Boone Creek’s One Way Track
Boone Creek’s One Way Track set the Sugar Hill Records standard for all of the label’s future recordings. Committed to both tradition and progression, the boys of Boone Creek—Ricky Skaggs, Terry Baucom, Jerry Douglas, Wes Golding, and Steve Bryant— did their part in elasticizing the boundaries of bluegrass music. Baucom, who has since gone on to record and tour with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and IIIrd Tyme Out, among others, chatted about the importance of this seminal recording.
BRO: What can you tell us about the recording sessions?
TB: We had been up in Canada playing for a while, mostly at a place called Barton’s Inn. We’d play there through the weekend and it was kind of out in the country, so once you were there, you were there. I think it’s where Ricky and Wes wrote “One Way Track,” the title cut. During the day we would work on the album some. We got into the studio when we got back to the States, and it went really quickly because we had been playing so much.
BRO: Was there any anxiety about releasing the album on a brand new, unproven label?
TB: We were already recording this thing knowing that Ricky was moving on to play with Emmylou Harris. At that time, we didn’t think about it being a new label. We knew the record was coming out and we knew it was good. Everybody in the band knew Barry and he was really ready to get this label off the ground. We had this record and we knew the band wasn’t going to be around much longer, so we had him jump on it.
BRO: What is it about this record that has allowed it to remain relevant to listeners for 30 years?
TB: It doesn’t sound old-timey or like early Flatt and Scruggs or Stanley Brothers. I love that stuff the most, but it’s not like hearing some ancient bluegrass band playing. It’s like it still fits in today. I don’t want to say we were ahead of our time. Back then, it might have been a bit far out for some folks. But we were just a bunch of young guys playing bluegrass.
—Dave Stallard
