Honoring the fathers of bluegrass

[allenhopkins]

It's so hard for me to understand how a musician makes a career playing other peoples music and then jumps to cute, million dollar making, pop music.

It's not hard for me to understand why a professional musician would try to maximize his income. #Mr. Skaggs has gone down many roads since he was a pre-pubescent mandolin pickin' Stanley clone back in the day. #He obviously, evidently, demonstrably loves and understands old-line traditional bluegrass. #He doesn't play it all the time, and some of us don't like that. #He tries some things that, in many opinions, work less well than others. #He's voluble on stage, tends to preach sometimes, which others of us find off-putting.

By doing what he's done, he's reached a status where he has the freedom to experiment, and where he can call on the highest level of production, promotion and assistance in his projects. #Those of us huddled around a Tascam in our basements, carrying our recordings in our car trunks to our bar gigs, and drawing the ever-popular "Thursday at 4 p.m." slot at our local festivals, feel pangs of envy.

He's not my hero, and he's not Beelzebub either. #I wish him luck with his new recording. #I, like the previous poster, have racks of vinyl mementoes of the artists the new CD will evoke, and don't need to be reminded that they were titanic, pioneering talents in this genre. #But I welcome a salute to their music, from a musician excellently qualified to give it.

[K3NTUCKI8oy]

Ok fellas, I know I can be a scrooge but I hope that anyone who buys the cd will enjoy
it. I just get a certain dern way like most us here Kentuckyuns is ye see.

[tnpathfinder]

Well said Mr. Hopkins. Thanks. My orders in and I'm thrilled!

[sachmo]

I ordered 2, 1 to play and the other to collect interest for my retirement.

[Scotti Adams]

Seen Skaggs on the Opry Live Saturday night...whats up with him?...hes growing his hair longer...its like hes morphing into Monroe...actually to me he looke like a cross between Monroe and Larry Sparks.

[AlanN]

Monroe + Sparks + Butch (from Little Rascals)

[Scotti Adams]

Monroe + Sparks + Butch (from Little Rascals)

Ha..and he also looks 50lb heavier than the pic on the cover of his new Cd.talk about and airbrush job..and what was with the clip on tuner on the mando??? I will have to admit they sounded good...they sang "Mothers Not Dead, Shes Only A'Sleepin". They nailed it.

[mandopete]

Hey, it only took six posts for this thread to recieve a warning from the moderator. That must be a new record for Ricky Skaggs threads!

[Gary Hedrick]

Allen, nicely put..........your post is spot on.....he is what he is..and we can listen or we can not listen.....we can buy or we cannot buy......,.

[LoneStarMandolin]

Seen Skaggs on the Opry Live Saturday night...whats up with him?...hes growing his hair longer...its like hes morphing into Monroe...actually to me he looke like a cross between Monroe and Larry Sparks.

I thought the same! long hair and he is putting on weight! saw him last spring in Waco and he didn't look like the same person.

[MikeEdgerton]

Hey, it only took six posts for this thread to recieve a warning from the moderator. #That must be a new record for Ricky Skaggs threads!

Pretty much. There has been talk of adding Ricky to Politics and Religion in the posting guidelines as a hot button issue.

[skyblue]

Well said, Mike....Ricky Skaggs is not my favorite mandolin
player, BUT I do have a new respect for his playing by the purchasing and listening to the "Instrumentals" album and later the "Brand New Strings" album. The instrumentals that
Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder perform are great...When
I listen to his music I listen with an open mind and I am not comparing him to anyone else. I have already purchased
the new album and look forward to receiving it and giving it a listen. I like to hear the originals of Bill Monroe
and the Bluegrass Boys and Flatt and Scruggs but I also very much enjoy hearing a new treatment of those classic tunes and I think that is part of a mandolin players life is to learn from the masters and in playing the tunes of the masters....Take a listen to Ricky's originals of
"Monroe Dancing" or Appalachian Joy" both from Brand New Strings or "Going to Richmond or "MissingVassaror "Montana Slim" from the "Instrumentals" album. They are great examples of exceptional playing by all involved. I guess that I don't feel the need to bash a mandolin player like some on the Cafe.....

[Bradley]

I saw Ricky in Dayton Ohio a few weeks back and I thought
it was Peter Rowan

This one has my interest and probably will buy one. After seeing him last time I thought on the drive home that Ricky needs some new life into his performances and his songs. It seems like theres 2 sides to his latest recordings which are either re-do Monroe/Stanleys/F&S or do something way out in left field. It looks like with his
name being as big as it is there would be a whole bunch of folks throwing new songs his way.

[f5loar]

I noticed Ricky was Loarless on the Opry. He had his DMM-RS model. And who was playing slap rhythm on the vintage L5 Gibson archtop guitar? And although you could not hear it Jim Mills had his signature model Huber banjo. What's up with the Opry and mics? After 84 years you would think they could find some smuck to turn up a mic knob on a banjo on nationally broadcast TV show. The same guy missed steel guitars, electric fiddles, etc. Pretty bad IMO. It's not the first time they have missed getting the sound right for an acoustic act.

[Salty Dog]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. #Ricky said that he would preserve the music. #This over produced (several master pickers taking breaks over each other's music is NOT the music, much less a preseveration. #Bluegrass music as defined by the inventor (I really hate to refer to him as the "father") was simple music, played forcefully, quickly, and tastefully with the vocal and instrumental parts clearly defined, the vocals always being more important. #Ricky's latest albums (I will not buy another without hearing it first) are a cacophony of noise with too many instruments competing with each other and the vocals. This is not the music that he promised to preserve but perhaps it is what is that produces money. #I think that John Starling once referred to this as "superpicker overkill".

[Peter Hackman]

Hey, it only took six posts for this thread to recieve a warning from the moderator. #That must be a new record for Ricky Skaggs threads!

Pretty much. There has been talk of adding Ricky to Politics and Religion in the posting guidelines as a hot button issue. #

While you're at it add "Bluegrass Police" to the profanity filter
(which, by the way, censors the Ten Commandments!!).

[mandopete]

While you're at it add "Bluegrass Police" to the profanity filter
(which, by the way, censors the Ten Commandments!!).

I didn't know that the word "Gibson" was in the 10 Commandments (or was that 10 Condiments?).

[sgarrity]

So has anyone received theirs yet? I'm waiting not so patiently! ;-)

[Brady Smith]

I've had a copy for a couple weeks now. It's a good'n.

[tree]

I've heard Bluegrass Breakdown a couple of times on the radio and it knocks my socks off. #Every single instrument has tone to die for, and every single picker just nails it. #Cody Kilby's guitar break stood out as meatier than I would've expected, and I thought he was already at the top of his game. #Wow.

[tkdboyd]

I understand some people's distaste for piety, but is that the main reason for the dislike of Ricky Skaggs? I can understand some of the complaints from 'Salty Dog' but I am somewhat amiss as to why there is so much dislike for someone who seems pretty likable and is highly regarded amongst his peers, Acoustic Disc's "Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza" and "The Three Pickers" wouldn't have happened if he were not "capable". Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs both giving high marks to someone is enough for me to believe!

Not trying to fan any flames, just trying to understand what seems to be feeding the hostility.

[MikeEdgerton]

Before the flames start, and I'm afraid they will, take a look through these threads. It might give you an idea as to the breadth and width that this discussion takes and folks, let's try and keep it civil.

[mandolooter]

[QUOTE]I understand some people's distaste for piety, but is that the main reason for the dislike of Ricky Skaggs?

I have often wondered the same thing. He's a guy, he plays music, he plays it his way, why should that irritate anyone unless he's sitting in your living room picking while your tryin to watch TV? Its not like he's not entitled to his own expression, it's America.

[Jim Broyles]

I want to begin by saying that I am somewhat of a Jimmy-come -lately to bluegrass, having only been greatly into it for a little over three years now. I initially heard of Ricky Skaggs via country music radio in the early '80's when I first heard "Don't Get Above Your Raisin'" and I proceeded to buy all of his country albums up until about 1986 and "Love's Gonna Get Ya!" When I decided to play the mandolin in late 2004 and began my mandolin journey some of Ricky's songs were the first I came across, in particular his covers of "Bluegrass Special" and "Daybreak in Dixie," which I had enjoyed by the Stanley Brothers (Ralph's banjo version, not Bill Napier's mando version) for quite a while at that point. I like almost everything I've ever heard by Ricky Skaggs and I really like his mandolin playing. I say all that so say that I just listened to most of the tracks of this album on Rhapsody, and I don't like it very much at all. The mandolin sounds fantastic, and the picking is all first rate, but this album does NOT honor the fathers of bluegrass except by way of covering their songs. The mix is modern, the bass sounds like an electric bass, even if it is an upright, and the guitar solos seem way out of place for the purported intention of this project. The mandolin and fiddle seem close to "throwback" in style, but the banjo, guitar and bass are much more modern sounding than I would have expected for this record. The cuts I had really looked forward to hearing - "Bluegrass Breakdown," and "Mighty Dark to Travel" were huge disappointments to me, mostly due to the guitar but due also, in part, to the arrangements. "BB" sounds more like a superpicker session than a lifelike cover of Bill Monroe's version. It is good music, but I believe this project fails in its stated purpose.

[Crowder]

Well, to get technical, guitar breaks weren't a part of first-generation bluegrass. IIRC the first guy to play "lead bluegrass guitar" was probably Doc Watson, and though he and Bill played together some it didn't cause Bill to add a hot guitar player to his band.

Ricky's band already has a hot guitar player. I guess he could have sat him for this session, but that would go counter to the stated mission of his record company which is to run a family business that does right by everyone whenever possible.

I'm not taking up for him any more than I'd take up for anyone else who owns a business and runs it as he sees fit. He doesn't need my help anyway. I think people who dismiss musicians for reasons unrelated to their music run the risk of losing the opportunity to grow in their own musical journey.