Book review: Ricky Skaggs – Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music
Wendy Layton
Posted On September 23, 2013
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Ricky Skaggs is one of the few iconic figures left in bluegrass music today. Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and a lot of the founders and keepers of the sound out of the hills of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina during the 50s and 60s are gone. Ricky’s Dad was a guitar player and wanted Ricky to play mandolin. He picked up a Gibson mandolin for Ricky at age 5. At 6 1/2 Ricky got to play mandolin for Bill Monroe. At the age of 7, Ricky got to play in the Skaggs Family Band. His dad had a brother named Okel who passed away. So his Dad primed him to take Okel’s place in the Band. Ricky got the chance to play on television with the Foggy Mountain Boys, Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt. A few months later he played with the Stanley Brothers.
So was the life of Ricky Skaggs, who wrote this book with the help of writer Eddie Dean. Reading about Skaggs is reading also bluegrass history and country music history, because for awhile, Skaggs took a place playing country music. Dean does a good job of getting across what Skaggs wanted in this book. Skaggs lived at a time when it was ripe to be a bluegrass musician, or a country musician.
