(written by Jim Rushing)
Ricky Skaggs (#1, 1986)
Ricky Skaggs took on a truckload of pressure to follow up his “Country Boy” album. During the spring of 1985, he left with his band for their first European tour and decided to do it in grandiose fashion.
After warming up on the European mainland, Skaggs arranged to record a live album when they arrived at the Dominion Theatre in London, England. With those plans laid, Ricky went even further, and shot the entire series of shows for a concert video.
Knowing that a lot of money was being spent and much rode on his performance, Skaggs played before a crowd in a country where he had never headlined before. He gave it all he had and got back……only polite applause. After that first London show, Ricky was nervous. All sorts of thoughts ran through his head. Maybe they had miscalculated. Maybe his brand of music didn’t translate to England as well as they thought it would. Maybe he just didn’t give a good performance, things like that.
The next day however, his fears were washed away. Skaggs received overwhelming critical approval in the newspapers. Some of his associates explained to him that English audiences are simply more reserved than American crowds. With that understanding, Ricky felt much more at home the second night and he estimates that 90% of the “Live In London” album came from that second show.
