Fifteen-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Ricky Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder, are joining forces with Country Music Hall of Famers The Oak Ridge Boys for one unforgettable night of music. See them together live in concert at Rose Music Center at The Heights on Saturday, August 16.
ABOUT RICKY SKAGGS
Ricky Skaggs’ career is easily among the most significant in recent country music history. If Skaggs’ burgeoning trophy case full of awards wasn’t already enough evidence of that fact, consider that legendary guitarist Chet Atkins once credited Skaggs with “single-handedly saving country music.” His life’s path has taken him to various musical genres, from where it all began in bluegrass music, to striking out on new musical journeys, while still leaving his musical roots intact.
Born July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, Skaggs showed signs of future stardom at an early age, playing mandolin on stage with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe at 6 and appearing on TV with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs at 7. He emerged as a professional bluegrass musician in 1971, when he and his friend Keith Whitley were invited to join the legendary Ralph Stanley’s band the Clinch Mountain Boys.
Skaggs then went on to record and perform with progressive bluegrass acts like the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe & the New South, whose self-titled 1975 Rounder Records debut album was instantly recognized as a landmark bluegrass achievement. He then led Boone Creek, which also featured Dobro ace and fellow New South alumnus Jerry Douglas.
But Skaggs turned to the more mainstream country music genre in the late ‘70s when he joined Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, replacing Rodney Crowell. He became a recording artist in his own right in 1981 when his Epic label debut album Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine topped the country charts and yielded a pair of #1 hits. Overall, his productive stay at Epic Records would result in a total of 12 #1 hits. Additionally, he garnered eight Country Music Association Awards–including the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy in 1985.
Skaggs, of course, fit right in with young “new-traditionalist” ‘80s artists like Randy Travis, and helped rejuvenate the country music genre after the worn-out “Urban Cowboy” period. But, Skaggs put his own stamp on the country format by infusing his bluegrass and traditional country music roots into the contemporary Nashville sound.
Skaggs’ 1997 album Bluegrass Rules!, released on his newly-formed Skaggs Family Records label, marked a triumphant return to bluegrass—which he’s solidified ever since with a series of GRAMMY® Award winning albums, recorded with his amazing bluegrass band, Kentucky Thunder (8-time winners of the IBMA ‘Instrumental Group of the Year’). Skaggs’ label has also served as a home for similar bluegrass and roots music-oriented artists including The Whites.
In the past decade, he has been honored with inductions into the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. In 2018, a landmark year, Skaggs was also awarded membership into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and country music’s greatest honor, the Country Music Hall of Fame. Most recently, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2020 for his contributions to the American music industry.
Ricky struck his first chords on a mandolin over 60 years ago, and he continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Clearly his passion for it puts him in the position to bring his lively, distinctively American form of music out of isolation and into the ears and hearts of audiences across the country and around the world. Ricky Skaggs is always forging ahead with cross-cultural, genre-bending musical ideas and inspirations.
The all-star lineup of Kentucky Thunder includes Russ Carson (banjo), Justus Ross (lead guitar), Dennis Parker (baritone vocals, guitar), Gavin Kelso (bass), Mike Rogers (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar) and Billy Contreras (fiddle).
THE OAK RIDGE BOYS
Every generation has its stars. A select few of them remain stars for generations. Those rare figures come to us from all fields of endeavor – Willie Mays from baseball, for instance. Humphrey Bogart from the movies. And, from popular music, The Oak Ridge Boys.
Just as Willie Mays was much more than his immortal over-the-shoulder catch in the 1954 World Series, and Casablanca was far from the only great Humphrey Bogart movie, The Oak Ridge Boys are more than the unforgettable strains of 1981’s “Elvira” oom-poppa-mau-mau-ing its way through our collective consciousness.
Fifty years after these legendary performers first stepped onstage together in the summer of 1973, this now-legendary quartet, made up of Duane Allen, Richard Sterban, Ben James, and William Lee Golden, continues to pack in the crowds and bring down the house.
For the entirety of that amazing half-century, the Oaks have been weaving their colorful threads into the tapestry of America’s popular music. As is the case with Mays, a look at their statistics can be dizzying: a dozen gold, three platinum, and one double-platinum record album (to go with the double-platinum single “Elvira,” which sailed up both the pop and country charts). Thirty Top 10 hits. Performances before five American presidents. Pioneering work in the field of country-music videos. Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. International touring. Millions of streams. Live shows numbering in the tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands.
As was the case with Willie Mays, after logging more years in the business than all but a sliver of their contemporaries, the Oaks are still setting records. And making records. Following sales of well over 40 million albums and counting, The Oak Ridge Boys continue to lay down their one-of-a-kind vocals in the studio and on stages all over the world, experimenting with a sound known to millions, always looking for new ways to communicate with their music. As an example, their last three albums have been produced by famed Nashville music figure Dave Cobb, a Grammy Award winner for his work with artists such as Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton.
The group’s consistently fresh attitude and presentation is summed up nicely in a statement by William Lee Golden, “We do things constantly to challenge ourselves, to try to do something different or better than the last time we did it.”
Like Willie Mays, like Humphrey Bogart – like all the greats – The Oak Ridge Boys transcend their time and place, continuing with every performance and each new disc to not only add to their amazing heritage, but also to further their quest to serve up more new and exciting Oaks music to the world. One of the most famous “legacy acts” ever, with a 50-year string of hits to draw from, they are much more than a group content to faithfully reproduce its dozens of hits.
After all this time, the Oaks and their music remain vibrant, alive, and inventive. To the delight of their millions of fans, they’re still breaking musical barriers, still reaching for new sounds, still performing at a high and wonderful level that both builds on and transcends the generations of their stardom.
Tickets will go on sale to the public beginning at 10AM on Friday, May 9 atTicketmaster.com and the Rose Music Center Box Office.
