Why Ricky Skaggs says you’ve got to have faith

Born 60 years ago this month in Cordell, Ky., Ricky Skaggs has been pickin’ since kindergarten, picking up 14 Grammys, selling millions of records and collaborating with everyone from Jack White to Sharon White (his wife, and a vocalist in the family band The Whites). Now based in Nashville, Skaggs took a break from working on his first album of duets with his wife to talk with LEO.

The Skaggs have been married since 1981. Their album, due Sept. 30, is called Hearts Like Ours. It happened almost accidentally when the pair, often asked to speak at marriage conferences, decided to record a few songs together to have something to sell at those lectures. “We’ve been married for 33 years, and everybody thinks that we’ve written the book on good marriages,” Skaggs says. “We do have a happy marriage, it’s been great … We did a little mini CD, five songs; then we decided we wanted to finish it, make it a real CD that we could put out in the marketplace. Maybe have a single or two that we could try to promote to country radio, as well.”

So the pair recorded eight more songs, including a Flatt & Scruggs song White brought in, “No Doubt About It.” Skaggs recites a few lines for me: I like the way you smile / I like your dimpled chin / I like the way you laugh / I like the way you grin. “It’s just a little love song, back and forth with each other. But I’ve never heard it done as a man-and-woman duet,” he says. “It’s the sort of thing George (Jones) and Melba Montgomery should have done.”

Songs by Marty Stuart, Connie Smith and Don Williams are among other highlights promised for the collection. “It’s really country. Great songs. It’s really exciting. It’s great to hear real country music again,” Skaggs laughs.

Next month, Skaggs’ autobiography, Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music, will be issued in paperback. He’s thinking about recording an audiobook version, too.

First, though, Skaggs and band return to Louisville with some old friends. “We’re really excited about that,” says the ever-eager mandolin master. He first met opener Rhonda Vincent, who’s now 52, when she was a child playing in her family’s band, The Sally Mountain Show. Her brother Darrin, who would go on to play in Skaggs’ band for seven years as an adult before leaving to form the acclaimed bluegrass act Dailey & Vincent, “was standing on a chair playing the bass fiddle when I first met him,” Skaggs says.

Skaggs met Bowling Green native Sam Bush in the 1970s, when Skaggs played the bluegrass circuit as a member of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys. “I remember seeing Sam with the Bluegrass Alliance, out of Louisville. It was before the Newgrass (aka Progressive bluegrass) revival got started. That was a long time ago, but we’ve just followed each other around for years in different bands.”

Skaggs later played with J.D. Crowe and Emmylou Harris before becoming a hot solo act in commercial country music in the ’80s. As he aged out of that field, he reevaluated his life and returned to bluegrass in 1996. “I’ve been so happy coming back and playing real music again,” he says. “I think, these days, bluegrass really is the most pure form of country there is out there.”

He hopes to remain active and creative in music for another 20 or 30 years. But it’s not his top priority, he says. “Really, what keeps me young, keeps me excited, is my spiritual life. Because I know music is such a part of that. It’s hard to have one without the other … I think that’s what makes me a better musician, a better singer, to be able to hear the sounds I need to hear and sing, and play and travel, and have the successful marriage that Sharon and I have had for 33 years.”

Does his faith help him focus? Does it remind him to keep his ego in check? “Absolutely,” Skaggs says. “I wear a bracelet that says, ‘I am second.’ I look at that all the time … My faith keeps me where I need to be. If I really had an ego, or if my focus was on my career, man, I would’ve been gone a long time ago.”

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
with Sam Bush and Rhonda Vincent
Friday, Aug. 1
The Parklands of Floyds Fork
1411 Beckley Creek Pkwy.
theparklands.org/events
$40-$65; 6 p.m.

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

In a different groove with Tune-Yards

Dani Markham was there when elementary school teacher Diane Downs found abandoned instruments in a closet in the early ’90s. “She was, like, ‘Look what I found! Let’s do this.’ And we started a group.” The group Downs started is now called the Louisville Leopard Percussionists, and it has become known globally. In the group’s first year, young student Markham was stuck in a classroom next to Downs’. “I was just envious,” Markham says, “Like, ‘How can I get over there? How can I do that? I want to play all those songs.’ So it was so exciting when I went from second to third grade and we got to play.”

Along with Prince drummer Hannah Ford, Markham is part of the first wave of LLP alumni to begin making their own mark on the global stage. Markham now plays percussion with the Oakland-based avant-pop band Tune-Yards, who play this weekend at the Forecastle Festival.

As a Leopard, Markham also enjoyed the support of her parents. Her mom was the roadie, taking the seats out of the family’s van to haul instruments to every show. “She never missed one beat,” Markham says, unintentionally making a drummer joke.

She continued at YPAS, where she focused on symphonic and orchestral percussion, playing with a percussion ensemble and taking private lessons with Todd Parker. In college at Florida’s University of Miami, Markham began learning about different world percussion rhythms and grooves, studying with a Brazilian instructor. After graduation, she stayed for a couple of years, but soon realized she needed even more options. So she moved to New York.

While that’s often where the story begins, it didn’t happen that way for Markham. She decided she should be on the West Coast instead, where her road trip took her to Oakland, a city that had become home to some Miami colleagues. One weekend, she played at a big tribute event, where she encountered hundreds of musicians she had never met. Two of them separately emailed Markham to tell her about an upcoming Tune-Yards audition. “Things were just making sense. When it happened, it was, like, ‘This is weird, but this is awesome.’”

At the audition, she says, “It was just love at first sight for me. So it was the best audition experience I’ve ever had.” She went in relaxed, having arrived in town recently and not expecting something big to happen in Oakland. “It was just fun. It was, like, ‘Cool, I have to learn music.’ It reminded me of being back in school, because (bandleader Merrill Garbus’) music is so intricate. She wanted me to sing and play percussion at the same time, so learning those patterns, I had to put in the time.”

In little time, Markham was touring the world, and she recently made her TV debut on the Jimmy Fallon-hosted “Tonight Show.” She loves traveling and doesn’t expect to settle down soon. But she will always love us, she says. “Once you leave Louisville, you can never really leave.”

Tune-Yards play Sunday at the Forecastle Festival.

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c. 2014 LEO Weekly

‘We’ve had some tragedy’: The blessing and curse of Gwar

When Louisville metal mainstay Jamison Land got the call to join Gwar, a band he had loved since high school, he could not have been happier. But his dream soon turned into something much more tragic than anyone could have expected.

Founded by vocalist Dave Brockie (who played the character Oderus Urungus) in 1984 in Richmond, Va., the satirical, costumed band has long been known for their outrageous live show and mythology. Land met Brockie through a mutual friend and eventually became roommates with Brockie and rhythm guitarist Mike Derks (aka Balsac the Jaws of Death) for a while. When previous bassist Casey Orr — whose character was Beefcake the Mighty — left, Brockie called Land to put on the 70-pound Beefcake costume.

“I grew up on Bardstown Road,” says Land, an Atherton grad who fondly remembers shows at The Machine and Pandemonium. Previously best known for his work with the band The Burial, Land had moved away but came back home to help his family after his father died. He took a job driving a truck between Louisville and Chicago several times a week — a job that paid more than he’d ever made from music. Land had reached the point where he could accept that his music dreams were not going to be more than a hobby when Gwar called.

Land was on his first tour in 2011 when guitarist Cory Smooth (aka Flatus Maximus) suddenly died from complications of coronary artery disease. On March 23 of this year, Brockie, 50, the last original member, suffered an accidental and fatal heroin overdose. “We’ve had some tragedy,” Land says with a noticeable amount of understatement. “But there’s a legacy here. (Brockie) devoted his whole life to doing this, and we have to continue on and do it for him.”

Last month, Land put together a benefit in Louisville for the Dave Brockie Fund, with proceeds benefiting the arts. But Land couldn’t be there. “I’m doing chemotherapy right now. A couple of months ago, I found out I had testicular cancer,” he says. “I found it real early, so they took it out immediately. My tests are all clear. They made me do two sessions of chemotherapy to reduce my rate of reoccurrence from 50 percent to 5 percent. I’ve got a few months of not feeling so great, but then I’ll be healthy again.”

Former bassist Michael Bishop will fill in on vocals when they perform at their fifth annual Gwar-B-Q festival next month in Virginia. “We’ve been practicing with him,” Land says. “It’s great to get back and start doing some music.”

The day before the festivities begin, Brockie’s Gwar family and fans will send him off with a Viking funeral. The band is also working on a barbecue sauce, a beer and a Gwar-themed bar in Richmond. Land even has his own endorsement deal with an electronic cigarette company.

“As much tragedy as we’ve gone through, it’s such a machine — it’s really hard to stop it.”

photo by Liezl Estipona

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c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Morgan Lebus’ Ribbon Music movement

Growing up in Louisville, Morgan Lebus wasn’t necessarily one of the cool kids. When he started discovering underground music in middle school, his first favorites were bands from the Washington, D.C., Dischord scene. But he found them by following other kids to shows at unconventional venues like the Another Place Sandwich Shop on Frankfort Avenue. Now, 20 years later, he works out of the massive CNN building on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, next door to the Amoeba Records store, running an indie label that has helped several hip bands reach an international audience.

Growing up preppy on Mockingbird Hill Road, Lebus felt out of place among crowds that then included some less-than-tolerant skinheads. “It was very Mad Max-y for me,” he laughs. But he soon fell in with kinder, gentler punks like Endpoint. The band Evergreen led him to look into local music’s recent, more artsy history. When members of Pavement and Sebadoh moved to Louisville, Lebus started down his indie rock path.

At the turn of the century, while bored at a job in New York, Lebus was recommended for the job of tour manager for a Scottish indie band, Arab Strab, who were selling out shows nationwide, by mutual friend Dave Pajo, the guitarist and a fellow Louisville native. Lebus hired Louisville musician Paul Oldham to join as their live soundman. “It was a blast. It was transformative. It was the first time I’d ever traveled across the country,” Lebus says. Oldham’s brother Will, of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, soon asked Lebus to manage his tour, and then Pajo did, too. He also briefly managed each artist and made some “mediocre” videos with them and other acts.

Through Pajo and Will Oldham, Lebus met Laurence Bell, whose London-based label Domino released their records in Europe. Lebus began sending Bell demos of unsigned New York bands he liked. After Domino broke through with their band Franz Ferdinand, Bell expanded his American office, hiring Lebus in 2006. Lebus was then able to help bring bands he knew, like Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors, to the company.

Lebus started his label — which also includes publishing services — as a spin-off of the similar but larger Domino after working there for five years. After Lebus suggested signing a few bands that Bell passed on, and then watched those bands become successful with others, Lebus decided to try something fresh. He and Bell began Ribbon Music as a joint venture, with Lebus as the boss making the decisions.

He moved to Los Angeles to give his growing family more space, while staying close to his industry’s power center. Some of Ribbon Music’s acts now include Laura Marling, Django Django and Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, artists who appeal to both Pitchfork readers and public radio listeners.

In describing where his career has taken him lately, Lebus makes an analogy grounded in a Louisville upbringing. “I didn’t want to be an A&R guy forever. The lifespan of that is like a thoroughbred.”

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c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Jerry Bruckheimer blows up Kentucky

Hollywood mega-producer meets fans in his other home

People have been confused as to why in the unholy heck legendary movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer is coming to an antiques store in the middle of Kentucky. He had a similar type of reaction when his wife, writer and Louisville native Linda Bruckheimer, first told him she wanted to buy an additional house in her home state. She didn’t stop there, continuing to buy buildings and making a revitalization of Bloomfield’s quaint downtown a favorite project. It didn’t take long for her husband to fall for the beauty of the region and the kindness of his new neighbors.

“I love Kentucky, and I love spending time there,” he says. “It’s a great place to relax and forget about L.A. and Hollywood and work. We have a wonderful farm, and I spend a lot of time there.”

If any of the residents of the small town near Bardstown care about his work, he says they keep it to themselves, treating him like any other (occasional) neighbor who enjoys playing hockey with kids at the skating rink.

Nettie Jarvis Antiques is one business owned by the Bruckheimers in Bloomfield, so that’s where he will be signing “Jerry Bruckheimer — When Lightning Strikes: Four Decades of Filmmaking,” the $60, eight-pound coffee table book about his Hollywood career. He’s proud enough of his other town to go out of his way to invite Louisvillians to make the 43-mile drive to see it for themselves. It’s near some distilleries, if one needed more convincing. (His bourbon of choice is Pappy Van Winkle.)

Bruckheimer, a Detroit native, has benefited from Kentucky’s riches in other ways, too. Tom Cruise, born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV of the Louisville Mapothers, starred in two early Bruckheimer hits, “Top Gun” and “Days of Thunder.” The Owensboro-born Johnny Depp writes in the book’s intro about how producer Bruckheimer saved him from being fired from the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie when executives, scared of how children would react to Depp’s performance as Capt. Jack Sparrow, wanted to replace him. The fifth Depp-starring film in the hugely successful series is currently in pre-production.

That the “Pirates” movies are on number five is no accident. Some of Bruckheimer’s success has been tied to his company’s development of concepts that can become franchises, including “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Bad Boys” and “National Treasure”; he is also working now on a reboot of “Top Gun,” in addition to adapting the comic “Alien Legion” as his first live-action superhero movie. Then there are his TV titles, including “CSI” and the upcoming “CSI: Cyber,” plus its two other recent spin-offs.

He’s a creature of habit, having worked with some of the same people repeatedly, like actors Nicolas Cage, Denzel Washington and Eric Bana (star of his latest, “Deliver Us From Evil,” out today) and director Michael Bay. “When you find winners, you want to keep going,” Bruckheimer says. When asked what movie had excited him lately that wasn’t made by his company, Bruckheimer says he “loved” Bay’s fourth “Transformers” movie, calling it “terrific, beautifully done.”

But Bruckheimer, who has loved movies since childhood, says it’s original voices that get his attention. “If it’s something that not only do I want to see, but is unique and special and different … if you try to do something that’s a little different, you won’t always succeed. But we try.”

He still falls for emerging stars, even now at 70, saying, “There’s always somebody new that you look at and you see is fascinating and somebody you’d like to work with — Jennifer Lawrence being a perfect example of somebody that wasn’t around five, six years ago, and now she’s a major movie star.”

The Bruckheimers visit Louisville most years for, if nothing else, Derby. “It’s really an emerging city that has changed a lot,” he says. “It’s amazing what’s going on — the whole warehouse district they’re redoing, it’s really nice. The whole downtown is revitalized.”

As an entrepreneur and Kentucky investor, does he plan to step into the Louisville market? “Unfortunately, I’m too focused on what I’m doing here in California,” he says. So it seems Jerry Bruckheimer has found a story he likes — Hollywood kingmaker invests in a Kentucky town — but this time, he isn’t making a sequel.

Jerry Bruckheimer
Saturday, July 5
Nettie Jarvis Antiques
111 Taylorsville Road
Bloomfield, Ky.
Free; 1 p.m.

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c. 2014 LEO Weekly