Live at the Charleston Music Hall [Live]

Ricky Skaggs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 25, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Skaggs Family
• ASIN: B00008NRKJ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,710 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Introduction

2. Black Eyed Suzie

3. How Mountain Girls Can Love

4. No A Lonesome Night

5. Song Intro - Amanda Jewell

6. Amanda Jewell

7. Why Did You Wander

8. Song Intro - A Simple Life

9. A Simple Life

10. Band Intro

11. Goin' To Ceili

12. The Old Home Place

13. Song Intro - I Heard My Mother Call My Name In Prayer

14. I Heard My Mother Call My Name In Prayer

15. Song Intro - Crossville

16. Crossville

17. Song Intro - Somewhere Nice Forever

18. Somewhere Nice Forever

19. Uncle Pen

20. Pig In A Pen

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 -- Blazing live set from Bluegrass masters, June 3, 2003

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Live at the Charleston Music Hall (Audio CD)

Bluegrass music is built for live performance. Capturing Skaggs and his band of virtuosos on stage, interacting with and spurred on by an audience, not only shows what these players can do (as opposed to what a studio can make them sound like they can do), but captures the heart and soul of their music. From the blistering traditional opener, "Black Eyed Suzie," to the extended closing jam on Bill Monroe's "Get Up John," Skaggs and his band show off an astounding precision that amplifies the music's joy without ever becoming a labored technical exercise.

Skaggs' nimble fingers can fly at a blinding speed, as can his bandmates' flat-picked guitar, finger-picked banjo and bowed fiddle. If the hot picking were merely a flashy stunt, it would be impressive, but their fluidity - their jazz-like interplay - is an essential element of the music. This intensity shines just as brightly when they slow down for tunes like Carter Stanley's "On a Lonesome Night" and Red Smiley's gospel country "I Heard My Mother Call My Name in Prayer."

Skaggs' tenor is as smooth as ever, whether blending with the band's close harmony singing, or providing the show's continuity with between-song patter. This disc is a superb introduction for the bluegrass neophyte, and will please Skaggs' fans with many tunes never before recorded by the artist, including a pair of new instrumentals. A concert disc can't replace attending a live show, but this one communicates the exhilaration of the experience with exceptional eloquence.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST EVER!, April 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Live at the Charleston Music Hall (Audio CD)

I am a true fan of bluegrass...but this album takes the prize! I bought this for my husband for Valentine's Day and we can't quit listening! My 6 yr. old and 3 yr. old go around singing "Black-Eyed Susie", "Simple Life" and of course..."Country rocks, but Bluegrass RULES"! The last instrumental on the album is GREAT...it is over 8 minutes long and keeps your toes tapping the ENTIRE time! If you like Bluegrass...after listening to this...you will LOVE it and will want more of Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. I wish this CD had an additional 24 tracks!!!!!!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bluegrass Lives, June 22, 2003

By 

Walter Stettner (Vienna Austria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live at the Charleston Music Hall (Audio CD)

Certainly it does if you listen to this record. Of course listening to a record can never replace the feeling of the live event, but this record captures a good deal of it. Skaggs always had the perfect sense for great pickers, so his band "Kentucky Thunder" is like an all star Bluegrass unit, from veteran fiddler Bobby Hicks to young guitar virtuoso Cody Kilby, these boys are really hot! Song selection is great, it definitely makes a difference to hear new songs or old tunes that haven't been recorded for ages than to hear Orange Blossom Special and Foggy Mountain Breakdown for the 328th time.

This one's probably the next Bluegrass Album of the Year!