The official “ambassador” of bluegrass music will take the stage this Saturday, August 16 at the Fayetteville Villages Amphitheater. Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will perform as the fourth concert in the 2008 Mercedes-Benz of South Atlanta Summer Concert Series at the Fayetteville venue.

Striving to offer a varied schedule for their patrons, the Main Street Tourism Director Nancy Price is excited to welcome a different genre of music to the stage in Fayetteville.

“This will be our first bluegrass concert offered in the series at the Villages and we are excited because we know how popular this style of music is,” explained Price.

Sometimes in life, things come full circle. That's the story of Ricky Skaggs. By age 21, he was already considered a “recognized master” of one of America's most demanding art forms, but his career took him in other directions, catapulting him to popularity and success in the mainstream of country music. Now the road has brought him back to where it all began—bluegrass music.

Skaggs’s 30th year as a professional musician was marked in 2001, and this eight-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Known affectionately today as bluegrass music's official ambassador, Skaggs has brought the genre to greater levels of popularity in the past six years than the father of bluegrass music – legendary Bill Monroe – could ever have imagined.

With five consecutive Grammy nominated classics behind him, all from his self-owned record company Skaggs Family Records, bluegrass music is undoubtedly in good hands. Skaggs’s nominated works include 1998's “Bluegrass Rules!”, 1999's “Ancient Tones,” 2000's “Soldier of the Cross” and “Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe,” and 2001's “History of the Future.”

Skaggs was born on July 18, 1954 in eastern Kentucky and was already an accomplished singer and mandolin player by the time he reached his teens. In 1971 he entered the world of professional music with his friend, late country singer Keith Whitley, as the two young musicians were invited to join the band of bluegrass pioneer Ralph Stanley. Skaggs soon began to build a reputation for creativity and excitement through live appearances and recordings with acts such as J.D. Crowe & The New South. He performed on their 1975 debut album for Rounder Records, which was widely regarded as one of the most influential bluegrass albums ever made. A stint as a bandleader with Boone Creek followed, bringing the challenges of leadership while giving him further recording and performing experience.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Skaggs turned his attention to country music. Though still in his 20s, the wealth of experience and talent he possessed served him well, first as a member of Emmylou Harris' Hot Band and later as an individual recording artist. With the release of “Waitin' For The Sun To Shine” in 1981, Skaggs reached the top of the country charts, and remained there throughout most of the 1980s.

As his popularity soared, he garnered eight awards from the Country Music Association (CMA), including Entertainer of the Year in 1985, four Grammy Awards and dozens of other honors. These achievements also placed him front and center in the neo-traditionalist movement, bringing renewed vitality and prominence to a sound that had been somewhat subdued by the commercialization of the urban cowboy fad. Renowned guitarist and producer Chet Atkins credited Skaggs with "single-handedly" saving country music.

In 1997, as Skaggs's recording contract was coming to an end, he decided to establish his own record label, Skaggs Family Records. Since then, Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder have released an amazing five consecutive Grammy nominated classics, three of which went on to earn the revered award.

At the same time, Skaggs also founded a sister label to Skaggs Family – Ceili Music. Ceili (pronounced "kaylee") is defined as “an informal gathering of family and friends for music and song.” That being the theme, Ceili Music features recordings by a variety of artists, with an emphasis on bluegrass and other forms of roots music. With Skaggs's enthusiasm for this music and experience as a producer, Ceili promises to be, as he told an interviewer, "a home to great music." The Ceili roster of talent currently includes The Del McCoury Band, The Whites, Mountain Heart, Jerry and Tammy Sullivan and Paul Brewster.

Skaggs's first release from Skaggs Family Records, “Bluegrass Rules!,” set a new standard for bluegrass, breaking new sales records in the genre, winning Skaggs his sixth Grammy Award, and taking the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) Album of the Year award. In 1999, his second all-bluegrass album, “Ancient Tones,” won a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album—his second consecutive Grammy in that same category. Just one year later, Skaggs won his eighth Grammy Award in the Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album category for “Soldier of the Cross,” Skaggs's first-and-only all-Gospel recording project to date.

Skaggs’s most recent foray into the bluegrass arena is his first all-live album with Kentucky Thunder, known as the best band in bluegrass, as evidenced by their recent award for the IBMA's Best Instrumental Group of the Year.

The decision to go live with the new album was an obvious one for Skaggs coming off the recent IBMA win and because the recent configuration of Kentucky Thunder ranks among the best group of musicians he has ever worked with.

“This group of guys meets my approval every night,” said Skaggs recently. “Each and every one of the pickers in Kentucky Thunder totally amazes me in every show…and that, to me, outweighs any award we could ever win.”

Beyond his award-winning recordings, Skaggs continues to lead the charge in bringing renewed vitality to country music's most down-to-earth form. From his string of high-profile tour dates with the Dixie Chicks in 2000, to his position as host of the unprecedented All*Star Bluegrass Celebration, which aired nationwide on PBS in 2002, to his participation in last summer's wildly successful 41-city Down From the Mountain tour, Skaggs has become one of bluegrass music’s most talented and dynamic performers.

Ricky Skaggs has often said that he is "just trying to make a living" playing the music he loves, but it's clear that his passion for bluegrass puts him in the position to bring this lively, distinctively American form of music out of isolation and into the ears and hearts of audiences across the country and around the world. This has rarely been done in the half-century since Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys first gave shape to bluegrass.

Blessed with a close-knit family, an abundance of talent, a lifetime of musical experience and a tight band behind him, Skaggs is well on the way to showing the world that "country rocks, but Bluegrass Rules!”

Tickets for Ricky Skaggs are still available and may be purchased by calling 770-719-4173 or in person at the Historic Train Depot in Fayetteville Monday- Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.villagesamphitheater.com or the day of the show beginning at 6 p.m. at the box office.

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