Songs My Dad Loved

Ricky Skaggs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Skaggs Family
• ASIN: B002KCZOPW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,172 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2009 release, the first ever 'solo' album from Ricky Skaggs. No studio musicians. No guest artists. Just Ricky Skaggs doing what Ricky Skaggs does best. Highly regarded as an award winning Country and Bluegrass music master, Skaggs is legendary for bringing renewed hope and vitality to the Country music mainstream in the early 1980's with scores of #1 hits and numerous awards and for his triumphant return to his first love, bluegrass, with his successful Skaggs Family Records label. But the true story behind his remarkable career can be traced back to the first music he remembers hearing: the songs his dad loved. From a child prodigy to one of today's musical heroes, Ricky Skaggs continues to inspire his audiences with the heritage and the history of the old time songs embedded deep in his soul by his father.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely Done Classic Works, September 19, 2009

By 

C. D. Irwin (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Songs My Dad Loved (Audio CD)

The man from Kentucky does good in his 2009 Solo album, and returning to his roots was a great idea. "Songs My Dad Loved" has instrumental songs and classic bluegrass tunes that bluegrass afficionados will all love. The licks on this album are all well-played, classic, well-thought out sound great. Ricky Skaggs is a versatile musician and playing Songs that his dad loved was a great idea.
Ricky put a great mix of guitar and mandolin and striped in a few licks with banjo. This album represents Ricky's maturity and I like the slowness in it, Hey, I really liked what I heard!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 -- Winning, low-key tribute to the songs of a star's father, November 8, 2009

By 

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

This review is from: Songs My Dad Loved (Audio CD)

Country music tributes to one's father seem to be in the air. Tanya Tucker's My Turn provides a gritty set of her father's favorites, and Rosanne Cash's The List cherry-picks a dozen songs from a list of one hundred country essentials given to her by her father in the 1970s. In both cases the artists had to dig deeply within themselves to understand not only what the songs meant to their fathers, but also what they meant as an inheritance and how they could be co-owned by both father and child. That same conundrum faced Ricky Skaggs as he mapped out this tribute to the songs his father loved, and he took the highly personal approach of producing the album on his own.

Though technically a solo work, as Skaggs sang and played everything here, a more accurate attribution would be to the All Ricky Skaggs Band. Rather than performing as a solo singer with his guitar, Skaggs overdubbed himself singing harmonies and playing multiple instruments, including guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and piano. Built up as acoustic one-man-band arrangements, this isn't the hot-picked bluegrass of Kentucky Thunder, but a more relaxed approach to music making. Skagg's explores his parental heritage, but also his own musical roots in a very personal extension of 2008's Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947.

The song list is heavy on traditional numbers, including the instrumental fiddle tunes "Colonel Prentiss" and "Calloway." Skaggs' own instrumental, "Pickin' in Caroline" features banjo playing that's gentle and introspective. One song each by Fred Rose ("Foggy River") and Roy Acuff ("Branded Wherever I Go") speak to the foundational importance of the Acuff-Rose publishing company, and Ralph Stanley's "Little Maggie" links to Skaggs' teenage membership in the legend's bluegrass band. This is superbly selected collection of songs, many of which fall outside the standard festival repertoire.

Singing and playing on his own, without the band, without the burden of living a bluegrass legend, without anything on his mind but his father and the lasting inspiration of his music, Skaggs is freed to embrace this material with a closeness that's harder to locate in a crowded, spot-lit setting. Fans will enjoy the opportunity to hear Skaggs close-up in this stripped-down setting, and those who love country music's early years will doubly enjoy the songbook. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solo:Songs My Dad Loved, February 11, 2010

By 

K. Laughlin (Atlanta,GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Songs My Dad Loved (Audio CD)

I purchased this CD for my husband at Christmas.He absolutely loves it. He is a big Ricky Skaggs fan anyway and this CD is ALL about him.It is very interesting to read the story he has behind this,as well.We have really enjoyed it.