Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Saturday, April 14, 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 15, 2:00 pm

Bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder ride into The Plaza del Sol Performance Hall for a two-day campus-wide salute to Bluegrass!

Beyond his award-winning records, Ricky continues to lead the charge in bringing renewed vitality to country music’s most down-to-earth art form, and has become one of bluegrass’ most talented and dynamic performers—carrying this lively, distinctively American form of music to the hearts of audiences across the country.

Sometimes in life, things come full circle. That’s the story of Ricky Skaggs. By age 21, he was already considered a “recognized master” of one of America’s most demanding art forms—Bluegrass, but his career took him in other directions, catapulting him to popularity and success in the mainstream of country music. Now the road has brought him back to where it all began!

2006 marks Ricky’s 35th year as a professional musician, and this eleven-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Known affectionately today as bluegrass music’s official ambassador, Ricky has brought the genre to greater levels of popularity in the past few years than the father of bluegrass music - the legendary Bill Monroe - could ever have imagined.

With seven consecutive Bluegrass Grammy-nominated classics behind him, all from his own Skaggs Family Records label, (Bluegrass Rules! in 1998, Ancient Tones in 1999, both Soldier of the Cross and Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe in 2000, History of the Future in 2001, Live at the Charleston Music Hall in 2003 and currently, Brand New Strings earned him another Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album - marking his 10th career Grammy.) bluegrass music is undoubtedly in good hands, with the masterful Skaggs at the helm.

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. Blessed with a close-knit family, an abundance of talent, a lifetime of musical experience and a crack band behind him, Ricky Skaggs is well on the way to showing the world that “country rocks, but Bluegrass Rules!"