Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder – Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass

Since his justifiably heralded return to full-time bluegrass a little over ten years ago, Ricky Skaggs has been slowly easing away from the revivalism that marked Bluegrass Rules! — until now. Honoring The Fathers Of Bluegrass zeroes in on a dozen tunes recorded by the 1946-1947 edition of Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys. While the album might seem at first blush slightly baffling to the uninitiated — without extensive reinterpretation, what’s the point? — it gives insight into what “tradition” means to one important group of musicians steeped therein, and yields plenty of fine listening.

Skaggs is more playful than those impatient with his “preaching,” whether musical or religious, often realize. To take just one example on the new album, each song’s kickoff exactly matches the original Blue Grass Boys recording — except one, “Why Did You Wander”, where instead of following the long-unreleased original, Skaggs slyly opts for duplicating the fiddled opening of the first commercial release years later by Blue Grass Boy alumnae Flatt & Scruggs. It rips nicely whether you know that or not, but the extra layer gives extra pleasure, and similar twists are scattered throughout.

More importantly, despite the emphasis on re-creation rather than reinvention, Honoring maintains the approach first applied on Bluegrass Rules!, and it works as well as ever. Banjo man Jim Mills and Skaggs as mandolinist play it straight, offering spirited but incremental variations on Earl Scruggs’ and Monroe’s trailblazing work, while the wickedly skilled and equally tasteful Cody Kilby delivers something more modern in his many guitar leads, and fiddler Andy Leftwich splits the difference. The result is classic bluegrass that’s nonetheless refracted through a contemporary lens.