Classic Country Music Fans–Who am I?
I was born in 1921 and my music heroes were Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry and some of the western swing bands. I started playing the guitar when I was 12 years old. I did my stint in the Army then moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. I was on the Louisiana Hayride for some time. A 1937 cajun song started my career although I am not known as a cajun singer. I passed away in 1991 and an a member of the Country Music Hall Of fame. I liked my flashy clothes too. I was wondering if you know who I am?
yep, its webb pierce
Cajun Moon
Buck Norris sings “Cajun Moon” by Ricky Skaggs.
By the time he was in his mid-thirties, Kentuckian Ricky Skaggs had already produced a career’s worth of music. At age seven he appeared on TV with Flatt & Scruggs; at 15 he was a member of legendary Ralph Stanley’s bluegrass band (with fellow teenager Keith Whitley). None of his ’80s peers, male or female, had better musical credentials than Skaggs. The term “multi-talented” lacks the power to characterize this extraordinary singer and instrumentalist. Not only can he sing and pick with the best in progressive country, his broad and deep experience in traditional music separates him from the crowd. In the estimation of many, he is without peer as a combination vocalist and instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo). After playing with Ralph Stanley for three years, Skaggs moved on to progressive bluegrass bands the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe & the New South. With his own band, Boone Creek, he mixed the old and the new, adding Django Reinhardt. Skaggs took Rodney Crowell’s place in Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band in 1977, and the band’s excellent Roses in the Snow album showcased Skaggs’ versatility. Two number one hits came out of his 1981 album Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine, and the awards started arriving. Skaggs is largely responsible for a back-to-basics movement in country music. He showed many that a bluegrass tenor with impeccable taste and enormous talent could sell traditional country in the ’80s, a time when pop music had invaded the land of rural rhythm.
Skaggs began playing music at a very early age, being given a mandolin from his father at the age of five. Before his father had the time to teach Ricky how to play, the child had learned the instrument himself, and by the end of 1959, he had performed on-stage during a Bill Monroe concert, playing “Ruby Are You Mad at Your Man” to great acclaim. Two years later, when Skaggs was seven, he appeared on Flatt & Scruggs’ television show, again to a positive response. Shortly afterward, he learned how to play both fiddle and guitar and began playing with his parents in a group called the Skaggs Family. In addition to traditional bluegrass, Skaggs began absorbing the honky tonk of George Jones and Ray Price and the British Invasion rock & roll of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In his adolescence, he briefly played in rock & roll bands, but he never truly abandoned traditional and roots music.
During a talent concert in his midteens, he met Keith Whitley, a fellow fiddler. The two adolescents became friends and began playing together, with Whitley’s brother Dwight on banjo, at various radio shows. By 1970, they earned a spot opening for Ralph Stanley. Following their performance, Stanley invited the duo to join his supporting band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, and they accepted. Over the next two years, they played many concerts with the bluegrass legend and appeared on his record Cry From the Cross. Skaggs also appeared on Whitley’s solo album Second Generation Bluegrass in 1972.
Though he had made his way into the bluegrass circuit and was actively recording, Skaggs had grown tired of the hard work and low pay in the Clinch Mountain Boys and left the group at the end of 1972. For a short while, he abandoned music and worked in a boiler room for the Virginia Electric Power Company in Washington, D.C., but he returned to performing when the Country Gentlemen invited him to join in 1973. Skaggs spent the next two years with the group, primarily playing fiddle, before joining the progressive bluegrass band J.D. Crowe & the New South in 1974. The following year, he recorded another duet album with Whitley, That’s It, and then formed his own newgrass band, Boone Creek, in 1976. In addition to bluegrass, the outfit played honky tonk and Western swing. Boone Creek earned the attention of Emmylou Harris, who invited Skaggs to join her supporting band. After declining her several times, he finally became a member of her Hot Band once Rodney Crowell left in 1977.
Duration : 0:3:56
How to Play the Fiddle : Fiddle Playing
Learn about the basics of how to play the fiddle with expert music training tips in this free online instrument instruction video clip.
Expert: David Kaynor
Contact: www.DavidKaynor.com
Bio: David Kaynor has over 30 years of fiddle playing experience. He currently teaches and plays the fiddle in the Connecticut River Valley.
Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso
Duration : 0:2:7
How to Play the Fiddle : How to Use the Bow when Playing the Fiddle
Learn about bowing and how to use the bow when playing the fiddle with expert music training tips in this free online instrument instruction video clip.
Expert: David Kaynor
Contact: www.DavidKaynor.com
Bio: David Kaynor has over 30 years of fiddle playing experience. He currently teaches and plays the fiddle in the Connecticut River Valley.
Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso
Duration : 0:2:58
How to Play the Fiddle : Jig Bowing on the Fiddle for Beginners
Learn about jig bowing on the fiddle with expert music training tips in this free online instrument instruction video clip for beginners.
Expert: David Kaynor
Contact: www.DavidKaynor.com
Bio: David Kaynor has over 30 years of fiddle playing experience. He currently teaches and plays the fiddle in the Connecticut River Valley.
Filmmaker: Jay Holzer
Duration : 0:3:7
Country Bass Fiddle Tips for Beginners : The D Major Scale on Bass Fiddle
Country Music and the bass fiddle go hand in hand. Play the D Major scale in this free video clip on musical instruments.
Expert: Steve Anthony
Contact: www.SteveAnthonyStudios.com
Bio: Steve Anthony has been a professional photographer since 1989.
Filmmaker: Paul Muller
Duration : 0:1:5
