Sugar Hill Records has released two further CDs in their Americana Master Series, one of which features the best of Ricky Skaggs’ material for the label.

Ricky Skaggs: Americana Masters Series, The Best Of The Sugar Hill Years ( SUG CD-4045) was released on July 7 and features a 13 cut collection of bluegrass & acoustic classics. Among the highlights are Little Cabin Home On The Hill, Daniel Prayed, Little Community Church and If I Needed You.

The series is designed to provide longstanding fans with a collection of favourites, with tracks culled from radio chart toppers, popular downloads and fan mail requests, among other categories.

In the case of Skaggs the material takes us right back to the very beginning of the Sugar Hill catalogue with the issue of Boone Creek’s One Way Track (SH 3701), from which four tracks have been taken. Other obvious sources for exceptional and popular recordings are Sweet Temptation (released in 1979) and the superb duet album Skaggs & Rice, with three cuts.

Less obvious places from which tracks have been taken are Bluegrass: World’s Greatest Show, I’m Not Broke, But I’m Badly Bent, (the Almost Original New South); John Starling’s Long Time Gone, Drifting Too Far From The Shore (with Skaggs singing harmony); and Seldom Scene: 15th Anniversary Celebration, If I Needed You (with Sharon White).

The compilation was produced by Ryan Baker and the notes were written by Craig Havighurst.

The full track listing is as follows ….

• Daniel Prayed
• I’ll Stay Around
• Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow
• Little Cabin Home On The Hill
• Drifting Too Far From The Shore
• Little Community Church
• I’m Not Broke, But I’m Badly Bent
• Head Over Heels In Love With You
• The Old Crossroads
• No Mother Or Dad
• If I Needed You
• Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies
• I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome