B I O G R A P H Y
Don Rigsby and Midnight Call
From remote Isonville, Ky., to an international following in Bluegrass music, Don Rigsby has remained true to his mountain roots and made his own marks as a powerful tenor and distinctive mandolin player.
Born February 18, 1968, Don Rigsby grew up listening to early Ralph Stanley records and to the high lonesome sounds of his cousin Ricky Skaggs, learning from those who went before him and then adding his own personal touches. Also influenced by the late Keith Whitley, another Elliott County native, Don comes from a family and a community of traditional musicians.
He has sung since he can remember, started playing guitar at age 12, added the mandolin and fiddle, and plays the dulcimer. For his sixth birthday Don was taken to the Paramount Arts Center in nearby Ashland, Ky., to hear his hero, Ralph Stanley, perform “Little Maggie,” and got an unforgettable bonus when Keith Whitley came out to the audience, hoisted young Don on his shoulders, can carried him backstage to meet Ralph for the first time.
Don worked his way through Morehead State University playing music with Charlie Sizemore, emerged onto the national scene as a member of the Bluegrass Cardinals, played with JD Crowe and the New South, and was a member of the award-winning Lonesome River Band. The two-time Grammy nominee and two-time SPGBMA Traditional Male Vocalist of the Year shared two IBMA awards while performing with Longview and sang on a Grammy-winning album by rocker John Fogerty.
Rigsby has released three solo albums. His first, “A Vision,” won the Association of Independent Music’s “gospel album of the year” award and was nominated for an IBMA award. He received the 1999 Bluegrass Now Magazine Fan’s Choice Award for vocal tenor of the year and the 2001 Governor’s Kentucky Star Award. “Empty Old Mailbox,” the title track from his third album, won the 2001 Song of the Year award from SPGBMA. In 2005, Rigsby was awarded two IBMA awards for his role as producer of the Larry Sparks project “40” for Recorded Event of the Year and Album of the Year. He has recorded two albums with Dudley Connell, with plans for a third, and continues to perform and record with Midnight Call and Longview.
In 2001, Don Rigsby became the first full-time director of Morehead State University’s Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, an innovative program designed to preserve and promote traditional music in all forms, including programs for schools and a minor in Traditional Music at MSU. He was instrumental in the founding of “Bluegrass ‘n More: A Celebration of Appalachian Heritage,” an annual early June festival in Morehead that features Bluegrass, gospel, and other forms of mountain music as well as folk art, fine art, writing workshops, lectures, and exhibitions of Appalachian cultural innovations. Don teaches vocal harmony classes for the traditional music minor, and coordinates classes, workshops, concerts, and school tours by new and old stars of traditional music.
Don Rigsby’s “two best friends in the business” are Dixie and Tom T. Hall, who not only provided “Empty Old Mailbox” but also “The Midnight Call,” the title track from his newest project for Sugar Hill Records.
The new CD is a first-time effort for Rigsby and his Band. “We did it all this time,” said a proud Rigsby. The new project for Don Rigsby and Midnight Call is titled “Hillbilly Heartache” and covers a wide spectrum of Bluegrass from some of the top writers in the field, and is a return of sorts to the Bluegrass mainstream for Don. “On “The Midnight Call” recording, I know I stretched the boundaries a bit, and I believe that is healthy, but I never forgot where I came from or what real Bluegrass is all about…. I do love it,” exclaimed Rigsby!
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