Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.(Sound Recording Review)

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. Live at the Charleston Music Hall. Skaggs Family 6989-01004-2, 2003.

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Ricky Skaggs got his start as a bluegrass musician, and he started early. Before age ten he had appeared on television with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and by his mid teens he was recording and touring with the legendary Ralph Stanley as a member of his Clinch Mountain Boys. That lineup, which also featured the young Keith Whitley on vocals, is regarded by many as the finest that Stanley ever had. Skaggs later established a solid career as a country session musician and solo artist, but after signing some ill-considered agreements with a major record label he found himself contractually restricted to playing and recording modern country music rather than the more traditional material that had always been his first love. Upon completing his contractual obligations he returned to bluegrass with a vengeance, forming the Kentucky Thunder band and establishing his own record label as a vehicle for records by his own group and others similarly inclined. Skaggs had several titles out on the Skaggs Family label when this live recording was ...