Troy Engle has been announced as the newest member of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, replacing long-time utility man and harmony singer Dennis Parker, who had spent 18 years with the band over two different stints.
The Pennsylvania native and resident will provide his guitar, mandolin, fiddle, reso-guitar, and pedal steel playing to the band, as well as singing harmony along with Mike Rogers.
Engle had moved from Nashville, where he spent 12 years as a sideman with artists like Larry Sparks, Patty Loveless, Buddy Jewell, The Isaacs, Eric Church, and Leon Russell, back home to Pennsylvania in 2015 with his family. It was a common refrain: after starting a family in Nashville, Troy and his wife, Mandy, felt that raising them back where they had grown up seemed like a better plan.
There Troy and Mandy had their own band, Southern Skies, and Engle recorded new music as a solo independent artist, and for Pinecastle Records.
But Troy tells us that Nashville came calling in a wholly unexpected manner.
“I was not looking to go back on the road at all; it was definitely a God thing.
For no particular reason I had gotten back into steel recently. I played a lot of steel in Nashville, and I guess I figured I could play some with local country bands back home.
We came to Nashville recently as my son was looking to go to MTSU, and I had breakfast one morning with John Bowman, as had been our habit when I lived in town. We caught up on things, and I mentioned playing steel again. He was going out with Skaggs, filling in some, and that same night with the band they mentioned that they wished they could find someone who plays steel. He told them to call Troy Engle.
We were driving home, and almost back, when Mike Rogers texted to ask me about my steel playing. I cut some samples in my studio on steel when I got home, and it seems like they liked what they heard, so they had me down for an audition. I went, and got the gig!”
It turns out that Ricky has been wanting to incorporate some of his country hits from the 1980s into his bluegrass show, and finding someone who could double on steel really piqued his interest. So now, for the country stuff Mike Rogers switches to a small drum kit and Troy goes to steel.
“People are loving it! My first gig with them was at The Ryman. It was Dennis’ last show and I just played steel. We kicked with Heartbroke and the crowd went wild.”
There is a two-fold irony in this career move for Engle. Not only is he back on the road in a bluegrass band, but he says this was his dream gig when he lived in Nashville previouslyy.
“I had wanted that gig for years, utility man with Skaggs. I put in every time it came up, and never even got an audition. Now, without even looking, it comes my way.”
It does sound like a God thing.
For the short term, Troy is driving back and forth to Nashville to meet the band, but is thinking of getting a place out that way, especially should his son end up at MTSU in nearby Murfreesboro.
Congratulations to Troy, and to Ricky!
