Jerry Douglas is widely renowned as perhaps the finest dobro player in
contemporary acoustic music. His main foundation is bluegrass, but
Jerry Douglas is an eclectic whose tastes run toward jazz, blues, folk, and
straight-ahead country as well, and he's equally capable of appealing to
bluegrass aficionados or new agers with a taste for instrumental roots music.
What's more, his progressive sensibility as a composer has earned him
comparisons to like-minded virtuosos
Béla Fleck and
David Grisman.
Jerry Douglas was born in Columbus, OH, in 1955, and began playing the dobro at
age eight with encouragement from his father, who was also a bluegrass musician.
By his teen years,
Jerry Douglas was already a member of his father's band, and his playing was
especially influenced by
Josh Graves of
Flatt & Scruggs'
Foggy Mountain Boys.
Jerry Douglas was discovered at a festival by
the Country Gentlemen, who took him on tour with them for the rest of the
summer and later brought him into the recording studio. From there,
Jerry Douglas established himself as a hugely in-demand session musician; during
the latter half of the '70s, he worked with the likes of
J.D. Crowe & the New South,
David Grisman,
Ricky Skaggs,
Doyle Lawson, and
Tony Rice. Additionally,
Jerry Douglas released his debut album, Fluxology, on Rounder in 1979; he followed
it three years later with Fluxedo, which like its predecessor stuck relatively
close to traditional (albeit sometimes jazzy) bluegrass.
During the early '80s,
Jerry Douglas continued his session career with even greater success, adding
Emmylou Harris,
Béla Fleck,
the Whites, and
Peter Rowan to his list of credits. He returned to his solo career with
1986's Under the Wire on Sugar Hill, which reflected his interest in the
progressive new-acoustic (or "newgrass") movement. He subsequently signed with
MCA, where he issued Changing Channels (1987) and the smoother, strongly
jazz-influenced Plant Early (1989). More session work for increasingly prominent
artists brought him into the '90s, with names like
Alison Krauss,
Del McCoury,
Garth Brooks,
Trisha Yearwood,
Randy Travis,
Clint Black,
Patty Loveless,
Suzy Bogguss,
Reba McEntire,
Kathy Mattea, and
Dolly Parton on his resumé. In 1992, he returned to Sugar Hill for the more
traditional bluegrass outing Slide Rule, which many critics ranked among his
finest recordings. The following year brought the all-instrumental Skip, Hop &
Wobble, a trio recording with
Russ Barenberg and
Edgar Meyer. In 1994,
Jerry Douglas contributed to the Grammy-winning compilation Great Dobro Sessions,
and cut a duo album with
Peter Rowan, Yonder, in 1996. 1998's Restless on the Farm, true to its
title, was a return to
Jerry Douglas' freewheeling eclecticism, which continued on 2002's Lookout for
Hope. Best Kept Secret arrived in September of 2005. ~ Steve Huey, All Music
Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Jerry Douglas for your next corporate or private event.
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