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While traveling down U.S.  Rt. 23, the Country Music Highway, you will discover that Lawrence County is the Home of some well-known Country Music Singers and Songwriter in our area like Ricky Skaggs and Larry Cordle. 
 

Ricky Skaggs, of Cordell, Ky., born on July 18, 1954, in Eastern Kentucky, Ricky was already an accomplished singer and mandolin player by the time he reached his teens. He entered the world of professional music with his friend, late country singer, Keith Whitley. The two young musicians were taken under the wing of bluegrass pioneer, Ralph Stanley in 1971. Short but significant periods with other top acts came next. Ricky began to build a reputation for creativity and excitement through live appearances and recordings with such acts as J.D. Crowe & The New South. He performed on their 1975 debut for Rounder Records, which was widely acknowledged as one of the most influential bluegrass albums
ever made. A stint as a band leader with Boone Creek followed, bringing the challenges of leadership while giving him further recording and performing experience. 

Beginning in the late 1970s, Ricky turned his attention to country music. Though still in his twenties, the wealth of experience and talent he possessed served him well, first as a member of Emmylou Harris' Hot Band, and then on his own. With the release of Waitin' For The Sun To Shine in 1981, Skaggs moved to the top of the country charts. He remained there through most of the 1980s - long enough to earn a spot in Billboard's Top 20 artists of the decade and top 100 of the past 50 years. Ricky's popularity (twenty-four singles in Billboard's Top 20, including twelve #1's) was matched by his esteem among critics and fellow musicians. The result: eight awards from the Country Music Association, including Entertainer Of The Year in 1985, four Grammy's, and dozens of other honors. Important as personal successes, these achievements also placed him front and center in the neo-traditionalist movement, bringing renewed vitality and prominence to a sound that had been drowned out by bland efforts to cash in on the urban cowboy fad. Indeed, the renowned guitarist and producer, Chet Atkins, credited Skaggs with "single-handedly" saving country music. 

With a record like that, and with the country music industry's increasingly narrow, crossover-hungry orientation in the 1990s, the way was paved for a return to country music's most down-to-earth form, bluegrass. That's the road Ricky has chosen to take him into the new century. From his past position as host of the Monday Night Concerts at the Ryman series on The Nashville Network to his previous role as a master of ceremonies at the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) annual awards show, Ricky has become one of bluegrass' most talented and dynamic performers. With exposure spanning from Grand Ole Opry appearances to broadcasting on the Internet, he is one of bluegrass' most personable and effective ambassadors. 

At the center of Skaggs' emergence as a bluegrass leader stands his album, Bluegrass Rules!. A true labor of love, it joined Ricky's roots and experience with classic material from the first generation of bluegrass masters. It also puts the music in the hands of a carefully assembled team that shares his delight in creating a sound at once familiar and excitingly new. Kentucky Thunder is an all-star band that includes veteran fiddler Bobby Hicks (who performed on many of Bill Monroe's best-known
recordings), Luke Bulla (fiddle), Paul Brewster (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar), Mark Fain (bass), Jim Mills (banjo), Clay Hess (lead guitar), and Darrin Vincent (baritone vocals, rhythm guitar). These musicians, referred to by the press as the "Blue Angels" of music, have the talent, skill, and dedication to fulfill Ricky's vision of a bluegrass music that can keep up with changing times
with-out losing the essence that makes its fans so enthusiastic. A Kentucky Thunder appearance, with its non-stop, no-holds-barred energy reflecting both sincere enthusiasm and consummate professionalism.  It is an awesome experience, one that brings new and old audiences alike to their feet. 

Beyond its excellence, Bluegrass Rules! is significant as the first release on Ricky's new record label, Skaggs Family Records, Inc. Skaggs looks forward to overseeing further recordings for his new label, Ceili Music, by other artists and with an emphasis on bluegrass and other forms of roots music. With his experience as a producer to draw on (Ricky is one of the few country artists who has produced his own albums from the start, and has produced for artists as well-known as Dolly Parton) the labels are in a good position to be, as he told an interviewer, "a home to great music." 

Though Ricky Skaggs is, as he has frequently said, "just trying to make a living" playing the music he loves, it's clear that he is 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. This has rarely been done in the half-century since Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys first gave shape to bluegrass. Blessed with a close-knit family, an abundance of talent, a lifetime of musical experience, and a solid band behind him, Ricky Skaggs is well on the way to showing the world that "Country Rocks, but Bluegrass Rules!" and to reminding people "to not forget those Ancient Tones." 

Ricky Skaggs set a new standard for bluegrass with the release of Bluegrass Rules! in 1997. Since then, Ricky has been on a mission for bluegrass with non-stop touring, TV appearances, and countless interviews; wrapping it all up by winning the IBMA 1998 Album Of The Year.

Ricky topped himself with Ancient Tones, his second bluegrass release, which injects new fire and energy into the fertile fields of traditional bluegrass. Ricky makes everything old seem new again, from the hard-core traditional songs to more contemporary arrangements, effectively competing with the world's best acoustic music. 

The most recent testaments of Skaggs' ability to compete in the bluegrass arena are his 1999 Grammy Awards and nominations and the award he received at the Nashville Music Awards in February 1999. Ricky won two Grammy's in 1999 including Best Bluegrass Album for Bluegrass Rules! and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for Same Old Train with Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss and others. In addition, he was nominated for Country Instrumental Performance of the Year for the song for "Get Up John." Ricky and his band, Kentucky Thunder, have recently received 10 nominations from the 1999 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards.

To learn more about Ricky Skaggs, you can visit his web site at: SkaggsFamilyRecords.com .
 

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Lawrence County has also been blessed with a great songwriter Larry Cordle.
 

Larry is a U.S. Navy veteran, spending four years of service after
high school.  After being honorably discharged, Larry enrolled in
college at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY.  "It was during his college years that Larry began to tinker with songwriting while performing with his own band.  Ricky Skaggs was living and performing by now with J. D. Crowe....  nearby Lexington, KY. He told Larry he liked some of Larry’s tunes and if and when Ricky got a record deal, he would call for some of Larry’s songs.  Larry, meanwhile, earned his degree in accounting. He worked a day job for a CPA firm and performed three nights a week at a club in Hazard, KY. Finally after much soul searching, Larry decided to give music his full attention. He once again hooked up with Skaggs, who produced an album of original songs of his in 1980. The LP was never released, but one of the songs on it, “Highway 40 Blues” became a #1 song for Skaggs in 1983. This was Larry’s first cut as a young songwriter. Soon after, in 1985, he decided to devote his full attention to songwriting. That year he loaded up and moved to Nashville.
 

Since moving to Music City, Larry has had staff writing deals with the Welk Music Group which later became PolyGram International Pub., Inc. He also co-published deals with BMG Music, McSpadden-Smith Music, and most recently, Shell Point Music with whom he co-owns a company with longtime friend and company founder Randy Harrell.

Larry has scored Top Ten hits with John Anderson (Honky Tonk Crowd), Kathy Mattea (Lonesome Standard Time), Diamond Rio (“Mama, Don’t Forget To Pray For Me”), Ricky Skaggs again with the #1 “Heartbreak Hurricane”, Alison Krauss (#1 “Two Highways”) and five chart singles on the Bluegrass National Survey with his own band, Larry Cordle, Glen Duncan and Lonesome Standard Time. Two of these songs were #1. “Lonesome Standard Time” was the International Bluegrass Music Assn’s song of the year in 1992 and Larry & Glen’s first album was nominated for a Grammy that year. Larry has toured nationally and performed on the world famous Grand Ol’ Opry as well as the legendary Ryman Auditorium.
 

Larry has had songs recorded with Garth Brooks, George Strait, Reba McIntire, Exile, Sammy Kershaw, Trisha Yearwood, Tracy Lawrence, George Jones, Terri Clark, Travis Tritt, John Michael Montgomery, Shenandoah Mel McDaniel, Moe Bandy, John Conlee as well as various other artists.
 

Larry still performs locally at various Nashville venues and nationally with his band Lonesome Standard Time. He and his band released the Bluegrass CD titled “Murder on Music Row” which caused quite a controversy in Nashville as well as nationally. The album soared to #1 on both the Gavin Americana Charts as well as the Bluegrass National Survey Chart. “Murder on Music Row” won song of the year at IBMA as well as SPBGMA and the CD was nominated for a Grammy. The song and the project fostered literally dozens of positive press reviews, among them: People Magazine, The Associated Press, The Tennessean, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Sun Times Etc. 

Additionally, ‘Murder on Music Row’ was nominated twice by the CMA for Song of the Year and actually won Vocal Event of the Year for the version recorded by George Strait and Alan Jackson. Their version of the song was also nominated for a Grammy for best country vocal. Larry and the band released their follow-up CD to ‘Murder on Music Row,’ titled 'Lonesome Cafe', in 2001 through Nashville based Shell Point Records, and have just now released their latest CD, 'Songs From The Workbench.'  You may visit his web site at LarryCordle.com.