Highways & Heartaches is the fifth studio album by American country music artist Ricky Skaggs. It was released in 1982 via Epic Records. The album peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
This album is cited in the 2023 book Highways and Heartaches: How Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and Children of the New South Saved the Soul of Country Music, by the American academic Michael Streissguth. The book covers the evolution of country music from the rural routes of 1970s Appalachia to the 1980s country music boom.
Track listing
Personnel Ricky Skaggs – lead vocals (1, 2, 4-6, 9), backing vocals (1, 2, 4-6), acoustic guitars, mandolins (2, 4, 8), fiddles (2), vocals (3, 7, 8, 10), Bender electric guitar (6), mandocaster (10) Mickey Merritt – acoustic piano (1, 8, 10) Dennis Burnside – acoustic piano (2, 5) Buck White – acoustic piano (3, 4, 6, 7, 9) Ray Flacke – electric guitar (1, 7, 8, 10), electric rhythm guitar (9) Bruce Bouton – steel guitar (1, 8, 10) Lloyd Green – steel guitar (2, 5) Weldon Myrick – steel guitar (3, 6, 9) Jerry Douglas – dobro (4, 7) Béla Fleck – banjo (8) Jesse Chambers – bass (1, 7, 8, 10) Joe Osborn – bass (2-6, 9) Ernie Ball – bass (4) Jerry Kroon – drums (1-3, 5, 6, 9) Rodney Price – drums (7, 8, 10) Eddie Bayers – percussion (7) Bobby Hicks – fiddles (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9) George Grantham – backing vocals (1) Sharon White-Skaggs – backing vocals (4-6), harmony vocals (9), vocals (9) The Lea Jane Singers (Lea Jane Berinati, Janie Fricke, Ginger Holladay and Anne Marie) – backing vocals (5)
Production Ricky Skaggs – producer Marshall Morgan – engineer, production assistant Glenn Meadows – mastering at Masterfonics (Nashville, Tennessee) Virginia Team – art direction Beverly Parker – photography Chip Peay Enterprises – management
Chart performance Chart (1982) Peakposition
References