Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder At Blue Gate Performing Arts Center In Shipshewana, IN
Shipshewana, IN (September 5, 2025) – The sounds of bluegrass, country and gospel music reign through the walls of the Blue Gate Performing Arts Center on Friday evening as Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder performs.
Ricky and his band roll into town for their annual visit to Shipshewana and perform to another full house crowd as they have done in years past. Most notably known for his bluegrass style of music, the show starts off as such with, “Lost And I’ll Never Find My Way.” Skaggs began playing mandolin at age five and appearing on tv with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at the age of seven. He adds their song “Blue Ridge Mountain Home” to his show every night, along with the Stanley Brothers tune “Lonesome Night.”
As Ricky takes a moment to tune his acoustic guitar, he thanks the crowd for coming out tonight. A lady in the crowd hollers back, “thank you for coming.” Ricky responds in joking fashion, “Ooh, we needed a paycheck.” And the crowd responds in laughter and applause. After a long pause, he comments, “you all paid a lot of money to come to the show this evening. We’re not going to play out of tune. We want you to get your monies worth.” He then proceeds to tell a story of when he would play with his father and his band, “we would be so out of tune, I would ask ‘Dad, can we tune?’ My father would say, ‘son, if you’re a little out of tune, it’s ok, it just makes it sound like there are more of us a playin’.” When he completes tuning the guitar, Skaggs introduces “Halfway Home Café” as a Paul Overstreet written song. At the conclusion of the song, Ricky comments that he wishes he could “write like that dang Paul Overstreet.”
Skaggs begins to introduce the Kentucky Thunder band that stands beside him each night on stage. He starts off with Russell Carson on the five-string banjo. Carson shows off a bit of his banjo playing talent with the showcased “Flint Hill Special.” Next up is the high harmony singing, guitar playing percussionist, Mike Rogers who takes his turn at the microphone to sing the Osborne Brothers tune, “Up This Hill And Down.”
While the band gets set up for the next song and introduction, Ricky makes comment about the show they played the night before. He tells of how the power goes out during their set, and he and the band decide to go to the front edge of the stage to play to those that can see and hear them. It is an outdoor show in southern Indiana and is only 57 degrees outside. The air was a bit brisk and “kinda smelt like the first bluegrass festival I played when I was about 15 years old,” Ricky comments. “First time I saw hippies…in color. I had seen them before on tv on the news, but in black and white. When I got to North Carolina and seen them colorful hippies…they were the sweetest people…so nice, they hugged everybody. They were poor…very poor people. The reason I know that, they would huddle together and dance together. I noticed they shared everything. I saw a gentleman light up a cigarette, take a puff and pass it on to his friend who would take a puff and pass it on. There must have been ten guys standing around smoking that one cigarette.” As the crowd laughed, Skaggs continued “They were the poorest people I had ever seen in my whole life. They were all talking about love, and they were all loving one another.”
Stating that everyone loves Billy, the crowd applauds and cheers loudly as Skaggs mentions he is originally from Michigan. Admiring the crowd, “Oh Billy, you have a lot of fans here tonight” Ricky comments. As he introduces Billy Contreras, they perform the instrumental piece “Stealin’ Corn” Billy learned from the Merle Haggard band.
While strapping up his electric guitar, “been wanting to do this for a long time with this arrangement, adding a drum set and pedal steel guitar to the set for the many requests to play these songs the way they were originally played.” Ricky and the Kentucky Thunder band switch up to perform songs from his 80’s and 90’s country music phase that introduces him to a bigger crowd. They kick off with their #1 singles from 1982, “Heartbroke” and “Honey (Open That Door)” from 1984, to Jimmy Martin’s cover of “Hold Watcha Got.”
Ricky finishes with his band intros by introducing Justin Ross (acoustic guitar), Troy Engle (acoustic and electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, fiddle and mandolin) and Gavin Kelsi (stand-up bass and bass guitar).
Wrapping up the country music version of the show, Skaggs continues with “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could”, the crowd requested “Highway 40 Blues” and the fast-paced, fun hit “Uncle Pen.”
Announcing that he has turned 71 years old this year, Ricky tells of his losing 45 pounds this past year by starting his day by eating a half dozen eggs each morning for breakfast. He admits to liking to cook for his wife Mrs. Sharon. He also makes light on the fact that his wife’s family vocal group The Whites are back to performing again on the Grand Ol Opry stage after a delay due to the death of their father, Buck White.
The show turns to Skaggs’ gospel music with the playing of “Shepard’s Voice,” an unrecorded new song “Closing Prayer” and the instrumental “Horn’s Pipe” before closing the evening’s set. As Ricky and the band exit off stage, they are cheered back to the stage from the crowd to perform one last song. Skaggs jokingly admits to knowing at least one more song before calling it a night. The encore selection for the evening is “Shady Grove.” The crowd quickly raises to their feet as the song ends to cheer and applaud Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder for an enjoyable evening of music and laughter as they wish them well exiting the stage.
Due to the lack of radio airplay and knowledge of, many people aren’t familiar with bluegrass music or gospel songs. Many relate it back to country, hillbilly music from Kentucky, which is the origin of most. However, if ever given the chance to sit and listen to the words and appreciate the artistry of musicianship, you would find a fun enjoyable music that speaks to everyone with simple message. Ricky Skaggs has a broad enough fan base across the globe as a multi genre artist, that he is a perfect spokesman to continue to spread the sounds and knowledge of bluegrass and gospel. Though most fans are only familiar with his country songs from a short time period, they become bigger fans after attending a show and being properly introduced to the other genres.
To learn more about Ricky and his Kentucky Thunder band, or even to keep up with the show calendar at the Blue Gate Performing Arts Center, visit them all by clicking on the links provided below.
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder setlist:
- Lost And I’ll Never Find The Way 2. Blue Ridge Mountain Home 3. Lonesome Night 4. Vine Grove 5. Halfway Home Café 6. Flint Hill Special 7. Up This Hill And Down 8. Stealin’ Corn 9. Heartbroke 10. Honey (Open That Door) 11. Hold Watcha Got 12. I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could 13. Highway 40 Blues 14. Uncle Pen 15. Shepherds Voice 16. Closing Prayer 17. Horn’s Pipe Encore: 18. Shady Grove
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
Blue Gate Performing Arts Center
