Matt Bjorke: When did you decide to make the new record?
Ricky Skaggs: well we’d been thinking about it for a while, to be able to take our country songs that we had a lot of hits on in the 1980s and 1990s out on the road to the fans because I switched back to the bluegrass music I started out on in 1997 and so my focus was started on that and going back to my roots and re-digging those wells. I also had started my new record label (Skaggs Family Records) to help both new artists and great artists like my friend Del McCoury get the chance to record albums on bigger budgets and with major distribution like Universal provides us.
So when we started to get a lot of requests from the fans at our live shows, even though they didn’t mind if we were doing bluegrass or country, they just wanted to hear those songs they grew up listening to; songs like “Heartbroke,” “Honey, Open That Door” and such.
It was with that in mind, we put this album in order, and tried to include all of the #1 hits, and recently someone pointed out that we didn’t record one! “Don’t Cheat In Our Home Town,” was originally a bluegrass cut from the Stanley Brothers so I don’t know why it slipped my brain! We’ll have to include that one someday.
Matt: Was it a little strange to revisit hits like “Uncle Penn” and bring it back to your bluegrass roots?
Ricky: Songs ‘Uncle Penn’ were just easier to do because of their bluegrass roots. “Highway 40 Blues” is a natural bluegrass tune that Larry Cordle wrote years ago. I originally did a recording of him on that song back somewhere in the 1970s. I thought about recording it as a country song and it fits in there quite well with the steel guitar and stuff but it was really natural for country.
Some of the other songs were a little harder. “Honey, Open That Door” was a hard song to do without the drumbeat laying down the timing and everything an “Heartbroke” is another one that requires the drive of the drums to really make it work. You can do it as a bluegrass song but without something chunkin’ out that 2/4 rhythm, it kinda just lays there. So we had a guy come in, Larry Eagle, and play percussion on the record, he plays percussion with with a good friend of mine in New York, named Andy Statlan. I kinda wanted drums but I didn’t want it to be the kind of percussion that is heard on country records, the hard hitting stuff, so Larry was just perfect for that.
Matt: So, other than the #1’s, how hard was it to choose the songs for this record?
Ricky: Well, “He was on to something (So he made you)” wasn’t a #1 hit, it was a Top 10 or a Top 5 but I always loved that song and always loved singing it because it’s a real twist on natural events with lyrics like “Midnight really ain’t he middle of the night, it’s either to the left or a little bit to the right, it’s ever so slight.” It’s variations of life and parts of the world. Sonny Curtis wrote it and he used to play in the Crickets band with Waylon, Buddy Holly’s band. He sent me that song. I just love it.
“Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’” was a no-brainer as well, with it being my first hit with Epic Records and I wanted to hear Mr. Buck (White) come in and play piano on that and he did. It was also fun to play electric guitar on record once again. So it’s not totally bluegrass style but I’ve always been known for kinda mixing bluegrass and country together so I wanted to do some that was totally acoustic and I had Joe Glaser string together a string-bender on an old McPherson acoustic guitar that plays like butter with great action. He looked at me like I was from another planet when I asked him, but he did it and I was elated with the guitar when it was finished.
Matt, you may have given a way for rock musicians to tour with acoustic instruments…
Ricky: I took it to the Opry to play it and everyone there just wanted to play it and hear it. They were real curious about it.
Matt: I bet Keith Urban would love one of those…
Ricky: Yeah, Joe said he’s not gonna make another one of these acoustic string benders because it’s too much work and he got a bad sinus infection from the light wood he used to make the rollers for the string bender in the guitar.
Matt:That’s pretty cool…
Matt: How much fun has it been to play these songs out on tour again?
Ricky: It really is fun because before this record came out, we had decided to go on the road this summer and do a show that we called the Treasure Chest Tour, taking a piano player, Gary Smith, that used to play in my band years ago and a drummer named Mike Kennedy that currently tours with Jamey Johnson and is also part of George Strait’s band for the last 20 years now. He has some open dates and played with us.
So there are some dates where we’re doing a full band with an electric telecaster and amp and at some shows we’re doing more like the original records, which is kinda funny considering that we have this acoustic record that we’re promoting. But it’s fun and it’s a blast to do the show. The fans are really enjoying the shows too because they haven’t seen me do these songs since 1997.
My bluegrass band Kentucky Thunder is able to play these country songs with ease. So what we do when we go out, depending on the venue we’re playing, if we’re playing a country festival, we’ll start with “Heartbroke,” “You Gotta Love Her,” and “I Don’t Care.” Some of those songs that the kids call “old school country,” You know I’m old school now, (both laugh), after doing those hits for about 30 minutes, the steel guitarist, the drummer and the piano player will leave the stage and we’ll play some bluegrass songs for 30-40 minute and turn it into a discussion of what I grew up playing and that the early stuff we played is what I morphed into. We wrap the show up with some stuff from Mosaic, the gospel record I did with Gordon Kennedy in 2010, and finish with “Highway 40 Blues” and “Uncle Penn.” It’s a great show that’s like my 40 years in music kind of thing. It’s fun and I really like doing it.
If we’re not doing full show like that, I still take my fender acoustic out and we play some of the big hits like “Honey, Open That Door” and recently took it to the Ryman.
Matt: How has the internet helped you reach fans for both your Skaggs Family Records label and yourself?
Ricky: Well, the internet can reach many more people than we ever could have with radio. Radio is so expensive nowadays to promote on and to get people to get the thing happening up the charts. It’s an expensive process. So with the internet, it’s eaiser to do thanks to all of the bloggers and websites out there that will take a story about us. There are also a lot of writers who will place a story in with 15 or 20 different websites out there that talk about country, bluegrass, Americana and Gospel music.
Plus, the downloads have made it easier to share our music. It’s a great tool now. We send everything digitally these days. The manufacturing costs we don’t have, the storage costs, the shipping costs, they’re all lower and while there are quite a few people who still don’t get on the internet, we have run into quite a few people who are 70-80 years old who are rippin’ and roarin’ on the internet. I’d say not many people under 50 aren’t on the internet.
0 Comments