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Ricky Skaggs goes back in time on his new album, playing songs his father taught him as a boy. Skaggs plays Virginia this week. |
By RYAN LITTLE
FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR
Whether it's country or bluegrass, Ricky Skaggs has always been an artist rich with tradition. He's taken that to a deeper level with his most recent solo album, "Songs My Dad Loved."
Skaggs digs into Appalachian folk music and old country-gospel tunes, and executes them with masterful precision and grace. All the music was chosen based on what his father exposed him to early in life--and in a recent interview with Weekender, Skaggs explained.
"There were some songs that stood out and I knew if I did this particular project that these had to go on. There were some instrumentals on there and a few things that my dad never got to hear. There was a tune called 'Picking in Caroline' that's a clawhammer banjo instrumental by itself--but I put things like that on there because I knew how much he loved that type of banjo-playing style."
Beginning in his earliest years, Skaggs was playing mandolin at the encouragement of his father. Regarding his dad's powerful impact on his life, Skaggs said, "My dad spent the time with me, encouraged me, built me up, and poured into me He went beyond being a father. He wanted to feed the musician in me, not just the son in me, because he saw talent in me as a young child.
"He wanted me to go beyond just being OK, and just being a player on the weekends at home. He wanted me to be someone who had enough talent to be an entertainer, to be someone who could actually make a living making music and have a career."
The album is a solo record in the truest sense--there are no other musicians; Skaggs plays and sings every note. Skaggs acknowledged it was a real challenge: "That first guitar track is a pretty lonely place to be."
However, he's also grateful for the opportunity to make this kind of record.
"Thank God for recording techniques today--if we were 40 or 50 years behind, you could never have done anything like this," said Skaggs.
Every track is meaningful to Skaggs. "The songs here on this record are really my earliest memories of music," he said. The musical heritage he works with is partly a product of where Skaggs grew up.
"As a musician and an artist, just being raised in Eastern Kentucky where I was, my dad just exposed me to all kinds of music. These were old records that he had that I was listening to that predated bluegrass and rockabilly and Elvis Presley," said Skaggs.
Those roots allowed him to do everything he's done so far.
"I'm really glad that I have that foundation, because moving from that to bluegrass, or that into country, or that to gospel--it's an easy jump. It's like a springboard into all different kinds of music."
Not everyone shares his love for mountain music, and Skaggs thinks this is a shame.
"I think there's a lot about old-time mountain music, the foundations of this music, that doesn't get appreciated. Especially in this hip-hop age, with all kinds of computerized music," he said.
"People have to kind of start back at the beginning and really listen to pure music. I think mountain music really is a pure stream, and it really comes from a pure place. People who were doing this music, The Carter Family and others back in those early days, they really had something to say that still is for our time in 2010.
"You think back to the 1920s and the 1930s, when America had just gone through a stock market crash and, boy, times were much like they are today."
If you're not sure how to find this kind of older music, Skaggs said the best way is actually a new one.
"The Internet is a great way to do some research," he said. "You can get on the Smithsonian Web site and you can find all kinds of stuff."
Skaggs will be bringing both his own classic songs and his newly recorded traditional tunes to The Birchmere this Friday and Saturday with his legendary band, Kentucky Thunder.
Ryan Little is a freelance writer.
