Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder – History of the Future

History Of The Future includes the following note on the back of its jewel box: “Caution! Listening to this CD while operating a vehicle could result in a speeding violation.”

The warning’s only half in jest. A handful of poignant ballads notwithstanding (the version of Bill Monroe’s “Mother’s Only Sleeping” is one standout), Skaggs’ credo here seems to be: Floor it! The opening rendition of “Shady Grove” has Skaggs racing back to his pretty little miss with all the speed of a moonshiner out-running the Feds. It’s only by way of contrast that the sizzling groove number “Too Far Down To Fall”, featuring a bass line lifted in part from “These Boots Were Made For Walking”, or his cover of “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Loud Music”, feel like a breather.

Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder, plays a speed-addicted brand of bluegrass that makes the music bounce and swing hard, an effect that’s only heightened when, on “Shady Grove” and the Celtic-flavored instrumental “Road To Spencer”, dancers clog along with the musicians, driving home the rhythm.

Given bluegrass’ current resurgence, History Of The Future seems a prescient title, but it’s no demand for the future to be Right Now, Forever. Rather, Skaggs is racing headlong with his music into a future that’s bound to bring change, but one he also expects will be both comfortingly and distressingly familiar. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine a time when hearts will not be broken by lovers who leave and by loved ones who die, when human beings won’t be longing to get “back to Harlan,” “back to the old home on the hill,” back to the very people who (as Skaggs sings on Paul Overstreet’s “Halfway Home Cafe”) will forgive all the bitter seeds we’ve sown. And if Skaggs has his way, it will be just as difficult to imagine the history of any future that doesn’t include pickers who can fly through “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms” so fast that even the best dancers will race to keep up.