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New CD, GLIDE, Release August 19
06/23/2008 On Tuesday, August 19, 2008, KOCH Records will release GRAMMY® Award-winning Dobro master Jerry Douglas's new solo album, Glide. Douglas will celebrate the launch of his latest recording as he headlines the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum's "2008 Artist-In-Residence" series in Nashville, TN commencing on August 19. The residency will include special guest appearances by several of his close musical compatriots, and will continue on August 27, September 16, and September 30.
Internationally recognized as the world's most renowned Dobro player, Jerry Douglas undoubtedly ranks amongst the top contemporary maestros in American music. Douglas has garnered twelve Grammy Awards and numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards, and holds the distinction of being named "Musician of the Year" by The Country Music Association (2002, 2005, 2007), The Academy of Country Music (11 times), and The Americana Music Association (2002, 2003). In 2004, the National Endowment for The Arts honored Douglas with a National Heritage Fellowship, acknowledging his artistic excellence and contribution to the nation's traditional arts, their highest such accolade.
2. Glide 4. Route Irish 5. Sway 6. Unfolding 7. A Long Hard Road 8. Home Sweet Home 9. Two Small Cars In Rome 10. Trouble On Alum (Hector the Hero/Wooed and Marret) 11. Pushed Too Far
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Jerry Douglas Named Artist in Residence for CMHOF
06/20/2008 NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 19, 2008
His incomparable resume includes 12 Grammy Awards, appearances on more than 2000 albums and a decade as the featured soloist with Alison Krauss & Union Station. Later this summer, three-time (and reigning) CMA Musician of the Year Jerry Douglas will add a new accolade to the list: The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museums 2008 artist-in-residence.
Dobro in hand, Douglas will host four memorable evenings in August and September, each carefully curated by the artist to illustrate different facets of his glittering career. He will hold court in the Museums Ford Theater on August 19 and 27, and September 16 and 30; each show begins at 7 p.m.
Hailed as Dobros matchless contemporary master by The New York Times and lauded as my favorite musician by John Fogerty, Jerry Douglas has taken a once obscure and relatively unexplored instrument and harnessed it, through the power of his immense skill and creativity, to create some of the most distinctive sounds in American popular music. Guests attending Douglass residency shows should expect four unique evenings, with set lists and special guests drawn from across the wide swath he has cut into contemporary acoustic music. Douglas, whose latest solo album, Glide, will be released by Koch Records on August 19, follows Cowboy Jack Clement, Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Guy Clark and Kris Kristofferson as the Museums sixth artist-in-residence.
The tapestry of modern American acoustic music is woven with Jerry Douglass rich musical embroidery, said Museum Director Kyle Young. He has embellished recordings by Eric Clapton and Ray Charles, Earl Scruggs and Garth Brooks, James Taylor and Paul Simon, Pat Metheny and Phish, and a couple thousand more. He is a composer, producer, band member, recording artist and session player extraordinaire. But his talents are perhaps best enjoyed live, where he coaxes his Dobro through surprising and satisfying twists and turns and demonstrates its versatility across many genres of music.
Whether he is fronting his own band, performing with Alison Krauss & Union Station or working on one of his many side projects, Jerry continues to explore and expand the Dobros vocabulary. He possesses a restless and majestic creative spirit that is constantly seeking new forms of expression, and in our residency tradition, we are excited to give him our stage for four one-of-a-kind performances.
The son of an Ohio steelworker who played bluegrass on the side, Gerald Calvin Douglas was eight years old when he first heard both Bashful Brother Oswald and Josh Graves at a Flatt & Scruggs concert. Young Jerry originally wanted to play the banjo but became smitten by the Dobros sound: The Dobro really caught my ear, the way Josh Graves played it&it was like a voice. Douglass father altered a guitar so that the strings were high, allowing the youngster to play it like a Dobro. When Douglas was 12, his father bought him a real Dobro, and he began playing with his fathers band, the West Virginia Travelers. In 1973, 17-year-old Jerry joined innovative bluegrass band the Country Gentlemen who, while respectful of tradition and steadfast in their use of acoustic instruments, were known for taking the genre into new arenas of repertoire and stylistic performance. He toured with them between his junior and senior years of high school, and again after his graduation.
Douglas next served a brief stint as a member of J.D. Crowes New South; he and bandmate Ricky Skaggs left in 1976 to form their own group, Boone Creek. The groups tenure was brief, and ended when Skaggs was asked to join Emmylou Harriss Hot Band. As the decades end drew near, Douglas rejoined the Gentlemen and began work on his first solo record, Fluxology. The album, which was released by Rounder Records in 1979, drew its title from Douglass nickname, Flux. This was the first of many solo projects recorded by Douglas when he was not recording or touring with others.
Also in 1979, Douglas again left the Gentlemen and this time joined Buck White & the Down Home Folks, who were touring as the opening act for Emmylou Harris. Douglas played on Harriss seminal acoustic album, Roses in the Snow, and quickly became a sought-after session man in countrys emerging traditionalist vanguard. His work could be heard on some of the most highly regarded albums in the acoustic music field, including Tony Rices classic 1979 album Manzanita. In 1983, Douglas won a Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental for his work on J.D. Crowe & the New Souths instrumental track Fireball. It was the first of dozens of music industry honors for him.
Douglas retired from the Whites road band in 1985 to concentrate on session work, appearing on recordings by Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Gail Davies, Skaggs and dozens of others. Simultaneously, he fronted two of MCAs Master Series albums, Under the Wire (1986) and Plant Early (1989), which explored newgrass and Nashville New Age. In 1989, Douglas joined Strength in Numbers, an irregular ensemble whose members included Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Mark OConnor. He also continued his session work.
By the late 1990s, Jerry not only continued to be in constant demand for recording sessions but had begun producing a growing number of albums, for himself as well as artists such as the Del McCoury Band, the Nashville Bluegrass Band and Jesse Winchester.
As the millennium neared, Douglas was invited to join Alison Krauss & Union Station, with whom he is about to celebrate his 10-year anniversary. Now known as Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, the band has allowed Douglas the best of both worlds: the opportunity for adventurous sonic collaboration with one of American musics most respected artists, as well as ample free time to continue pursuing his own projects. On one such break, Douglas worked with producer T Bone Burnett on the soundtrack for the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? The smash CD, which has sold nearly 10 million copies, has been credited with reviving and broadening interest in acoustic roots music.
Douglas also formed the Jerry Douglas Band, where he has continued to break stylistic barriers. The group has headlined such diverse and prestigious festivals as Bonnaroo, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and toured as the opening act for Paul Simon in 2006.
In June of 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts honored Douglas with a National Heritage Fellowship award (the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts) for his contributions to the excellence of Dobro guitar music. In addition to his Grammy and CMA Award accolades, he has also been honored by the Academy of Country Music, the International Bluegrass Music Association and the Americana Music Association. While he may be the most lauded Dobro player in music history, Douglas finds his greatest reward in pushing musical boundaries and expanding the vocabulary of his beloved instrument. Being a musician&keeps me happy. Its my job but its also my quest.
Jerry Douglas residency event tickets ($30) will be on sale exclusively to Museum members July 14-20 (a one-year Museum membership is $25 for adults, $10 for youths). Tickets will go on sale to the public at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, July 21 and should be purchased online at www.countrymusichalloffame.com. For more information, call (615) 416-2001. Museum doors open at 6:00 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. shows.
These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museums mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museums Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.
More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com or by calling (615) 416-2001.
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SESSION SUPERSTAR
05/01/2008 TUSCON WEEKLY Dobro legend Jerry Douglas is one of the busiest, most honored musicians you've never heard of By JIM LIPSON
The hardest-working man in showbiz? Forget the late James Brown. With nearly 2,000 appearances on vinyl, CDs and soundtracks, more than 100 different producer credits, a touring band of his own, a side project with Sam Bush and Béla Fleck, and, oh yeah, 10 years so far as the featured soloist with Alison Krauss and Union Station (AKUS), Dobro player extraordinaire Jerry Douglas must have some kind of calendar/day planner. "Actually, when I joined AKUS, I had to put a lot of the session work on the backburner. Still, there are some things I can't pass up," he said during a recent phone interview, "like working with (jazz and fusion greats) Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny," as he did recently. "That seemed like a special occasion, and I'd kick myself if I didn't say yes." Indeed, his discography reads like a who's-who of what is sometimes referred to as newgrass, jazz-grass or progressive country music. "They used to call it 'new acoustic,' but that was kind of stupid," he said commenting on the age-old conundrum of marketing. "Sometimes, they like to classify it as 'bluegrass/splinter.' We really don't know what to call it, except it's just 'good music.'" Throughout his career, Douglas has played the role of an ultimate Nashville session player. But unless you're really tuned in to his corner of the music world, it's a good bet you've never heard of this guy, who has quietly gone about his business while racking up a full dozen Grammy awards. (That's 12 awards, not nominations.) "Of course, you're in shock about (getting) any of them," he said. "For O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it was a bit of a surprise how they really embraced that record." Douglas was featured throughout that soundtrack. But it was the award for one of his own compositions--the instrumental "Unionhouse Branch," with AKUS, which won Best Country Instrumental Performance--of which he's most proud. "Any time you're recognized for something you've actually created, it's a great honor." Douglas admitted it's not every kid's dream to grow up and be a great Dobro player. (The Dobro is similar to a National steel guitar. Like the National, it's played with a slide.) "But my father was a guitar player and always had a bluegrass band. I grew up listening to Flatt and Scruggs on the radio with live broadcasts from Nashville. And when we couldn't get the radio in, we'd put a record on." Living in Ohio, however, Douglas could also listen to the rock 'n' roll stations from Cleveland at night, and he credited this influence for helping to shape his out-of-the-box approach to bluegrass. Aside from his regular gig with AKUS and the session work, Douglas expressed the greatest reverence for his connection with Strength in Numbers, the aforementioned side project with Bush, Fleck, Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer. "Béla and Sam are my favorite musicians. I can listen to them at any time and marvel at what they do. They are masters ... everyone else is a version of them." This year in June, as in years past, they will meet up at the holy grail of acoustic festivals, Telluride. "When we're on stage, it's hardly fair to the audience. ... We're amusing ourselves so much, we're just hoping they will stay with us." Another side project Douglas has taken the lead in is something called the Transatlantic Sessions. This is an ambitious collaboration that brings American musicians together with British counterparts. "The idea is to bring musicians, singers and songwriters from the U.S.A. and U.K. to one place. We film for two weeks in a castle or a manor, and it's great, because everyone checks their egos at the door." Initially filmed as a BBC series, Transatlantic has produced two DVDs, with another one in the works. A handful of CDs from the project has been released as well. Currently on break from AKUS, Douglas is fronting his own band. Featuring all original material, "These are tunes I've recorded, and this is the only chance I get to play them." In the band's early stages, three years ago, they played only a handful of shows. Now they are up to 60 dates a year, with last year's tour opening for Paul Simon. Douglas promised a big, full sound, including drums, something he acknowledged is not always welcomed in traditional bluegrass circles. But then anything traditional is not really in the Jerry Douglas vocabulary, musical or otherwise.
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EDGAR MEYER, JERRY DOUGLAS AND SAM BUSH
11/02/2007 By JON PARELES, NEW YORK TIMES Anyone expecting straightforward bluegrass from Jerry Douglas on dobro, Edgar Meyer on bass and Sam Bush on mandolin or fiddle got just a little bit of it on Wednesday night. At the end of the trios concert at Zankel Hall, the musicians breezed through a banjo tune. Before then, nearly all the music they played was poised comfortably between genres: deeply rooted in bluegrass technique but toying with the parameters and options of string-band music. The trios members were as attentive to structure and sonic detail as any chamber-music ensemble, while their tunes conjured mountain musics Celtic roots along with blues, reggae, jazz and the modes of Eastern European or Middle Eastern music. Between the exquisite compositions, they cracked jokes. They have been making musical hybrids for a long time. Mr. Bush started his untraditional New Grass Revival in 1971, and newgrass is as good a term as any for what these musicians do in their many bands. (Among other projects, Mr. Douglas is in Union Station with Alison Krauss, and Mr. Bush tours with Lyle Lovett when not leading his own band.) Their fusions now sound cozy and natural, without flaunting their tricky structures or technical feats. On Wednesday night the melodies sang, through pensive waltzes and unhurried reels and jaunty tunes like the Irish-reggae hybrid The Lochs of Dread. The technical feats are there. Where most bluegrass bassists spend their lives playing oompahs, Mr. Meyer writes himself into the counterpoint, and he often conceives his bass fiddle as a fiddle, doing everything but putting it under his chin; he maintains a light touch and nimbly bows what could be fiddle tunes, only pitched lower. In a solo piece, Mr. Douglas used the richness of his dobro so that each gleaming melody note seemed to be just peeking above a pool of chords. The three musicians have calibrated the ways they share textures; in one piece, mandolin and dobro pinged 16th notes back and forth, perfectly staggered at top speed, and in another, a bowed drone on Mr. Meyers bass brought out somber resonances. The trio played pastorales and cheerful toe-tappers, though the toe-tappers were likely to move in odd meters or keep unfurling new material. When they wanted to, the musicians could pour on the razzle-dazzle, with Mr. Bush zooming around the mandolin fretboard and Mr. Douglas playing solos that twanged and skidded and chicken-plucked. Even with its musicianly flourishes and structural embellishments, the music was down-home. But the trio was after more than good-timey grins and thrills. Their music was thinking all the time, just not getting pretentious about it.
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Session Stars at Festival Reunion
01/18/2008
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Jerry Douglas Signature Resonator Guitar
01/17/2008
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Fine Points
08/20/2007 THE MUSICAL LIFE FINE POINTS by Daniel Menaker AUGUST 20, 2007 Devotees of Antiques Roadshow, which, if nothing else, has exposed the financial folly of refinishing old furniture, know that a backstory adds value to any old thing: Because its a matter of public record that your grandfather did time in the Hannibal jail for stealing this hutch from a barber who once trimmed Samuel Clemenss mustache, its worth a lot more. Brrrrinng! So one wonders what the 1980 Martin M-42 custom guitar in the display case at Matt Umanovs vintage-guitar store, on Bleecker Street, would fetch if it didnt have a knife gash in it from a bar fight in Mexico, and if the scary-looking metal folding knife that allegedly caused the gash didnt come with it. Guitarists believe some guitars have a strong mojo. In this case, were offering the mojo itself with the instrument, Danny Reisbick, the store manager, said the other day. The asking price for the wounded guitar, with knife: $6,995. Umanov recently sold a steel resonator guitar that is accompanied by a gentler but no less colorful mojo item: a mud-dauber wasps nest inside its body. Price with the nest: Brrrrinng! $3,495. So much to know! The visit of Jerry Douglas, the Dobro player for Alison Krauss and Union Station, to the Umanov store a couple of weeks agothe day of the groups appearance at the Beacon Theatreproved to be an impressive reminder of how refined fine points can be. Douglas, who was looking for a Keeley overdrive pedal, noticed almost immediately that the store had, besides the lacerated Martin and the mud-dauber resonator, two guitars made from koa wood, which comes from Hawaii. He saw them from afar. Hawaiian-style guitars are slide guitars, played on the lap, like Dobros. Oh, that one was made from a tree on the west side of the island, and the other one was made from a tree on the east side, Douglas, a stately man of some fifty years with brown, thatchy hair, said. You see how the grain on that one, from the east, is pretty straightlots of rainfall there. But the grain on that one is more twisty and gnarled, so its from the west side, where theres much less moisture. He picked up one of the guitars, asked for a metal slide from a display case, sat down on a stool, laid the instrument on his lap as if it were a baby, and sent forth a volley of bluesy notes. Then he played a bit that recalled Don Ho, the Hawaiian musician responsible for the vogue for the Hawaiian-guitar warble some decades ago. Douglas then turned his attention to a brand-new National resonatora metal guitar patterned on older models favored by blues musicians. Can you believe this? he said, pointing at the factory-generated dings in the metal, like pre-washed and pre-torn bluejeans. He turned the guitar over and said, with some merriment, Look, theyve even simulated belt-buckle marks back here. As Douglas walked out of the store, he spied a box of assorted picks on the counter and went through their taxonomy, too. He singled out a thumbpick, which in his hand immediately became remarkable for its elegance and sturdiness. He said, This is a Golden Gate pick. I can go through one of these in just two sets, because I use my thumb so much. I taught myself the Dobro and my techniques are really weird; I use my thumb to dig out notes more than anyone else. After two sets, this would start to bend. Later that night, at the Beacon, Douglas had his customary solo session, at the start of which he commented on the dark side of noticing exquisite detail. Weve been on the road together for quite a while now, he told the audience, and added, gesturing toward one of his bandmates, and the way that guy chews is driving me crazy. He proceeded to play three of his own songs, and you could listen to them just on their surfaces, of course, and be appropriately dazzled. But you could also consider for a moment the backstorythe body of knowledge that gave those notes such expressiveness. Yeats called it the fascination of whats difficult. f
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JERRY DOUGLAS wins 2007 CMA Musician Of The Year
11/08/2007 Congratulations to JERRY DOUGLAS on being awarded CMA Musician Of The Year at the 41st Annual CMA Awards. Having been nominated in 2 categories, Musician of the Year and Vocal Group of the Year (as part of Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas), Douglas took home top honors in the category honoring instrumentalists, his third such honor. This win adds to his ever-growing collection of awards, which now includes 3 CMA Awards, 12 Grammy Awards, 10 ACM Awards, 2 Americana Music Association Awards, and the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship. Jerry Douglas was also seen by millions of viewers on ABC TV performing the song "Simple Love" with Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas during the CMA telecast. This caps off an already stellar year for Douglas, who has already participated in a sold out tour with Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, a recent series of concerts with his friends Sam Bush and Edgar Meyer (including a sold out performance at Carnegie Hall), a GAC special with Alison Krauss & Union Station, highly-acclaimed headline engagements at such prestigious festivals as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and MerleFest, and as a featured artist on a PBS special honoring Paul Simon. Recognition overseas continues to grow following his performances with his band at the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and his serving as Music Co-Director for the BBC TV series Transatlantic Sessions 3, featuring highly acclaimed artists from Scotland, Ireland, and The United States. Expect more things to come from Jerry Douglas in 2008, including a tour with his band and a new solo album on KOCH Records. Stay tuned to www.jerrydouglas.com for updates.
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Dont miss JERRY DOUGLAS with Paul Simon on PBS
06/26/2007 JERRY DOUGLAS was among a select group of performers asked to celebrate the distinguished of Jerrys close friend Paul Simon, one of America's most respected songwriters and musicians as Paul received the first-ever LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GERSHWIN PRIZE FOR POPULAR SONG. At Paul Simons invitation, Jerry traveled to Washington DC to participate in a concert at Warner Theatre in celebration of this honor along with a diverse group of esteemed performers including Yolanda Adams, Marc Anthony, Dixie Hummingbirds, Art Garfunkel, Alison Krauss, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lyle Lovett, Stephen Marley, James Taylor and Buckwheat Zydeco, and presenters Billy Collins (former poet laureate), Bob Costas and Lorne Michaels. Tune in to your local PBS station at 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 27, 2007, to see Jerry perform Graceland with Alison Krauss and The Boxer with Shawn Colvin and Alison Krauss on PAUL SIMON: THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GERSHWIN PRIZE FOR POPULAR SONG. More info at PBS.org The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin. This newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture. The prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. Paul Simon is the first recipient of this honor. In addition to touring with Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas across North America this Summer, Jerry has recently completed highly-acclaimed engagements at such prestigious festivals as MerleFest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Visit jerrydouglas.com for a complete listing of tour dates, including performances with The Jerry Douglas Band and other exciting artist packages to be announced for Fall 2007.
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Music Review: Stars of 'grass excel from blue to n
05/14/2007 Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Douglas, Rice, AKUS prepare jam session
05/10/2007 Thursday, May 10, 2007 |
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Douglas, Rice, AKUS prepare jam session
05/10/2007 Thursday, May 10, 2007 |
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Jerry Douglas Honors Paul Simon
04/24/2007
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Review - Best of Jerry Douglas's Sugar Hill Years
04/20/2007 JERRY DOUGLAS/Americana Masters Series:
One of the architects of NAC, Douglas was part of that crew of pickers that was making great music in the early 80s that no one what to do with or what to call, even if all of them went on to set the new standards. Culled from his five sets for Sugar Hill, this is a look at a master picker doing his thing, pushing boundaries and topping himself because he can. Deceptively down home, this is world class picking that won’t do anything less than blow the dust off your ears. He can play anything from his resophonic guitar and simply does and does it all great. Hot stuff. Chris Spector Midwest Record Lake Zurich, IL
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Douglas a Blur of virtuosty
02/16/2007 Michael Lisi, Albany Times Union
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Concert a delight for Trapp fans
02/02/2007 Lawrence F. Specker for the Mobile Register "Have you guys ever met this fellow?" Jerry Douglas asked his audience, a good way into Saturday night's show at the Mobile Civic Center Theater. The response wasn't just enthusiastic; it was personal. Several hundred people seemed eager to claim Douglas' guitarist, Guthrie Trapp, as one of their own. It was a reasonable assertion, given Trapp's roots in Baldwin County and Pensacola. Proud parent Joe Trapp of Lillian later told me he thought he knew half the people there. It made for a warm friends-and-family vibe that heightened what was already a stellar concert. Guthrie Trapp, a 27-year-old guitar whiz who moved away to Nashville five and a half years ago to seek his fortune, never spoke from the stage. But he didn't have to. Just the fact that he was there, chosen as a sideman by one of one of Nashville's most respected and most inventive instrumentalists said plenty. You couldn't ask for a better homecoming. But just in case anyone missed the point, nine-time Grammy winner Douglas was generous with his praise. "I haven't found a thing yet the boy can't do," he told his audience. "There's just nobody else like him in the whole wide world." And then there was the music. Thanks to fun opening sets from Dread Clampitt, Rollin in the Hay and The Wrights, Douglas' band got a late start but made it worth the wait. Material included one or two tunes Douglas has played with his most famous project, Alison Krauss and Union Station. "We Hide and Seek" was a particular standout, re-creating that ensemble's ability to sound tempered and joyful at the same time, world-wise without being world-weary. The sense of that group's presence was so strong that you could almost see Krauss standing there -- though the song is an instrumental even when that other ensemble plays it. But the set list naturally emphasized Douglas' solo catalog -- and that, as they might say, is a whole 'nother ball game. Grounded in bluegrass, Douglas has made a name for himself as an artist who brings outside influences in, rather than sticking to the handbook. This was never more clear than when he introduced a classic song he covers on his newest album, "The Best Kept Secret." "There was a wonderful bluegrass band in the late '70s and early '80s," he said, pausing for effect, "called Weather Report." "Bill (Monroe) would've loved 'em," he added. "They played some of the same notes he played." When the laughter died down, Douglas paid a more solemn tribute to that frontier-busting jazz group. He'd recorded another Weather Report song years ago, he said, but "I waited a long time to even attempt this one." With that, the band launched into "Remark You Made," Douglas playing his dobro like Wayne Shorter might have played his horn, and bassist Todd Parks switching easily to a bend- and vibrato-heavy style that couldn't have been farther from bluegrass or country. And again on the Douglas original "Ankara to Izmir," the group threw in everything but the kitchen sink on a composition inspired by a bus trip Douglas once took across Turkey. Sometimes music gets to a point where asking "what kind of music is it?" is as pointless as asking how water tastes. Saturday's show was like that. Despite bluegrass roots, it wasn't a bluegrass show. Despite obvious jazz, country and rock influences, the band didn't color within any of those lines, either. It was fearless music, that's what kind of music it was. It was the kind of thing you get when people play what's inside them, rather than playing to what they think the listeners' expectations might be. Trapp took his fair share of solos, as you'd expect, including one memorable blast late in the show when he got to wring out the honky-tonk Telecaster techniques he's honed with Nashville's Don Kelley Band. In that one case he clearly went on for longer than his bandleader had asked, but got clean away with it because it just kept getting better the longer he went on. Douglas was as floored as the crowd. But was what unexpected, aside from that one free-running romp, was the way Trapp's solos fit into the show. This wasn't the rock or country idiom where the script has a line that says "insert hot solo here" and some gunslinger stands in the spotlight and does it by the numbers. In Douglas' band, the mandate appears to call for solos that fit the compositions, that draw instant by instant on what the other players in the band have just done and what they are doing just now. It's a subtler, tougher challenge to shine in this environment, and Trapp did. You could plainly see that sometimes he was the challenger, sometimes he was the one being challenged. Joe Trapp said he saw it too, and he ought to know -- and it made him that much prouder. "We're just happy he's with a bunch of guys who are doing so well," he said. He was, as you'd expect, pleased as a parent could be with the way his son's homecoming played out. "We didn't know what to expect. Jerry just went above and beyond to draw attention to Guthrie," he said. "We couldn't be more excited about it."
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Jerry Douglas Band, Glasgow
02/04/2007 By Rob Adams, The Herald So, Fred Flintstone bumps into Charlie Parker and banjo genius Bela Fleck provides the soundtrack. Except Fleck is playing not banjo, but saxophone. Such is the stuff of Jerry Douglas's dreams. But, rather than turn over and pull the quilt over his head, Douglas fashions a piece of music that describes this unlikely conglomeration of characters. Thus his band whizzes through a piece of bebop at a lick to rival the Flintstones theme and that includes, no surprise here, a dobro solo from Douglas that would earn him a gig with any jazz group. Douglas seems to do this sort of thing for fun. Never mind the thousands of country and bluegrass sessions he's featured on if it's music, he'll find a way of dragging his metal bar across the guitar strings that makes his instrument sound as if it was custom built for the style. He's articulated uilleann pipe music before, complete with grace notes and authentic phrasing, and here he turned a Turkish bus trip into convincing dobro impressionism as well as tracing his own journey from bluegrass to futurism. With such a polymath for a bandleader, Douglas's musicians have to be super alert and just as able. Opening with the classic Douglas rootsy rumble Takarasaka, they rocked and rolled with his every change of direction. These are serious players. Guitarist Guthrie Trapp plays with the sort of fingerbustin' feverishness that's lit up sessions from Sun Records onwards but wouldn't sound out of place in a hot club jazz quintet, and fiddler Luke Bulla also earned the audience's appreciation with sparky contributions that were as creative as they were spontaneous.
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Guitaritst Trapp to Mobile with Jerry Douglas
01/26/2007 By LAWRENCE SPECKER Entertainment Reporter It'll be Jerry Douglas' show on Saturday, but Guthrie Trapp's homecoming. Dobro player Douglas is a figure well-known to area music lovers, particularly those who've turned out for sold-out shows by bluegrass crossover act Alison Krauss and Union Station. A star member of that world-famous ensemble, he's also enjoyed a formidable career as a studio and solo musician in his own right. He has nine Grammy awards to his credit. On Saturday he leads his own band into the Mobile Civic Center Theater, topping a bluegrass-flavored bill that also includes The Wrights, Alabama-based trio Rollin in the Hay and Dread Clampitt. And in his band is Trapp, a Lower Alabama guitar prodigy who, in the minds of many supporters, has the potential to achieve the same kind of far-reaching success that Douglas has enjoyed. And Douglas does not disagree. "He's got a long, long career ahead of him," Douglas said. "Whatever he wants to do, he can do it."
Life on the line
Guthrie Trapp, now 27, was born in Pensacola to Joe and Mary Trapp, and grew up in Lillian. "I feel like I'm from both places," he said. "Lillian is home, for sure, but Pensacola too." His rapid musical rise indicates that he had both rare talent and a rare degree of support from family and friends. One uncle was a musician and his parents were avid music lovers, exposing him to a wide range of material. According to his own online biography, his father's hands-on involvement in music included promoting at least one Pensacola appearance by the New Grass Revival, an influential progressive bluegrass group. Its members included mandolin player Sam Bush, who was to play a pivotal role in Guthrie's later career. By age 10, Guthrie Trapp was into bluegrass, and by 14 he was a member of an established group, the White Sands Panhandle Band. Looking back, Trapp said he figures he was playing at least semi-professionally even earlier than that. "I started playing gigs out when I was probably 12 or 13 and was getting paid for it and had to show up on time and know all the material," he said, "so I guess that would be the beginning of it." Norman Jeter, active these days as the guitarist for area bluegrass trio Delta Reign, was one of those who recognized Trapp's talents early. Joe Trapp would drop his son off for informal lessons. "One thing that has always impressed me, when he was first starting out, I'd show him a song," Jeter said. "Two weeks later, he was showing me how it really went." By the time he was 14 or 15, Trapp said, he was sitting in with older musicians in venues like the famed Flora-Bama Lounge and Package. A couple more years, he said, and he was a regular performer in such places, not just a guest. "It's unbelievable how much he stood out," Jeter said. "And it really couldn't have happened to a nicer family." He said that what distinguishes Trapp's playing are his smoothness and his confidence. "He takes charge," Jeter said. "He presides over the guitar." Trapp said he has too many mentors and teachers from those days to name, but he's grateful to them all. "They would all help me because I was so young," he said. Starting in 1995 he formed a duet with Gove Scrivenor. In the later '90s he joined one with Nick Branch, and that project grew into the band The Filthy Rich, which toured nationally and opened for well-known acts including the Sam Bush Band. By this time Trapp was proficient on mandolin as well as acoustic and electric guitar. He also had reached beyond his bluegrass roots to explore other styles. He moved to Nashville, where he has now lived for more that five years. Things continued to move swiftly. In addition to playing in local ensembles, he spent time in Patty Loveless' band, an eye-opening experience. He was "thrilled to death" to get the job, he said, but "I really had no idea how good she was." She liked to pick good musicians and let them run more or less free, he said, which was an "incredible" experience. It also was good preparation for the gig that was to come. "When I got that call to come try out with Jerry, I was blown away," he said. "This was an incredible opportunity." "Jerry, I've been hearing his name since I was a little kid," Trapp said. "Guys like him and Sam Bush and Bela Fleck, we held them up to be super pickers." In fact it was Bush, who'd been crossing paths with Trapp since the guitarist was 8, who advised Douglas to make the call. Douglas said Bush might have hired Trapp himself, except that he wanted someone who could sing harmony. "Sam Bush told me about Guthrie," Douglas said. "Every time Sam would be without a guitar player or a singer, he'd go, 'Man, there's this guy named Guthrie Trapp. He can kill a guitar, but he can't sing a note.' Well, I've heard Guthrie sing, and he's right." Given that Douglas' band plays instrumental music, this wasn't a concern. He called Trapp in early 2006 and invited him over. They didn't play at all, on that first meeting. They just talked. Trapp said that's actually not an unusual way of doing business in Nashville. Veterans understand that while they only spend a couple of hours a day on stage, they have to spend all day every day with their bandmates. They want someone who can play, but they need someone who can hang. "If the band doesn't get along, you might as well forget it," Trapp said. But Douglas evidently liked what he saw, both personally and professionally. When the Jerry Douglas Band hit the road last spring, supporting Douglas's new "The Best Kept Secret" album, Trapp was on board. He's the comedian of the group, Douglas said, but he's a serious player. "He lives, eats, sleeps and drinks guitar," Douglas said. "He's just amazing. I couldn't throw anything at him that he couldn't spit right back at me." "He just keeps surprising us," Douglas said.
Turning loose
Those who know Douglas primarily through his association with Krauss shouldn't come to Saturday's concert expecting him to replicate the Union Station sound. "It's a different show," he said. "It's more about turning people loose." Douglas said his roots are in folk and bluegrass, and that "never goes away." But he has reputation for ranging far afield, and in conversation about his playing style, he throws out names such as guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. "It all rubs off on you," he said. "It all influences you." Additionally, he said, the dobro is a relatively new instrument, meaning that performers are free to follow their own roads. The word dobro comes from an abbreviation of Dopyera Brothers, one of the first companies to make what are more generally known as resonator guitars. Where conventional acoustic guitars make sound by vibrating their wooden tops, resonator guitars use one or more speaker-like metal cones, lending a glistening, metallic sound favored by some blues players. It's a sound that Douglas has taken in previously unexplored directions. "I look at it more like a horn than a guitar, I guess," he said. Then again, this being his band, he's sort of the lead guitarist, he said, "even though I've got one of the best lead guitar players, standing to my left, that I could ever hope to hear." That said, he's not coming to town to teach a music theory class. "I like for all the music and everything we do to be accessible to the audience," he said. "We're not trying to run off from them and leave them in the dust. It's not as heady as a Coltrane show or something like that. But it's challenging. We want it to be challenging at the same time. I want you to hear something you've never heard before." "In the middle of the first song you just forget about (not having) a singer, because everybody up there is singing," he said. "It's just a different language." Douglas said his approach is to pick the best musicians he can find and then let them run. "I don't have a leash on anybody," he said. "They're just amazing musicians. I just stand back and go 'Wow. That's what you think of my song. My song never sounded that good.'" "He never tells us what to play," affirmed Trapp. "As creative as we want to get, he will not pull the reins back on that at all. He's all for hanging out there on a limb. That's the way to do it. That's the way to learn something. If you play it safe, you're never going to break through into those new territories." "We want to entertain them," said Douglas. "We're not trying to blow them away with chops, or leave them flabbergasted by our dexterity. there's more to entertaining people than that. I like to talk to people. I like to get used to where I am. "Every time we've (Alison Krauss and Union Station) played the Saenger I've gone down the street there to Wintzell's and just eaten like three meals a day there, and tried to read all the signs on the walls, which is impossible." Playing material from "Best Kept Secret" puts Trapp in the position of playing songs which, on disc, feature legendary guitarists such as Derek Trucks and Bill Frisell. Except that Douglas doesn't insist on mimicry. "He could learn anything they did ... but I really don't want him to do that," Douglas said. "I want him to be himself, and everybody else up there too." Ambitions The Jerry Douglas Band isn't Trapp's only venture, even now. When he's not on tour, he plays four nights a week with Nashville's Don Kelley Band, which he describes as "the greatest honky-tonk band in the world." There's also a regular Monday-night gig in the neighborhood tap room. Even though he played in arenas when the Jerry Douglas Band opened for Paul Simon last summer, he likes to revisit his Flora-Bama days, he said. "I still play in bars. I still love playing in bars," he said. "It's just more personal, I've always like that."
And Fender recently flew him to Anaheim, Calif., to play showcases for some of the company's musical instruments at the NAMM convention, a major industry gathering. (A Fender clip of him playing a Guild guitar can be seen on www.youtube.com; just search for Trapp's name.) He said that when it comes to solo recordings, he has "a lot of ambitions." "I need to do a guitar record really bad," he said. "I'm going to do one this year." Underneath the ambition, though, is a certain humility. Trapp said he doesn't feel like someone who's practiced or studied as much as he might have. He's always played by ear and by feel, he said. Consequently, he said, he doesn't think he's much good as a teacher. "I feel like I've been really lucky," he said. Then again, he said, "I don't regret it one bit. A lot of people tell me they would rather hear somebody that plays from their heart than somebody that plays from their head." The immediate thing is the joy of coming back home on a major tour. On previous runs with Loveless and Douglas, he never came anywhere near south Alabama. This is a special occasion, and he said he's been getting a deluge of calls and e-mails from old friends. "I couldn't be any happier," he said. "I couldn't ask for anything more at this point." © 2007 The Mobile Register
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Douglas' Year to Relax Filled with Nonstop Work
01/26/2007 By John Wirt for theadvocate.com The Jerry Douglas Band When: Friday, Jan. 26 (8 p.m.) Where: The Manship Theatre Tickets: $15-$35 Master dobro player Jerry Douglas is a prominent contributor to that roots-music phenomenon, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Hes also the winner of 12 Grammy awards, a Nashville session player heard on more than 1,500 albums, member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, leader of his own band and a solo recording artist. The Jerry Douglas Band performs tonight at the Manship Theatre. He assembled the group in early 2006 so he wouldnt lose his chops during a year when he expected to be relaxing following six years of relentless work. The band was really great so we started getting bombarded, Douglas said from his home in Nashville. And then we got the Paul Simon tour, too. So much for my year off. The Jerry Douglas Band opened for the touring Simon and then Douglas joined the headliner on stage for performances of the Simon and Garfunkel classic, The Boxer. Douglas was hesitant about accepting Simons invitation, but ultimately signed on. When I got my high-powered band together, I thought we should go do it, he explained. Paul and I have been friends for a long time. It was a blast. The Simon-Douglas tour was a traveling mutual admiration society. He has such an amazing band, Douglas said. His whole band watched us during our whole first show. Paul, all of them, standing over there with their mouths open. We all watched each other. It was that kind of thing. For us, it was a musicians paradise, fun every night. It never got old. As beautifully managed as the tour was, Douglas added, there was one disadvantage in being Simons opening act. The star and his band rehearsed to the last second every night. That left Douglas with almost no time for a sound check. Despite his decades of recording and performing, millions of people first heard Douglas in the O Brother, Where Art Thou? movie and soundtrack CD. Even before O Brother, Douglas was doing very well with Alison Krauss and Union Station, the great bluegrass band hed helped revitalize three years before the film. We were rolling along big time and O Brother lifted us to another level, Douglas said. They say strike while the iron is hot. The iron has been hot for a long time. I dont ever want it to cool down. Douglas, Krauss and other members of Union Station perform throughout the O Brother CD, which has sold nearly nine million copies. It was just a shoe that fit, Douglas said. And it came along at a really good time for the country. During the 9/11 thing, it was all crazy. O Brother was honest music that brought everybody right back to ground level. It was something real that you could grab onto. Everything else was in question at that point, but Bible sales and record sales of O Brother went through the roof. Douglas didnt particularly care how much the O Brother soundtrack might sell while he was making it. First of all, it was a Coen brothers movie (sibling filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen), he said. And we got to play songs as simple as You Are My Sunshine. It was all this music that everyone had told you forever that you could never make a living at. And there it was, the biggest record in the world. Soundtrack producer T-Bone Burnett was perhaps the one person who knew the O Brother music would find a huge audience. I asked T-Bone, How many copies do you think this record can sell? He said, really fast, Eight million. People are still buying it, people are still seeing the movie. Douglas latest trip to Louisiana, made in association with the Lafayette-based Louisiana Crossroads series, finds him performing in Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. The latter concert was a benefit for the Dr. Tommy Comeaux Memorial Endowed Fund for Traditional Music at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Tommy was a real good friend of mine, Douglas said. So I love the idea of going down to a place I love and helping at the same time. Down in Louisiana, Douglas also gets to see another of his brothers in music, slide guitar maestro Sonny Landreth. His tone has got such soul and hes such a sweet guy, Douglas said. You can really tell a lot about someones personality through their playing. Thats who they really are. You can see right into their soul. In his own playing, Douglas is forever searching for his next peak. Im always looking for something new and I dont ever feel like Ive found it. I hope that a lot of people feel that way. Its the way you get better. All the notes have been played in every possibly sequence, so from there its all in the soul and the attitude of whoevers playing them. Thats the only thing that makes them different.
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Louisiana Crossroads to feature Douglas, Landreth
01/25/2007 Herman Fuselier hfuselier@theadvertiser.com Two of the world's best musicians are performing today in Lafayette - and they're not The Cheetah Girls. A 12-time Grammy winner, dobro master Jerry Douglas has played on more than 1,000 albums and recorded with such stars as Garth Brooks, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, James Taylor and more. Douglas will be joined by Sonny Landreth. Eric Clapton, a god among rock guitarists, is a fan of Landreth, who lives in Breaux Bridge. Clapton describes him as "probably the most underestimated musician on the planet and also is probably one of the most advanced." Douglas and Landreth on the same stage is likely to tear a hole in the universe. At least that's what Todd Mouton, organizer of tonight's Louisiana Crossroads concert, is joyfully anticipating. "We live in a truly incredible place, and the fact that all these artists of such an amazing caliber are going to all this effort pretty much says it all," Mouton said. "We really need to focus on perpetuating these kinds of legacies. "There's plenty of room for individualism and new ideas in tradition. That's how traditions got started, by great people and great ideas." Douglas, Landreth and Lafayette drummer Doug Belote entertain for the Crossroads concert at Angelle Hall. The show is a fundraiser for the Dr. Tommy Comeaux Memorial Endowed Fund for Traditional Music at UL. The fund, which would create a university program devoted to the study of traditional music, is $50,000 away from its $1 million goal. The fund requires $600,000, matched by $400,000 from state funds, to create a million-dollar principal. Interest from that principal will be used to pay salaries and costs of the program. "We've funded nine of 10 professorships, which will all be combined into the university's first-ever arts-based endowed chair," said Mouton. "We need folks to help us with our last push across the finish line, which we hope to see this year, by the 10th anniversary of Tommy's death in November." Douglas is a friend of the late Comeaux, a noted pathologist and musician with BeauSoleil, the Basin Brothers, Clickin' Chickens, Coteau and others. Tonight's show marks Crossroads' 90th concert. "This is a real high point for us," Mouton said. "This tour is our most ambitious undertaking to date. "We've got a number of the world's best musicians together, and their work represents just how cutting-edge traditional music is, and always has been. "Jerry's the top. He can do anything he wants to do, and that he chose to come here and play these gigs says a lot about all of us. He loves this place and knows its real-ness."
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Jerry Douglas Caps Off Biggest Year of His Career
12/18/2006 NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/18/2006 -- KOCH Recording artist Jerry Douglas is capping off the biggest year of his career, with much more in store for 2007. Releasing his solo record "The Best Kept Secret" and being featured on Alison Krauss & Union Station's "Lonely Runs Both Ways," Douglas has been kept very busy during 2006.
Douglas just completed a live broadcast at New York's Town Hall for "A Prairie Home Companion" on December 16th, and will perform at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with "A Prairie Home Companion" on December 31st.
Douglas has won three Grammys in 2006: Best Country Performance By a Duo or Group, Best Country Instrumental Performance (composed by Jerry Douglas) and Best Country Album, all with Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas. Douglas was also nominated for Musician of the Year by the CMAs, and nominated for Instrumental Performer (dobro) and Instrumental Album by IBMA. After completing a sold out tour in early 2006 with Alison Krauss & Union Station, The Jerry Douglas Band headlined several festivals in 2006, including Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, MerleFest, Vancouver Island Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Johnny Keenan Festival (Ireland), and RockyGrass. The Jerry Douglas Band also opened for Paul Simon on a 29 city tour, playing such prestigious venues like Radio City Hall (New York City), The Greek Theater (Los Angeles) and more. Douglas also accompanied Paul Simon on "The Boxer" each night during encore.
More Jerry Douglas tour dates coming soon!
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2007 Telluride BG Lineup
12/01/2006 Lyons, CO (OPENPRESS) December 1, 2006 -- Planet Bluegrass proudly announces the preliminary lineups for two of the longest-running and most respected music festivals in America. The 34th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 21-24, 2007, will feature Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Bela Fleck, and Chick Corea. Then July 27-29, the 35th Annual RockyGrass Festival, welcomes Nickel Creek, Marty Stuart, and Del McCoury Band to the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, CO. Tickets for both festivals go on sale at 8am MST, Wednesday, December 6 at www.bluegrass.com / 800-624-2422. For the 34th straight year, the greatest musicians in acoustic music, along with 10,000 of their most devoted fans, converge on the tiny mountain town of Telluride, Colorado to celebrate the summer solstice together. This years lineup includes superstars Krauss and Harris; popular newgrass bands Yonder Mountain String Band and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones; and numerous unique combinations of artists: the genre-crossing of jazz pianist Chick Corea and banjo great Bela Fleck; the inter-generational duets of MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile. Festival royalty Sam Bush, John Cowan, Peter Rowan, and Jerry Douglas all return in 2007, counting over 100 Telluride appearances between them. All twelve-hundred passes for the popular Telluride Town Park Campground sold-out prior to any lineup announcements. Festivarians from 49 different US states and two foreign countries applied for these tickets using a random online lottery system. Tellurides slightly older and more traditional bluegrass-focused cousin, RockyGrass, welcomes some of the most lauded bands in bluegrass to Lyons, Colorado. Individually, the RockyGrass lineup boasts numerous Grammy winners and thirteen International Bluegrass Music Association instrument/vocalists of the year. The 2006 RockyGrass festival sold-out two months in advance. 34th TELLURIDE BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL June 21-24, 2007 - Telluride, CO * Alison Krauss & Union Station * Sam Bush Band * Chick Corea & Bela Fleck * Emmylou Harris * Telluride House Band featuring Béla, Edgar, Jerry, Sam, Bryan * Tony Rice & Alison Krauss & Union Station * Yonder Mountain String Band * Béla Fleck & the Flecktones * Chris Thile & How to Grow a Band featuring Bryan Sutton * Jerry Douglas Band * Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile * John Cowan Band * Peter Rowan & Crucial Country * Dougie MacLean Band * Jackie Green * Mike Marshall & Hamilton de Holanda * Sparrow Quartet * Crooked Still * Infamous Stringdusters * Avett Brothers * Greensky Bluegrass * many more still to be announced...
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An Engineer with a Golden Ear Wins Big
11/01/2006 GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA -- Cliff Miller had nothing prepared to say when he stood in front of the world's audio elite. He figured the same company would once again grab the Grammy of the audio industry, something it had done for the past 20 years. He just wanted to be there, in his new brown speckled jacket, on a Saturday night in San Francisco. But Miller was wrong. SE Systems of Greensboro won, and as everyone hollered at his table, he sat there, in shock. "C'mon, let's go up there,'' his 24-year-old daughter, Haley, told him. So he walked to the stage, feeling like he was thrown into a dream, only to fumble in front of a microphone and tell a room full of peers, "This wasn't supposed to happen.'' Last month, the small company beat out everyone -- including longtime winner, Clair Brothers -- for creating the sound of Allison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas, during their last tour. Their competition? None other than much bigger sound companies working with a handful of heavyweights: The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, Dave Matthews Band and James Taylor. Pretty good, huh? A small sound company from North Carolina won big. But so did a small-town Southerner, a self-taught engineer who started his company 33 years ago on his parents' back porch in Asheboro. "The things that kept going through my mind had nothing to do with business,'' said Miller, standing amid mountains of audio equipment inside his 57,200-square-foot company. "I enjoyed being around music, and I enjoyed being around the electronics part. In junior high, when I was asked what I wanted to be when I got older, I wrote down 'electronic musician.' I just knew I wanted to be in music somehow.'' These days, at 54, Miller looks like a college professor, in his black sweater, dark slacks and close-cropped hair. But watch Miller pore through black-and-white photographs, and the years melt away as you see a young, bespectacled man in a bushy beard and cowboy hat come of age. Then the stories come. In his relaxed, Southern drawl, Miller talks about how a chance meeting with Doc and Merle Watson, the famous North Carolina duo, at a 1971 bluegrass festival changed his life. He became the group's sound engineer, a move that jump-started his business and molded his reputation as an engineer with a golden ear. He also talks about building his first sound system, to the crackle of a wood-burning stove, and drawing out everything. Just like his dad, a mechanically minded man who ran a hauling and grading company. "Those were the days, man,'' Miller said, sitting on the floor, poring through boxes and unearthing photographic gems of his company's career. "We had a really cookin' woodshop.'' Miller has grown SE Systems into a company of 27 full-time employees who travel nationwide to provide sound for presidents, pro football, and of course, loads of festivals that include MerleFest in Wilkesboro. He does MerleFest for Doc and Merle. Miller was Merle's best man at his wedding. He's now a surrogate son for Doc. Today, they both work together to keep Merle's memory alive at the world-famous roots music festival beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains. That's how he lassoed Allison Krauss as a client. And that's how he ended up on a stage in San Francisco, searching for words and later hearing Krauss scream from a cell phone into his ear, "Oh my God!'' And to think, it all began on his parents' back porch.
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Jerry Douglas, Paul Simon Live!
10/22/2006 If Clapton is God, Jerry Douglas is the Holy Ghost. There are things this man can do with a dobro, or even a slide on electric guitar, that a lot of guitarists can't do with 10 fingers. And we've played enough slide to know the difference. Read Article in the Illinois Entertainer
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AK+US Production/Sound Team Honored
10/10/2006 Alison Krauss + Union Station's crew won the prestigious Outstanding Creative Achievement Award in Tour Sound Production at the 22nd Annual Technical Excellence and Creativity Awards held October 7th in San Francisco. This award goes to the front of house engineer (Bernie Velluti), monitor engineer (Mark Richards) and production company (Cliff Miller and SE Systems). Congratulations to our entire production team-Bernie, Mark, Cliff, Ed Welch, Alex Blagg and Haley Miller. Founded in 1985, the Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards is the foremost program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. Presented annually by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the TEC Awards honor the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind the sound of recordings, films, TV shows and live performances. TEC Awards nominations are made by a panel of industry professionals and voted upon by the subscribers of Mix, the leading trade magazine of the recording and sound production industry. The awards are presented at a ceremony held each fall during the annual convention of the Audio Engineering Society. Through the Hall of Fame, the TEC Awards also honors the pioneers of audio and, through the Les Paul Award, pays tribute to musical artists and others whose work has furthered the art and science of sound. Thanks to the generous support of numerous sponsors, the TEC Awards is able to contribute thousands of dollars each year to organizations working on behalf of hearing conservation, as well as funding scholarships for future audio professionals. Other Tour Sound Production crews nominated in this same category include Dave Matthews, Rolling Stones, James Taylor, and White Stripes.
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JD on New James Taylor DVD
10/04/2006 James Taylor: MusiCares Person of the Year Named this year's Person Of The Year by Musicares last February in conjunction with the Grammy Awards ceremony, this DVD features the musical performers who paid tribute to James Taylor during the event. They include Paul Simon, Taj Mahal and Dr. John, India Arie, Dixie Chicks, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King and James Taylor himself. Available from the discography section of this web site. Search: James Taylor
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Jerry Douglas to Deliver IBMA Keynote Address
06/13/2006 The International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) World of Bluegrass returns to Nashville for the second consecutive year, September 25 October 1, 2006. The week-long event includes the World of Bluegrass Business Conference, the International Bluegrass Music Awards and Bluegrass Fan Fest.
Kicking off the week is the World of Bluegrass Business Conference, an interactive event attended by over 2,000 music industry professionals from around the world that offers professional development, artist showcases, an exposition center and various networking opportunities. Seminar topics will cover important issues facing various facets of the business including marketing, artist booking, event funding, music distribution and many others. Jerry Douglas, acclaimed Dobro musician, producer, arranger, and recipient of numerous IBMA, Grammy, CMA and ACM awards, will deliver the keynote address Monday evening, Sept. 25.
The International Bluegrass Music Awards will move to the Grand Ole Opry House for the 2006 ceremony to be radio broadcast around the world. Overwhelming ticket demand and increased production abilities made the move from last year's site at the Ryman Auditorium necessary. The highpoint of the week, the IBMA Awards are scheduled for Thursday, September 28 at 8:30 p.m. Central Time.
The three days of Bluegrass Fan Fest, Sept. 29 Oct. 1, highlight the talents of more than 40 acts on 4 stages. The indoor festival will include a variety of Masters Workshops, the Bluegrass Exposition Center and The Grand Master Fiddler Championship. Artists confirmed at press time include Jerry Douglas, IIIrd Tyme Out, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The Del McCoury Band, Hot Rize, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Blue Highway, Mountain Heart, The Grascals, Alecia Nugent, The Isaacs, Ronnie Bowman, Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, Shawn Camp, Steep Canyon Rangers and more.
Proceeds from Bluegrass Fan Fest are split between the Bluegrass Trust Fund, established to help bluegrass professionals during a time of emergency need and IBMA promotional, marketing and educational events during the year. All artists appearing at the event donate their time and talents for the cause.
The events cumulatively attract in excess of 20,000 and are sponsored in part by Martha White, Martin Guitars, DAddario Strings, The Bluegrass Radio Network and Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. The Nashville Convention Center and the Renaissance Hotel are the host facilities for the business conference and Bluegrass Fan Fest. Information and registration are available via the web at ibma.org or by telephone at 888-GET-IBMA.
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String Masters
04/06/2006 What do you get when you ask six of the best string-band musicians in the nation to take part in the Kennedy Center's "Country: A Celebration of America's Music" series? An all-star Foggy Bottom Breakdown. During Tuesday night's performance at the Eisenhower Theater, mandolinist Sam Bush, Dobro player Jerry Douglas, fiddler Stuart Duncan, banjoist Bela Fleck, guitarist Byran Sutton and bassist Mark Schatz swiftly lived up to their billing as "String Masters." Although they looked as though they just hopped off a tour bus -- "We didn't get the memo about the clothing," Douglas quipped -- there was nothing remotely sloppy about the dazzling solo work or the colorfully woven bluegrass-to-newgrass arrangements. The tunes, original compositions as well as pieces associated with Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, John Hartford, Norman Blake and others, inspired streams of spirited improvisations and seamless exchanges. Sutton's flat-picking was remarkably crisp and fluid. Fleck contributed Earl Scruggs-like finger rolls, jazz-tinted chromaticism, a tooth-plucked flourish and his lovely ballad "Overgrown Waltz." Duncan's soaring fiddle and Schatz's "doghouse" bass help create vivid contrasts, while Bush and Douglas were often at their best when vigorously mining the blues, especially during a duet that fused "Sailin' Shoes" with "Cross Road Blues." In classic string-band fashion, the hot licks were served up with some shameless shtick. At one point, when huddled around a microphone and sharing harmonies with Fleck, Bush and Douglas unbuttoned each other's shirts, a move that triggered the evening's first (but not last) mention of the Brokeback Mountain Boys. Schatz was better behaved during his delightfully syncopated clog-dance cameo.
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JERRY DOUGLAS SIGNS WITH CAA
03/28/2006 Billboard.biz
By Ray Waddell, Nashville JERRY DOUGLAS Dobro virtuoso/composer/producer Jerry Douglas has signed with Creative Artists Agnecy. CAA will represent Douglas in touring, television and movie soundtracks, and projects for advertising and promotion. Douglas was recently named musician of the year by the Country Music Association, his second such honor, adding to a long list of awards from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. He has also received 12 Grammy Awards and an additional five NARAS acknowledgements for his work on the 'Down from the Mountain' soundtrack. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts presented Douglas the 2004 National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor for folk and traditional arts. Although most widely known for his featured role with Alison Krauss and her band, Union Station, Jerry has collaborated with such artists as Norah Jones, Eric Clapton, Bela Fleck, Paul Simon, Ray Charles, John Fogerty, Dave Grisman, Trey Anastasio, James Taylor, Emmy Lou Harris and Earl Scruggs. Douglas will be touring with his own band while developing various other projects including soundtrack work. He is managed by D.J. McLachlan of McLachlan Management International and signed to KOCH records out of New York.
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JD Plays Kennedy Center with Friends
02/11/2006 Country: A Celebration of America's Music: String Masters Apr 4, 2006 at 8:00 PM John F. Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts Washington, DC An acoustic super group of all-star stringed instrument players--collectively, they're winners of nearly 20 Grammy Awards(r)--performs in an evening that explores country music's roots and progressive trends. Artists include mandolin player Sam Bush , steel guitarist Jerry Douglas , fiddler Stuart Duncan , banjo player Béla Fleck , bass player Mark Schatz , and guitarist Bryan Sutton . Part of Country: A Celebration of America's Music.
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3 Wins at 48th Annual Grammy Awards for AKUS&JD
02/09/2006 Jerry Douglas took home three more Grammy Awards last night, including the prestigious Best Country Album category, along with band mates Alison Krauss, Barry Bales, Ron Block, and Dan Tyminski, for their Rounder Records album Lonely Runs Both Ways. The band swept their three nominations. As a solo artist, band leader, collaborator, producer and with Union Station, Douglas has now won 12 Grammy Awards. This year he competed against himself in the Best Country Instrumental Performance category, having written and performed on both "Unionhouse Branch" from AK+US' Lonely Runs Both Ways, and "Whose Your Uncle" from his Koch Records release, The Best Kept Secret. Alison Krauss and Union Station's 48th Annual Grammy Awards - Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for "Restless" Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Unionhouse Branch" Best Country Album for Lonely Runs Both Ways
A complete list of Grammy Winners can be found at http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/48th_Annual/ See additional Grammy news on Jerry, Alison, and Union Station at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11243088/from/ET/
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Nashville Scene Country Music Critic's Poll 2006
01/22/2006 The Nashville Scene, an alt-weekly in the country music capital, recently asked critics to weigh in on the best country acts and records of 2005. For the annual poll, more than 100 writers from all over North America, from big-city newspapers and glossy magazines, from alternative newsweeklies and self-published fanzines, were asked to participate, voting on the best country acts and records of last year.
The results have named Jerry Douglas Instrumentalist of the Year, as well as placing Douglas and band mates Alison Krauss + Union Station in the top five of several categories. For a complete list of winners, visit nashvillescene . com
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Jerry Douglas to Perform on Prairie Home Companion
01/22/2006 From the Journal-Courier Lafayette and West Lafayette, Indiana By Tim Brouk tbrouk@journalandcourier.com January 22, 2006 For more than 30 years, Garrison Keillor has made his home state of Minnesota and many other states entertainment for the world. The host of Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion also takes his show on the road. The two-hour show that is aired on National Public Radio is broadcast live from theaters in front of a live audience. Keillor uses local flavor from each city to help shape the show. "It's a writing assignment," said Keillor, during a recent telephone interview. "You eliminate the irrelevant and keep working at it. Somehow we will come up with some notes on Purdue, West Lafayette and Indiana and use them to twist our show in the right direction. It's a show coming from a different place. It's a live show. There just aren't many anymore. Even news shows, more and more are taped." Keillor will bring his traveling radio circus of actors, musicians and producers back to Purdue University at 5:45 p.m. Saturday in Elliott Hall of Music. The show will be broadcast live on WBAA FM. It will be replayed from 2 to 4 p.m. Jan. 29 on WBAA AM. A Prairie Home Companion made its Purdue debut on April 14, 2001. Keillor's Companion is a lot like a variety show with guests, live music, skits, comedic fake commercials and greetings from the audience. "They're messages we read on the air to folks in the armed forces or relatives around the country -- happy birthdays and happy anniversaries," Keillor said. As one of the highest-rated shows on NPR, A Prairie Home Companion doesn't have to hit the road for 25 of its 35 broadcasts, but Keillor sees it as a way to connect with his audience. "It's a way to make contact with the audience and have a look at our listeners," Keillor said. "It's a big help to us writing the show month after month. To get some clue and some intuition to who these people are, you need to look at them and stand up in front of them. If we kept it in Minnesota, it would be easier in a way, but to get a whole diverse audience, the only way to do that is to travel. This is a country that needs some things to tie it together. It's not like I have any grand ideas for this show, but you feel a kind of patriotism as you get older. You're interested in meeting people other than ones just like you. We did a show in Tupelo, Miss., and I realized there are a lot of people who aren't Midwestern." When Keillor revisits a city, he works with all new material. He doesn't repeat anything he used last time. "I try not to look back. I avoid that whenever possible," Keillor said. "We prep ourselves all fresh and new. We take one show at a time. That's something I learned years ago when doing a weekly show. I recommend this as a general operating procedure in life -- the one day, one week at a time principle." Guests on A Prairie Home Companion travel with the show while others are pulled from the community. For Purdue's show, the local guests and musicians have not been finalized, but Keillor will be bringing Jearlyn Steele, a singer from Gary who is a regular on A Prairie Home Companion, and Jerry Douglas from Nashville, Tenn. Keillor dubbed him as the "best Dobro player in the country." Keillor said Elliott Hall is a larger venue for A Prairie Home Companion to be performed in, but the more people, the better, as the show is nothing without a live audience. "People laugh and clap and that's what makes the show. You need an audience to do comedy," Keillor said. "It's very exciting, and you never get over that excitement."
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48th Annual Grammy Award Nominees Announced
12/08/2005 Congratulations to Jerry Douglas on his nominations for "Who's Your Uncle?" from his solo project, The Best Kept Secret, AND for his composition "Unionhouse Branch" from Alison Krauss + Union Station's Lonely Runs Both Ways. Both tracks are nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Congratulations to Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas on their other Grammy Award nominations, which include Best Country Album (Lonely Runs Both Ways) and Best Country Performance by a Group or Duo ("Restless" from Lonely Runs Both Ways). Finally, congrats to Gary Paczosa for being nominated in the Best Engineered Album category for his work on Lonely Runs Both Ways. A full list of nominees can be found at www.grammy.com.
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MerleFest 2006 Announces Stellar Partial Line-Up
09/29/2005 Ticket Sales Begin on November 8, 2005 WILKESBORO, N.C., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Ticket sales for MerleFest 2006 will begin on Tuesday, November 8, 2005 at 2:00 PM EST. Wilkes Community College will present MerleFest 2006, the 19th annual festival in celebration of the music of the late Merle Watson and his father Doc Watson, on its campus in Wilkesboro, NC on April 27 - 30, 2006. Some of those joining Doc Watson and Merle's son Richard Watson for MerleFest 2006 will include Rory Block; David Bromberg Quartet; Alison Brown Quartet; Sam Bush Band; Guy Clark; Thad Cockrell & Caitlin Cary; John Cowan Band; The Dillards; The Ditty Bops; Jerry Douglas Band; Bela Fleck & The Flecktones; The Grascals; Emmylou Harris; Hot Tuna; Jim Lauderdale & his Bluegrass Band; The Lee Boys; Laura Love Band; Nashville Bluegrass Band; Nickel Creek; Tony Rice Unit; Peter Rowan; Darrell Scott; Mike Seeger; Pete Seeger; Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers; Gillian Welch; and The Waybacks featuring special guest Bob Weir. MerleFest will also welcome the Woody Guthrie tribute Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway, along with individual performances by tour members Slaid Cleaves, Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmy LaFave, and Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion. All bookings are subject to change without notice due to circumstances beyond the control of the festival. Starting on November 8th, those with Internet access may acquire their tickets easily by visiting http://www.merlefest.org and, if purchasing assigned seats at the Watson Stage, actually pick their seat location on line. Those without Internet access may purchase tickets by calling 1-800-343-7857 (US only) or 336-838-6267 (non-US) from 10 AM through 4 PM, EST, weekdays. Tickets may also be ordered by fax (336-838-6277) and mail (MerleFest; P.O. Box 120; Wilkesboro, NC 28697). Those interested in volunteering for MerleFest should call 336-838-6292. Vendor info: 336-838-6292. Sponsorship inquiries: 336-838-6423.
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