On his latest album, Songs My Dad Loved, bluegrass master Ricky Skaggs revisits the Appalachian folk ballads and country gospel tunes that his father Hobert used to play around the house during his formative years in Kentucky.
To call it a deeply personal collection would be underestimating the emotion and effort Skaggs poured into this project – he sang and played every instrument himself, painstakingly overdubbing acoustic and electric guitars, banjos, piano, bass, mandocello and, of course, his signature mandolins.
These were the earliest songs that Skaggs learned to play and his deep-rooted passion is evident in every crevice of this album. From the intimate take on Albert E. Brumley’s “This World Is Not My Home” to a rollicking run through the Louvin Brothers’ “Sinner, You’d Better Get Ready,” where he spins captivating harmonies. He easily slips from hushed reverence on the gospel numbers “City That Lies Foursquare” and “Green Pastures in the Sky” to the lighthearted fingerpicking of “I Had But 50 Cents.”
Hobert was determined to teach any of his musically inclined children to play the mandolin after losing his brother and musical collaborator Okel in World War II. Ricky fulfills that wish with Songs My Dad Loved, particularly on the lively instrumentals “Colonel Prentiss” and “Calloway,” and his lush reading of Roy Acuff’s “Branded Wherever I Go,” where his dizzying, twangy solos delightfully drive the music forward.
Like Rosanne Cash’s recent album, The List, which saw her covering selection from a list of 100 essential country songs her father shared with her when she was 18, it’s hard to imagine a more endearing tribute. It kind of puts last year’s Father’s Day card to shame.