Just before Christmas John reported advanced news regarding the forthcoming Ricky Skaggs CD Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass - Tribute to 1946 and 1947 on Skaggs Family Records.

Although the official release date isn’t until March 25th, audio samples from the 12-song album, which pays tribute to Bill Monroe and the ‘Original Bluegrass Band’ (Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise and Howard Watts) who created the genre in 1946 and 1947, are now available on the Skaggs Family web site. There you will also find a special pre-order deal from the record company, where orders placed before the release date will have their copy autographed by Ricky Skaggs.

The album features material drawn from early recordings made by Monroe’s Original Bluegrass Band. Full track listing is as follows ….

As well as the members of Kentucky Thunder (Jim Mills, Paul Brewster, Andy Leftwich, Cody Kilby, Mark Fain) two guests are featured - both former Blue Grass Boys - Earl Scruggs adds his banjo to the mix on Goin’ Back to Old Kentucky and Del McCoury provides vocals on The Old Crossroad.