NASHVILLE, TN. (Skaggs Family) - Ricky Skaggs has ascended to the top of the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums sales chart with his new CD,
Brand New Strings. The recently released collection of contemporary songs sits at No 1, making Skaggs the first male artist to attain the top position on the chart. Skaggs achievement will appear in the November 20, 2004 edition of Billboard Magazine.
Skaggs is riding high after a busy season of touring with his accomplished band, Kentucky Thunder, which won its sixth Instrumental Band of the Year honor from the International Bluegrass
Music Association in October. Skaggs and the band are playing several holiday shows joined by The Whites (Buck, Cheryl, and Sharon, his father-in-law, sister-in-law, and wife, respectively) and second generation 'grassers Luke and
Molly Skaggs and Rachel White.
To cap off the year, Skaggs will be presented with the Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Eastern Kentucky University on Dec. 18, 2004. He will receive his degree and address the graduating classes of the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business and Technology at the University in Richmond, KY. "Your many friends at Eastern Kentucky University have followed your career with pride," states President
Joanne K. Glasser. Skaggs was born in nearby Cordell, Kentucky.
"I feel like I'm getting a fresh wind in my career," Skaggs said. "I'm doing what I love to do, and every day I count my blessings that I get to go back to my roots and play the music that runs in my veins."
Few artists in any genre of American music have attained the heights reached by Ricky Skaggs. Roundly regarded as one of the finest singers, mandolinists and band-leaders in country/bluegrass history, Cordell, Kentucky's favorite son has graced nearly 300 recordings with his incandescent talents, including more than 30 under his own name. Skaggs' incredible career path - through Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys, The Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Emmylou Harris' Hot Band and on to his own Kentucky
Thunder - has at once mirrored and defined the shape of bluegrass music. His trophy room would shame King Tut's tomb, but the real treasures reside in the grooves.
https://www.rickyskaggs.com 
