Thursday Jul 16, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 7:30PM
Weesner Family Amphitheater – Minnesota Zoo
13000 Zoo Blvd
Apple Valley, MN 55124
RICKY SKAGGS
A life full of music. That’s the story of Ricky Skaggs. By age twenty-one, 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. His life’s path has taken him to various musical genres, from where it all began in bluegrass music, to striking out on new musical journeys, while still leaving his musical roots intact.
Ricky struck his first chords on a mandolin over 50 years ago, and this 14-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. With 12 consecutive Grammy-nominated classics behind him, all from his own Skaggs Family Records label (Bluegrass Rules! in 1998, Ancient Tones in 1999, History of the Future in 2001, Soldier of the Cross, Live at the Charleston Music Hall, and Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe in 2003, Brand New Strings in 2005, Instrumentals in 2007, Salt of the Earth with The Whites in 2008, Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947 in 2009 and Ricky Skaggs Solo: Songs My Dad Loved along with Mosaic in 2010), the diverse and masterful tones made by the gifted Skaggs come from a life dedicated to playing music that is both fed by the soul and felt by the heart.
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. Ricky Skaggs is always forging ahead with cross-cultural, genre-bending musical ideas and inspirations.
RY COODER
One the finest guitarists of his generation, ‘Ry Cooder’ attracts a following that cuts across most known boundaries. Earning his early blues dues with Taj Mahal and his rock credentials with Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Cooder has, over the past couple of decades, made superlative rock, jazz and movie soundtrack albums, and crossed effortlessly into world music fusions with artists as diverse as Malian bluesman Ali Farka Toure, Okinawan group Nenes, and the Indian guitarist V. M. Bhatt.
After recording solo albums since 1970 (Paradise and Lunch, Chicken Skin Music, Borderline), Cooder’s name has become synonymous with Cuban music since he produced the hit CD Buena Vista Social Club. The music from that groundbreaking collection of songs featured legends of a Cuban music tradition all but forgotten outside that island nation.
My Name Is Buddy: Another Record by Ry Cooder , released in 2007 is, in a certain respect, Ry Cooder circling back, revisiting a body of music that has for much of his life held a certain fascination. “When I first started doing records. I thought, ‘I like these old songs. These dustbowl songs.’ So I made a couple of records and people thought: ‘What’s this?’ You can’t sell this.’ But I kept making these things, again and again, because I knew a good song,” he says. “I’d say it’s taken me 40 years to get it right.”