★★★★★
After apprenticeships with Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys (alongside the late Keith Whitley), J.D. Crowe and the New South and Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs the solo act woke up a stagnant Nashville music scene in the early '80s. With an excellent tenor voice, the ability to play the fire out of anything with strings, and a knack for choosing pretty good songs, Skaggs had a nice run as a country artist before going home to his roots, focusing on the mandolin and the bluegrass music that...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
If any single artist can be credited with championing bluegrass and bringing it to the attention of a broader, mainstream country audience it's 14-time Grammy winner Skaggs. He first registered on Nashville's wider radar as part of Emmylou Harris' Hot Band in the mid-70s, and went on to collaborate with such legends as Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Ricky Skaggs' turn as a bluegrass musician has been well documented. He was only six years old when he played mandolin on stage with Bill Monroe and a year later he was on television picking with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Since then he's been a member of Ralph Stanley's Cinch Mountain Boys, J.D. Crowe's New South, and Emmylou Harris' Hot band...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-08-15
★★★★★
It's pretty much an accepted fact that Ricky Skaggs is one of the most naturally gifted musicians to ever perform in the country, bluegrass and Christian arenas. Before he decided to abandon Music Row and play more meaningful music - i.e., more bluegrass - he had a string of radio hits in the 1980s that were usually good songs by some really good writers...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2011-07-25
★★★★★
Along with buddy Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs literally grew up in the Bluegrass music world before transitioning to mainstream country as one of the genre's neotraditionalist boom after the short Urban Cowboy era. Ricky never really abandoned Bluegrass and in fact a few of these songs on his latest album Country Hits Bluegrass Style, like "Uncle Penn," "I Wouldn't Change You If I Could," and "Don't Get Above Your Raising" were originally bluegrass songs...
- www.roughstock.com
2011-07-25
★★★★★
When Ricky Skaggs started to become popular in Nashville more than two decades ago, he was seen as the newcomer of country music. And while he was certainly popular in the format, it wasn't the genre that gave him the greatest satisfaction. In the last decade or so, Skaggs has made the adjustment from country to his staple of bluegrass slowly but surely...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
From the hills of Kentucky, bluegrass came to Ricky Skaggs the way hitting a baseball came to Ken Griffey, Jr., he was born to do it. After touring with bluegrass legends like Ralph Stanley as a teenager, Skaggs was signed in 1980 to a record deal with Epic Records where he virtually started the new-traditionalist movement with his blend of traditional sounds with modern production and pop flourishes...
- roughstock.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Act authentic for too long and it begins to sound like an act even if it isn't. I mean, didn't John Denver preempt the title of this thing? Oh right, his went "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." God, I best Ricky wishes he could get away with that one.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Act authentic for too long and it begins to sound like an act even if it isn't. I mean, didn't John Denver preempt the title of this thing? Oh right, his went "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." God, I best Ricky wishes he could get away with that one.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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