricky Skaggs gave traditional bluegrass a modern-day makeover, he could still kick up an old-school storm whenever the spirit moved him. Going straight to the source on the Bill Monroe nuggets "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" and "Get Up John," Skaggs and his cohorts Kentucky Thunder let their lightning fingers loose for a good old-fashioned pickin' party. And the spiritual side of classic bluegrass makes a stop in Skaggsville too, as Ricky and the boys take their high-lonesome harmonies to church for the old chestnuts "Rank Strangers" and "The Old Crossroad."

Ricky Skaggs pairs off with some famous musical partners in Deep Cuts

It takes two to twang, and Ricky reaches deepest into his bag of tricks when he teams up with titans from every walk of the music world. The Celtic roots of bluegrass come to light when Appalachia meets the Emerald Isle, as Skaggs jams with Irish folk godfathers the Chieftains on "Cotton Eyed Joe." Bluegrass hops the honky-tonk heartbreak train when Skaggs tackles the George Jones classic "Why Baby Why" alongside the Ol' Possum himself. But if you want to hear the bluegrass boss stretch out even further, get some fiddle in your funk as Skaggs gets down with pop-rock piano man Bruce Hornsby for a front-porch, flat-picking version of the lusty Rick James jam "Super Freak."

Ricky Skaggs can wail his Kentucky butt off on fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and banjo, not to mention his silver-toned singing voice, and the multi-talented country boy from the bluegrass state of Kentucky puts all those gifts to work on his mighty musical mountain. This is the place to follow the path Skaggs has blazed to bring bluegrass from its old-school origins to a modern mode that puts everything from honky-tonk and Western swing to pop and rock into the picture. So whether you want to hear Ricky call down the Kentucky Thunder on some vintage Stanley Brothers or Bill Monroe tunes, or you'd like to catch the sparks flying when his fingers do the walking across more contemporary fare, you can pick up your ticket for Skaggs' musical journey right here.