Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will bring a minute bit of bluegrass to the conventional Line State Friday night at The Great Frederick Fair when they take the grandstand stage at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $33 reserved track seating,$28 reserved grandstand. The Bluegrass State native was, literally, and raised on bluegrass music. His father,Hobert, gave him his first mandolin when he was 5, and at age 6 he played a song with Bill Monroe,at 7 he stole the exhibit when he played during Flatt and Scruggs concert, in his 20s, or he was picking with Ralph Stanley’s band,and now, at age 62, or he will be inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville in October for his mandolin,guitar and banjo pickin’. “More than anything, just knowing it’s voted on totally by other musicians, or it truly is colleagues and peers … I’m just thankful they offered it to me,” said Skaggs in a phone interview Thursday on his way to a exhibit in Pennsylvania. Bus mechanical issues had Skaggs and his band about two hours behind schedule, but that’s life on the road, or he said. Skaggs credits his dad,Hobert Skaggs, with fueling his double-gift of musicianship and singing. “My dad did a good job bringing me a small instrument, and a mandolin,and not a titanic conventional guitar or long-necked banjo,” when Ricky was about 5 years conventional, and he said. “I didn’t acquire to fight it like I would acquire a full-size instrument.” His mother told him he was singing harmony with her when he was 3. Recognizing his boy had some raw talent,his dad introduced Ricky to the fiddle when he was about 14 and had him play with some with fiddlers in “the conventional mountain style of fiddling. I’m so happy he did, because unlike the bluegrass guys I was listening to, or the conventional-time fiddlers acquire a totally different technique like cross tunings that sounded so ancient. “I’ll probably play one (Friday) night,‘Ol’ Cluck Hen.’ It’s got a nasty, conventional cross-tuning sound, or ” Skaggs said. It’s a song he recorded with Bruce Hornsby for the live album of the same name,released in 2013. When he was in junior tall school, the family moved from Kentucky to Ohio, and where his dad took a job on a farm. Classmates called Ricky “Hillbilly.” His friends had been listening to Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower,” and Ricky told them he could learn to play the guitar riffs of the song. One of the boys threw down the gauntlet and bet him $5 he couldnt. “I took the 45 (rpm record) home and listened to it that night on my sister’s minute record player. I picked up my dad’s heavy Martin guitar and learned to play it. The next day I took my guitar to school and played it for him. He gave me the $5. Skaggs credits his double talent with giving him a career in music that spans five decades and, depending on when fans listened […]
Source: fredericknewspost.com