Headliner :: Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder
Opener :: Jack Schneider

Ricky Skaggs
Fifteen-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Ricky Skaggs’ career is easily among the most significant in recent country music history. If Skaggs’ burgeoning trophy case full of awards wasn’t already enough evidence of
that fact, consider that legendary guitarist Chet Atkins once credited Skaggs with “single-handedly saving 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. Born July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, Skaggs showed signs of future
stardom at an early age, playing mandolin on stage with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe at 6 and appearing on TV with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs at 7. He emerged as a professional bluegrass musician in 1971, when he and his friend Keith Whitley were invited to join the legendary Ralph Stanley’s band the Clinch Mountain Boys. Skaggs then went on to record and perform with progressive bluegrass acts like the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe & the New South, whose self-titled 1975 Rounder Records debut album was instantly recognized as a landmark bluegrass achievement. He then led Boone Creek, which also featured Dobro ace and fellow New South alumnus Jerry Douglas. But Skaggs turned to the more mainstream country music genre in the late ‘70s when he joined Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, replacing Rodney Crowell. He became a recording artist in his own right in 1981 when his Epic label debut album Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine topped the country charts and yielded a pair of #1 hits. Overall, his productive stay at Epic Records would result in a total of 12 #1 hits. Additionally, he garnered eight Country Music Association Awards--including the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy in 1985. Skaggs, of course, fit right in with young “new-traditionalist” ‘80s artists like Randy Travis, and helped rejuvenate the country music genre after the worn-out “Urban Cowboy” period. But, Skaggs put his own stamp on the country format by infusing his bluegrass and traditional country music roots into the contemporary Nashville sound. Skaggs’ 1997 album Bluegrass Rules!, released on his newly-formed Skaggs Family Records label, marked a triumphant return to bluegrass—which he’s solidified ever since with a series of GRAMMY® Award winning albums, recorded with his amazing bluegrass band, Kentucky Thunder (8-time winners of the IBMA ‘Instrumental Group of the Year’). Skaggs’ label has also served as a home for similar bluegrass and roots music-oriented artists including The Whites. In the past decade, he has been honored with inductions into the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of
Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. In 2018, a landmark year, Skaggs was also awarded membership into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and country music’s greatest honor, the Country Music Hall of Fame. Most recently, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2020 for his contributions to the American music industry. Ricky struck his first chords on a mandolin over 60 years ago, and he continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Clearly his passion for it puts him in the position to bring his 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.

Jack Schneider
The world of Jack Schneider is one strewn with eccentricity and nostalgia, where a New York cowboy wanders the streets of East Nashville donning a Stetson Range, a purist philosophy, and his beloved 1956 Martin D-28 guitar, Big Jim. Jack is, as some would say, a Nashville triple threat - guitarist, songwriter, and singer, in addition to producer, guitar collector, and analog enthusiast.
Born in New York and raised in Georgia, Jack began making trips to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville when he was in high school, seeking to quench his insatiable thirst for knowledge of fretted instruments. Despite attending university in New York, he spent most school breaks and long weekends in Music City, working summers at Gruhn’s; it was there that he met and befriended Vince Gill, among other musical heroes. With one foot in New York and one in Nashville, Jack expanded his network as both a session player and an artist in both cities, gracing the stages of The Bitter End and The Bluebird Cafe with equal character and charm.
Since graduating from NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in 2019, Jack has added significantly to his laundry list of accomplishments: he’s toured with Vince Gill as both guitar tech and player, produced records for multiple up-and-coming Nashville artists (recorded to tape, of course), released his first single to critical acclaim, played the Grand Ole Opry, and delivered a series of “vanishing albums:” full-length records accessible for a week at a time each during the pandemic, after which they were removed from streaming services and unavailable for physical purchase. Most recently, Jack recorded his debut non-vanishing record with the likes of David Rawlings, Vince Gill, Stewart Duncan, and Dennis Crouch. With a reverence for folk music and an instrumental prowess that captivates audiences everywhere, Jack Schneider is a sharp answer to the ever-urgent question of modern day artistic authenticity.