Academy Award-winner T Bone Burnett, the original O Brother, Where Art Thou?

By john gerome of The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Even if you don't care much for bluegrass, you can't help but admire Ricky Skaggs'enthusiasm for the music and its formative years.

Skaggs is slated to receive the honor Tuesday during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, putting the 53-year-old singer in the company of luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Sting, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Loretta Lynn and Paul Simon. "I was elated," Skaggs told The Associated Press on Thursday.

By Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky. Jan. 14--As a booking agent, Jim Roe finds performance dates for his bluegrass bands 12 months a year. "I find winter bluegrass concert series all over the country," he said last week.

Ricky Skaggs speaks about bluegrass music with an almost evangelical fervor. He plays it that way, too. "The reason God loves bluegrass so much is its purity, its integrity," says the 52-year-old singer-songwriter-mandolinist during a phone interview from his home in Nashville.