Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice

Two bluegrass careers

Rickie Lee Skaggs was born on July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky. He began on mandolin at five, played with Bill Monroe at six, and by 1970 had joined Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys with Keith Whitley. He later played with the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe's New South, formed Boone Creek in 1976, started a country career in 1980, and joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1982. He entered the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018. David Anthony Rice was born on June 8, 1951 in Danville, Virginia, joined Crowe's New South after moving to Louisville in 1970, later played in the David Grisman Quintet, and co-founded the Bluegrass Album Band in 1980. He played a 1935 Martin D-28 he bought in 1975. Rice entered the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and died on December 25, 2020, aged 69.

Both were in the New South, which won the 1983 Grammy for best country instrumental performance for "Fireball". Skaggs & Rice came out on Sugar Hill in 1980 (27:35), recorded at Arch St. Studios in Berkeley and Studio By The Pond in Hendersonville. Their duet album was not planned: according to Rice's biography Still Inside, the two decided on the spur of the moment to record duets, and since Rice was under contract to Rounder, which passed, it went to Sugar Hill. Tracks include Bill Monroe's "Mansions for Me" and "Tennessee Blues", Charlie Monroe's "The Old Crossroads" and the Stanley Brothers' "Have You Someone (in Heaven Awaiting)". AllMusic gave it four and a half stars, and Sugar Hill's 2012 release for the Record Store Day vinyl reissue, remastered from the original analog tapes, called it widely heralded as a sonic and artistic masterpiece.