Our buddy Wichita Rutherford is perceived by many as a funny man, and rightly so. But the truth is, he takes at least one thing seriously, bluegrass music! He has a lot of fun for sure, but he truly respects the music and the people who create it. His show this week should make that abundantly clear.

His guest this week on The Grand Old Time Machine is none other than Ricky Skaggs himself. The entire hour long show is a conversation with Ricky concerning his latest CD, Songs My Dad Loved.

This interview is unlike any other you’ve heard Wichita do. In fact, it’s unlike any you’ve heard Ricky do! Over the course of an hour you’ll get to hear all 13 of the tracks from the CD, and you’ll hear Ricky talk about the tunes, his childhood, growing up in rural Kentucky and learning to play bluegrass. He really opens up and shares his heart in this interview.

It’s a riveting discussion that gives you a picture into Ricky’s past, and his thinking about the music. I’m sure the story will resonate with many who grew up in similar circumstances.

Here’s a short clip to give you a taste of what the interview is like throughout.

If you want to hear the whole thing, you’ll have to tune in to SiriusXM radio channel 14(XM), channel 65(Sirius). Below are the show times.

Friday the 6th – 9 pm eastern
Saturday night the 7th – 12 midnight
Tuesday the 10th – 3 pm eastern

Bluegrass Junction, the all-bluegrass channel on Sirius-XM, is dedicating much of their programming over this holiday weekend to audio from the Musicians Against Childhood Cancer festival in July. The annual festival features performances from top bluegrass entertainers who appear for free or expenses to support St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.

The Bluegrass Junction coverage starts on Saturday (9/5) at noon, and will include live audio from Blue Highway, IIIrd Tyme Out, Rhonda Vincent, Lonesome River Band and The Grascals.

Listen in over the Labor Day weekend, Saturday-Monday (9/5-7) from 12:00-5:00 p.m. (EDT).

Bluegrass Junction can be heard on Sirius Channel 65 or XM track 14.

Regular Sirius-XM host Chris Jones will be in an unfamiliar position tomorrow when he is interviewed tomorrow on Bluegrass Junction (Sirius 65, XM 14).

Chris is a regular host for their bluegrass music programming, but on Wednesday (8/26) he’ll be in the artist chair, being interviewed by fellow Bluegrass Junction personality Kyle Cantrell. He’ll be on at 11:00 a.m. for the World Premiere of his new CD, Cloud Of Dust.

Immediately following the premiere, the CD will be available for download from Chris’ web site, and pre-release copies are available there for immediate delivery as well. The official release date is set for September 29.

Replays of this show will be aired during the regular Track-By-Track time slot on Bluegrass Junction: Thursday (8/27) at 9:00 p.m. and Sunday (8/30) at 11:00 a.m. All times eastern.

Find out more about Cloud of Dust – and hear a sneak preview audio track – in our earlier post.

Keith Garrett and Chris West of Blue Moon Rising will be the guests on this week’s Track-By-Track program on Bluegrass Junction.

Their latest CD, One Lonely Shadow, was released almost exactly one year ago on Lonesome Day Records, but did not receive a lot of publicity when it first came out. The music, much of it written by Garrett and West, is soulfully played and beautifully recorded – surely one of my very favorite records of ‘08.

If you haven’t heard it, be sure to catch them on Track-By-Track this morning (8/19) at 11:00 a.m., or toorrow (8/20) at 9:00 p.m. It will air one last time on Sunday (8/23) at 11:00 a.m. All times EDT.

Bluegrass Junction can be heard on Sirius Channel 65 or XM track 14.

You can find audio samples from One Lonely Shadow in iTunes.