CMT Blog: Jerry Douglas

When Levon Helm's friends showed up Wednesday night (Sept. 17) in downtown Nashville for his concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, his admirers onstage included Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, John Hiatt, Sheryl Crow, Delbert McClinton, Billy Bob Thornton, Buddy Miller and Sam Bush. Oh, and two people from the audience -- Steve Earle and Allison Moorer -- also climbed onstage to help close the show. It was the kickoff for the Americana Music Festival and Conference that's taking place here this week.

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Last night I had one of those Nashville moments, when I found myself watching some of my favorite musicians at an easygoing show at the Country Music Hall of Fame. No big deal - just Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice ... I swear, I'll never get used to seeing that caliber of talent all in one place. Douglas is currently the museum's artist-in-residence, and this was his third show in a series of four. I'm always impressed with his own musical output, but when you have Alison Krauss singing along with the Louvin Brothers' "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby," then everything goes up a notch.

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Jerry Douglas has a new album out, Glide, and there's a longer story coming up on that in the next few weeks. But in the meantime, I thought this anecdote was pretty interesting, as he talks about the first time he met his future boss, Alison Krauss:

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"To hell you ride." That they say, or someone said, is the origin of Telluride's name; and quite a ride it truly was. Not a conventional bluegrass festival by any stretch, Telluride Bluegrass Festival draws a wide circle around acoustic music and invites everybody in for a great time. As an indication of the quality involved here, the ‘house band' was none other than Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton and Luke Bulla. This group played some of the most amazing music I've ever heard. At the other end of the spectrum, the King of Soul Solomon Burke and his band performed a Sunday morning set and it was church; there may have been a few dry eyes out in Town Park that morning, but they weren't mine.

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Merlefest is probably the world's largest Americana and roots music festival. I was at the very first Merle Watson Memorial Festival (as it was called in those days) 21 years ago. The first concert featured jams with Chet Atkins, Doc, Earl Scruggs, Mac Wiseman, Jim Shumate, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Grandpa Jones, Marty Stuart, Newgrass Revival, John Hartford, Mark O'Connor and others inside the Walker Center and outside on a flatbed truck stage. I remember sitting on hay bales outside watching the whole thing go down. A few years later, I was playing Merlefest as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station. One particular year was memorable because the mainstage show consisted of us and Ronnie Milsap, who just murdered the crowd with a solo guitar version of "Knoxville Girl."

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Ignore those people that say jet lag is just a state of mind. I'm here to categorically state that it's real, and it's doing my sleep patterns a lot of damage. After being in Australia for two weeks, I was barely back in the States long enough to adjust before I flew to Scotland for 10 days, and now I'm back in Nashville. My body doesn't know whether it's night or day -- but it's not all bad. Waking up at 6 a.m. wide awake when you are a musician is quite a novelty, and this maybe the first time I've realized there are two 6 o'clocks in the same day.

Glasgow is an incredible city -- vibrant and modern in the best European style. I was there to perform with the Greencards as part of the Celtic Connections Festival, a stunning display of Celtic music from all over the world, as well as American folk musicians such as Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien and Joan Osborne. We played a show with Alison Brown that ended up in a super-jam at the end, skippered by Tim O'Brien singing "Blue Night." Tim was in rare form the whole week, and at one point he actually stopped the band and gave the audience a solo! He may have become my favourite person in the world ...

I saw all the acts I wanted to, and often the music would rage till 7 or 8 a.m. I can barely remember leaving the residents' bar as folk were coming down for breakfast! Such a life would be reckless if it weren't all in the name of music. ... And so from one extreme to the other, I'm now preparing to fly out on Saturday to L.A. for the Grammys. I've got my suit ready and a quick ironing of my shirt this evening should see me ready to clink glasses of chardonnay with fellow pop star prima donnas. Simply gaining a nomination is a big deal for the band, so even if we lose, we've still won a great deal. I'm keeping my fingers crossed however, so check this space for more info after Sunday night.

If the only thing John Hartford ever did were to write "Gentle on My Mind," his place in country music history would be secure. But the truth is he contributed much more. After the enormous financial freedom given to him by Glen Campbell's 1967 hit, Hartford went on to a career that was incredibly diverse and always defied categorization. As well as playing banjo, guitar, fiddle and tap dancing, he listed his other occupations as tugboat and steamboat pilot. Not exactly your average star of country music…

An artist with such a huge catalogue can often be off-putting for the uninitiated, and I'll admit I didn’t own any Hartford records until I came across this re-release by Rounder Records -- Gum Tree Canoe. The cover itself is gorgeous and inviting in the way it presents the main players on the record. The legendary Jack Clement produced this masterpiece, and he sits next to Hartford like a Cheshire cat. Mark O'Connor played fiddle and this has to be some of the best stuff he ever recorded in Nashville -- hungry and incredibly imaginative. For those of you familiar with his work, you really need to inspect the cover to enjoy Mark's incredible beard -- an impressive Abraham Lincoln impression! The late great Roy Huskey Jr. holds down the rhythm section as he only he could and no one else has since. Guest appearances by Sam Bush, Marty Stuart and Jerry Douglas mean this album is my new definition of sublime charm.

The original songs are all wonderful, but top marks to these guys for re-inventing the Janis Joplin hit "Piece of My Heart" and upping the hillbilly ante on the Stones' "No Expectations." Although this collection of songs is now 20 years old, it could well have been recorded yesterday. It still sounds fresh and innovative.

I haven't found much new music to rave about this year, but stumbling across gems like this me a happy man again. I can't guarantee you'll feel as strongly as I do if you take a listen, but I'd be surprised if anyone writes in and tells me they don't like this record. Hartford simply charms you into wearing a grin as wide as the Mississippi River!

Back in 1989, a band called Strength in Numbers formed to create one record, The Telluride Sessions. This bluegrass supergroup set a standard in instrumental progressive bluegrass that has still to be superseded today.  MCA Records recently repackaged and reissued the album – lucky for us as this is an incredible piece of music. 

The band consisted of five of the greatest instrumentalists in acoustic music: Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor. Each musician wrote with every other partner to create compositions that draw on jazz, chamber music and middle Eastern influences. It should come as no surprise that the playing is sublime and defies categorization. I recently played it in our van on a drive back from New York and we were all amazed by how fresh and modern the whole record is. Given this album is almost 20 years old, that is no mean feat. The sounds are incredible, and a quick look at the credits reveal the assistant engineer was none other than Gary Paczosa, who went on to greater success as Alison Krauss’ engineer.

The greatest achievement of this project, in my mind at least, is how all of these fantastic musicians (who have maintained significant solo careers) pushed their egos aside to create a band. The record stands up today because these guys were creating music and not just vehicles for their flashy licks. In bluegrass it is especially easy to fall into that trap, and these musicians showed their pedigree in this recording.

If any of these musicians sound familiar to you (you’ve also heard them on thousands of country records), then I heartily recommend that you find a copy. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better instrumental record in this genre.