Jerry Douglas’ day job is to bring the twang to bluegrass and country music concerts and recording sessions.
But on the rare occasions when the Dobro virtuoso gets to play his own music he travels off into jazz-rock improvisation, original folk instrumentals with a heavy dose of the blues. If you go see him perform at Chautauqua Auditorium Sept. 7, he may allow one bluegrass tune to sneak onto the set list.
His range of interests is clear in the more than 1,000 albums his resophonic guitar licks have graced including projects with songwriters (Paul Simon, James Taylor, Elvis Costello), world musicians (Chieftains) jam-rockers (Phish), jazz innovators (Bill Frissell), and classical wonders (Edgar Meyer).
“I’m just a conduit for the Dobro – it could have been any instrument but I’m glad it wasn’t the trombone,” Douglas said in June at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in the Colorado mountains.
He first started coming to Telluride in 1979 as a young member of The Whites. In June he played with his own band, with Alison Krauss and Union Station, and with The House Band, the one-gig-a-year super group which also includes Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton.
Douglas is also a well-known music producer, but when it was time to record a new solo album he brought in producer Russ Titleman who has worked with George Harrison, Little Feat, The Allman Brothers Band, Ry Cooder and Randy Newman. “On my own records my playing wasn’t as good as it could have been because I was wearing too many hats.” On “Traveller” Douglas and Titleman agreed to trek to various locations “outside my comfort zone,” Douglas said.
In New Orleans he worked on a R&B-style tune with Dr. John. Other connections took him to play with Keb Mo and Marc Cohn. In London he played with Paul Simon on “The Boxer” with Mumford & Sons, the bluegrass-inspired British rock band he’d met in Telluride two years earlier. “My daughters made him listen to their songs,” he said. “They were very cool. Now they’re like sons to me.”
Douglas had met Eric Clapton at the latter’s Crossroads Festival. “We kept in touch and I asked him to play a few licks on a song. ‘What song?” he said. I said it was an old one, “Something You Got.” He knew it and asked if he could sing on it.”
Needless to say, Douglas said “yes.”
Jerry Douglas Band
8 p.m. Sept. 7, Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder