Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder bring blues, country and folk to the Birchmere in Alexandria. Skaggs leads the band, which takes its name from the state whose musical traditions shaped his career.

Ricky Skaggs is an American singer, songwriter and instrumentalist whose career spans bluegrass and country. In the early 1980s he scored a run of country chart hits, including "Crying My Heart Out Over You" and "Highway 40 Blues," and before that he played mandolin in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Kentucky Thunder is the band he leads, and the project carries that bluegrass and country lineage forward.

The music on this bill is blues, country and folk, a range that follows from Skaggs's roots in traditional American string music. Listeners who follow bluegrass or country will recognize the lineage, while those new to the artist can trace it back to the Monroe years and the early 1980s hits.

The Birchmere is a venue in Alexandria that hosts concerts and shows. The evening suits anyone interested in acoustic-leaning American roots music performed by a band with a long association with the bluegrass tradition.