Dobro master at the peak of his powers with a sublime band recording pretty much his current setlist.
It is quite possible that some readers have never heard of Jerry Douglas. His albums play beneath the radar somewhat, and his highest profile gig has probably been as part of Alison Krauss’ band Union Station although their last album was, believe it or not, more than a decade ago. But if you have not heard of Jerry Douglas, especially if you stream your music without reference to the credits, you will almost certainly have heard him play. That is because, in addition to Union Station and his own output, and albums with a succession of bands including his latest projects with Earls of Leicester and The Jerry Douglas Band, AND his involvement as co-leader of The Transatlantic Sessions, he has appeared on more than 1600 recordings of other bluegrass, country and Americana artists, who have begged him, enticed him, pleaded with him to sprinkle their music with his fairy dust as the world’s pre-eminent dobro player.
It would be impossible to overstate the influence of Jerry Douglas on not only the instrument of his choice (he also plays lap steel) but on the music and bands that he has contributed to – folk, rock, country, a little blues, bluegrass, jazz, Americana – his contributions change the sounds of the music of others. And he is probably the most decorated instrumentalist in modern music, with thirty-two Grammy nominations (fourteen times a winner) and many awards as best instrumentalist, best dobro player (ten times a winner) etc. And just to conclude the accolade section, he has been inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
He has released 14 albums during a recording career starting in 1979 with “Fluxology” (his nickname at that time was Flux) and in a testament to his prodigious talent at that age, he recruited an A-list of players to join him on the album – Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Daryl Anger, JD Crowe, Todd Philps and Buck White to name most of them. On subsequent albums he had with him Russ Barenberg, Sam Bush, and Bela Fleck. As time went by he introduced vocals and other instruments (sax, Wurlitzer, trumpet and keyboards) to expand his musical vision. He wrote most of the tunes on his albums but interspersed them with other artists’ songs for his guests to sing. He even started to sing on his albums himself, firstly on “Lookout for Hope” in 2002. His last outing was a collaboration with John Hiatt “Leftover Feelings” which he produced and which includes his own band members, Dan Kimbro on bass, Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle and Mike Seal on guitar. He produced that album and many others in the last few years which have slowed down his own recording output.
Fast forward to 2024 and his new album “The Set” (his first in seven years), an album of several retrospective re-imagined versions of songs from his back catalogue and five new tracks including one each from his band members. The lead-off single was a brilliant instrumental cover of The Beatles’ immortal ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, which goes right to the heart of what makes this band so brilliant – the individual talents of the band and their ability to reflect the sadness of the song. The second single was a superb new song ‘What Might Have Been‘, featuring the exquisite wordless vocals of Aoife O’Donovan, bringing home to listeners the song’s ode to regret. As for the rest of the album, it is all just, well, exquisite. For this listener, the reworking of ‘From Ankara to Izmir‘, a Douglas staple, is a highlight. The tune has appeared in many forms over the years live on stage and on record, initially on his solo album “Changing Channels” in 1985 and subsequently on one of the all-time great instrumental albums “Skip Hop and Wobble” (with Russ Barenberg and Edgar Meyer). This version is transformed by the addition of fiddle and scorching electric guitar, and Kimbro delivers a fine bass solo. The aforementioned tracks would be worth the price of admission alone, but the rest of the album contains nothing but great songs, and brilliant playing. Chris Kenner’s ‘Something you got’ was previously on Douglas’ 2012 album “Traveler” with Eric Clapton on vocals – this time it is Douglas himself, proving that this Ohio-born genius is no slouch as a solo vocalist. The opener ‘Gone to Fortingall/Wired to the Moon‘ was previously on “Transatlantic Sessions 6” and sounded completely different. Douglas is known for refining his tunes, sometimes over many years, as he experiments with different instruments (‘Izmir’ for example was previously played on lap steel). He likens his approach to Miles Davis who often covered and recovered earlier versions of his songs.
Great credit must go to his bandsmen, not only for their outstanding and creative playing but also contributing one great song each—Sedelmyer wrote the beautiful ‘Deacon Waltz‘, which kicks off with his fiddle, introducing a very beautiful but sad tune with a Civil War feel, with Celtic overtones. When the others join in, this continues in very slow waltz time, reflecting feelings of grief and sadness perhaps in tune with how many people feel today. It is quite stunning, and quite different from the version on his solo album “Ravine Palace”.
Seal (without doubt one of the great unsung guitar heroes) contributed ‘Renee’ which appeared on his album “Dogwoods” and which is extended and fleshed out instrumentally from his original solo acoustic guitar version for this album, though it still remains a song with a very lovely laidback slightly jazzy feel. Kimbro’s ‘Loyston’ has Douglas on vocal on a song (from Kimbro’s solo outing “Carpet in the Kitchen“) about the building of the TVA dams in North East Tennessee which displaced Appalachian inhabitants of the town of Loyston.
And the rest of the album contains two more refreshed songs ‘Pushed Too Far’ which came out on 1989’s “Plant Early” and ‘Sir Aly B‘ , a tribute to Aly Bain, his co-director of Transatlantic Sessions and which appeared on 2005’s “Best Kept Secret” and then 2007’s “Transatlantic Sessions 3″ album. The track not so far mentioned is ‘The Fifth Season‘, a concerto commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation a few years back and making its initial appearance on a Douglas album.
Douglas almost never fails to play a perfect note, and although some of his solo albums have one or two weaker songs on them, there is no such problem here – the Jerry Douglas Band are just about peerless and this album (all 65 minutes of it) is an unqualified success – “I’m proud of it. I’ve left no stone unturned,” Douglas stated. “I’ve been producing records for a long time, so I really, really put on that hat for this record. Usually, I like instrumentalists to have free rein in whatever they do. It’s the way they speak. If anybody had an idea, we chased it down to the end. I feel like it’s really finished. I’m really happy with the outcome of this whole experience.” So he should be – it is brilliant.
