Jerry Douglas: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Brother Boys
• Béla Fleck
• Sam Bush
• Mark O'Connor
• Scott Nygaard
• Buck White
• Russ Barenberg

• Josh Graves

• Edgar Meyer
• Drew Emmitt
• Peter Rowan

• Boone Creek
• The Country Gentlemen
• The Bluegrass Cardinals
• The Bluegrass Album Band
• Authority Zero
• Strength in Numbers

• Ricky Skaggs
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• Eddie Bayers

Born:

Jan 1, 1955 in Columbus, OH

Genres:

Country Music, Contemporary Country Music, Progressive Country Music, Bluegrass Music, Rock Music

Decades Active:

1990's

Artistic Quality

Medium

Cultural Impact

Medium

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

Jerry Douglas is widely renowned as perhaps the finest dobro player in contemporary acoustic music. His main foundation is bluegrass, but 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. 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, 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. 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 Douglas' freewheeling eclecticism, which continued on 2002's Lookout for Hope.

- Steve Huey, All Music Guide