While I wouldn't think of Ricky as the traditional Bluegrass musician, and I would expect to see him at festivals because of his commercial approach to the music, I am thankful that he brings in new and fresh ears to the music. Many who like country music will not know who Mike Compton is, though we know he is a fantastic musician and man, they will listen to Ricky. My friends and family often bring up Ricky when they hear me play my mandolin. They don't know who Bill Monroe is, but they know Ricky. They haven't heard of Jim and Jesse but they know Marty Stuart. They don't know anything about Jimmy Martin but they seem to think Vince Gill is a bluegrass musician in part because of his recent album. They have never heard of Seldom Scene but somehow think Chris Thile is a bluegrass musician. My point is that with rare exceptions, most people don't know anything about bluegrass. If they buy a Ricky Skaggs cd at least they might here Blackeyed Suzie or Rawhide or PIg in a Pen or Get Up John or LIttle Maggie or Rank Strangers. If they are interested, they might even research other musicians.
Second, his record company is producing some very good music with groups like Cherryholmes and artists like Andy Leftwich Third, it presents me with opportunities. When people mention Ricky to me, I usually respond by bringing them a few cd's to listen to with samples from a bunch of various artists from the Dawg to Mike Compton to Del McCoury to Doyle Lawson to Rhonda Vincent to Sam Bush and so on. Usually, the people come back and tell me how surprised they were to hear how wonderful the music was and that they weren't expecting to enjoy it. I will give them some Steffey and they will be amazed at the clean sound. I will give them Evening Prayer Blues from Compton and Long (one of my favorite recordings of all time) and they are amazed at the feel. I will give them some Roberts/Grascals or Ronnie McCoury or Mandolin Extravaganza. In the end, because they asked about Ricky, I was able to give them some other sounds to put into their ears with the hopes that they would become as big a fan as I am (and I am a big boy). My point is that while I would rather sit at the feet of the Tater and I love the traditional Monroe feel, I think Ricky can help bluegrass. I do agree that there is probably some pride involved but that is something he will have to deal with on his own. I can still enjoy his music. Anyway, just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in the pond...have a great day Denny Wilson Snyder, Texas -----Original Message----- From: mistertaterbug <[email protected]> To: Taterbugmando <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 3:57 pm Subject: Re: You Be The Judge Jason, I'll have to say that it's pretty much standard procedure to count on doing multiple takes on the major sessions, unless of course there are players there that can just lay it down first take. Some bands can go in and take a couple and get a useable one. Usually, somebody has to fix something(frequently it's me) while everybody else sits and eats miniature Milky Way bars. A lot of times the focus is to get a good rhythm track or get a track that has a good overall feel and then start building the finished product. I've heard of artists taking 6 months and loads of money (upwards of the cost of a Loar) to cut an album. I wonder what used to happen when people like Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra went into the studio? You know as well as I do what happened. They laid it down and that was that. Being on the road 11 months out of the year helps with that. Hey, all ya'll don't get me wrong. Skaggs is a talented man who's worked hard and there's no denying that. I'll give him that because it's a fact. It's that *other* thing I was talking about anyway. Now I'm done with it. Tater On Jan 27, 1:37?pm, J Hill <[email protected]> wrote: > The only thing I have to say on the topic is that I had heard someplace that > the Ricky Skaggs and KY Thunder frequently use over-dubs / multiple takes > and that seems to have tainted my listening to their music. ?I've heard them > live and there's no doubt that his band can play and I'll be the first to > say, as in the recent Yo-Yo Ma inaugural recording discussion, if you can > play it once you can play it in my book (even if it took you 6 takes to get > a keeper). ?All that being said, it does differentiate between the > recordings we hear today in which recording time can be as cheap as the > electricity it takes to run your MacBook and the recording days of old in > which there were 5 guys crowding around a single microphone and recording > time was a scarce commodity. > > It very well could be that RS doesn't use multiple takes anymore than any > other band in wh ich case I don't mean to single them out unfairly. > > Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
