By: Andrew Vaughan

A musical prodigy, playing with the likes of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Lester Flatt when he was just six years old, (see below) Ricky Skaggs is now a country music great who refuses to rest on his laurels. When the CMA entertainer of the year with a string of #1 hits opted out of major label, MusicRow, and went the independent route, many thought he was crazy. But as he says, “Right thing to do and the right time to do it.”

Now with a thriving record label that’s also home to several top-flight bluegrass-flavored acts, he has two new albums for our delectation and is about to head overseas for the first time in almost a decade to play European dates as well as Mervyn Conn’s International Country Music Festival comeback show in London...and beyond.

“Yeah, we’re going over to Europe with Reba in February. Mervyn Conn who has a great history of promoting country music is putting on the shows. It’s cool for me because I was one of the first U.S. country acts to venture over there. I guess it was ’82 [or] ’83 that I worked with Elvis Costello in London. So it’s very important to me to get back over there and play for our fans in Europe. Very cool.”

So, Ricky there a new album of your hits done bluegrass style in the stores and there’s a new Christmas album coming too—A Skaggs Family Christmas Volume Two (with Ricky, wife Sharon, their children Luke and Molly, Buck and Cheryl White, and Cheryl's daughter Rachel Leftwich). What was behind re-recording the big hits like "Heartbroke", "Honey (Open That Door)", "Highway 40 Blues", "County Boy", and "Uncle Pen", bluegrass style?

It was an idea I had for a while and the challenge was to go back and re-work those songs, to see how they would sing with a different production. We did a project exclusive to Cracker Barrel a few years ago and then I decided to follow that with more tracks and release it as Ricky Skaggs Country Hits Bluegrass Style.
It was a great experience and I’m very happy with the results.

Listening again to those tracks and then digging out the original, it’s interesting to hear your electric guitar playing back then—phenomenal!

People forget I used to play a lot of electric guitar!
When my son Luke was 14 or 15, he really started getting into electro guitar—he started listening to Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, and then I turned him onto Johnny Hiland and Albert Lee ‘cause he wasn't aware of that style.

I think it was around when I started playing bluegrass—so he couldn’t remember the years I played electric. And then when he started paying electric, one day I was playing him some stuff Albert [Lee] did on my record, and then he put something on that I played and he was like, 'Who was that?'
‘It's me,’ I said.

He was surprised, which was pretty cool. But anyhow, he became a huge electric guitar fan and he loved seeing those guys and seeing them play live. And I am a huge fan of that kind of playing too. I took him to see Joe Satriani one night and he though he was great, fast, loud, and a great technique.

Seen any great guitar players in concert lately?

Jeff Beck at the Ryman. Getting to see him live was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. To see a really true master of his instrument—and I don’t say that about a lot of people. But that guy is truly a master. Literally, he can play anything that he can think.
It’s such a part of his body. It’s like its part of him—
He is special. Jimmy Page is great, Clapton is still great, but Beck is a cut above. And when I say a cut above, I mean and he’s a lightyear above some of the others.

The International Festival of Country Music returns to Wembley Arena in London on Sunday, February 26th, 2012.
Subsequent shows are at:
Belfast: Odyssey Arena - 29/02/12
Zurich: Hallenstadion - 02/03/12
Mannheim: SAP Arena - 04/03/12

Andrew Vaughan is a well-known and respected Nashville based writer. As a music critic his work has appeared in Billboard, Music Week, Mojo, "Q", the London Times, the Guardian, and Folk Roots. He was the founding director of Country Music International magazine and a regular guest on BBC Radio, BBC TV, and VH1.