Skaggs Is No 1

Hendersonville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ Skaggs Family Records) - Thirteen-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs has earned his fourth consecutive debut at the top of Billboard's Bluegrass albums chart with his new record 'Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947'.

Skaggs' streak of debut success began in 2006 with the Grammy Award-winning 'Instrumentals,' and continued in 2007 with his critically acclaimed eponymous collaboration with Bruce Hornsby and the album 'Salt of the Earth' (with the Whites), which also won a Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album. His latest project features 12 faithful reworkings of the songs with which Bill Monroe and the 'Original Bluegrass Band' created the genre.

The release of 'Honoring the Fathers' has been met with critical raves. USA Today said Skaggs and his ace pickers Kentucky Thunder 'set the modern standard' for Bluegrass, while Billboard praised the disc as 'nothing short of brilliant.' The New York Times said of the disc 'there is an unmistakable integrity to his effort here... its subject, like its execution, comes across as admirably vivid.'

Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will also headline the New York City portion of the 8 city Green Apple Festival, with a show at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park on April 20, 2008. The third annual Green Apple Festival is 'America's Largest Earth Day Celebration,' culminating in a series of eight free festival shows occurring simultaneously at landmark locations across the U.S.