Ricky Skaggs at Newberry Opera House

Event Details

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Fifteen-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Ricky Skaggs’ career is easily among the most significant in recent Country music history, and his Bluegrass roots shine through. Let’s welcome Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder back to Newberry Opera House!

Description

Fifteen-time Grammy® Award-winner, Ricky Skaggs’ career is easily among the most significant in recent Country music history. 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, 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.

Skaggs emerged as a professional Bluegrass musician in 1971 and 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 No. 1 hits. Overall, his productive stay at Epic Records would result in a total of 12 No. 1 hits. Additionally, he won eight Country Music Association Awards–including the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy in 1985.

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. He counts the current configuration of Kentucky Thunder among the best group of musicians he has ever worked with. The all-star lineup of Kentucky Thunder includes Russ Carson (banjo), Jake Workman (lead guitar), Dennis Parker (baritone vocals, guitar), Gavin Kelso (bass), Mike Rogers (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar) and Billy Contreras (fiddle).