Join Buzz Knight for an unforgettable encore conversation with Jerry Douglas, the 14-time Grammy Award-winning dobro virtuoso who transformed bluegrass music and redefined what’s possible on the resonator guitar.
In this compelling episode, Jerry Douglas opens up about his extraordinary journey from young musician to becoming the most influential dobro player in music history. Discover how he developed his signature sound, pioneered new techniques that changed the instrument forever, and became the go-to studio musician for artists across every genre.
Jerry Douglas shares stories from his legendary collaborations with Alison Krauss & Union Station, his work with music icons like Eric Clapton and Dolly Parton, and the creative process behind his groundbreaking solo projects. He reflects on the evolution of bluegrass music, the art of musical innovation, and what it takes to master an instrument while continuously pushing its boundaries.
Whether you’re a musician, bluegrass enthusiast, or music history lover, this Nashville music scene conversation offers rare insights into the life and legacy of a true American music treasure.
Episode Highlights:
∙ The journey to becoming dobro’s greatest innovator
∙ Behind the scenes of iconic recording sessions
∙ Collaborating with music legends across genres
∙ The evolution of bluegrass and Americana music
∙ Mastering your craft while staying creatively fearless
Subscribe to Takin’ A Walk for more intimate conversations with the music legends who shaped music history.
Takin A Walk, Music Saved Me, Comedy Saved Me and Takin A Walk Nashville are produced by Buzz Knight Media Production and are part of the IHeart Podcast Network.
#Jerry Douglas Interview #inspiring interview #Music History Podcast #Nashville Music History #legendary musician conversation #music artist interview #american music #music legend #inspiring icons #inspiring music stories #music and personal stories #T Bone Burnett stories #walk
#O Brother Where Art Though #Greorge Clooney Stories #Buzz Knight Media Productions #Iheart
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I remember walking around one night at a festival as
I was in between my junior and senior years.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Of high school with out on the road with this band.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I just remember walking that around really late one night
at a fastball and going, this would not be such
a bad way to go. I just felt like I
belonged and felt like it was something I could get better,
you know, see how far this could go.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast. This is the
podcast hosted by Buzz Night, talking with musicians about the
inside stories behind their music, their passions, their challenges, and
their latest projects. Today, buzz speaks with Dobra Master and
sixteen time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas. His music spans country, bluegrass, rock, jazz,
(00:53):
and more into a distinctive musical vision. Man considered a
musical trailblazer, Jerry Douglas joins Buzz Night next on Taking
a Walk.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Jerry Douglas, It's so great having you on the Taking
a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Nice to see you, Nice to see you. How's everything
been with you? Everything has been great.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
The nice folks at City Winery were kind enough to
sink us up. August twentieth, a Boston date and also
August twenty third a City Winery New York.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
City date as well. So you're going to be making
the rounds, sir, who are the city wineries? And I
don't drink?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Who am I going to give it all to?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Well, you know what, just go easy on everybody. But
how did a young man from Warren, Ohio get the
music bug man?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
My father, my parents moved up to Ohio from West Virginia,
where there was either work in the coal mines or
be a farmer or work on the state road. I mean,
you didn't have many choices. So they moved up to Ohio,
Northeastern Ohio for work. My dad moved up there and
(02:09):
worked in steel mills, and he played, he played guitar.
You know, all those people had moved up from the South,
they brought their music with them, if nothing else, you know,
whatever they could carry in, all the music they could remember.
And so it was through my father that I got
the love to play music. He was a guitar player
(02:31):
and a singer and had his.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Own bluegrass band.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And I got to watch those guys, you know, And
I be rolling around on the floor watching these guys
arrange a song, you know, and figure out who took
a solo here, who took a solo there.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And it all kind of like sunk in.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And plus I just I don't remember a time when
I didn't love music, you know, or want to hear it,
you know, whenever it wasn't there.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
So I'm going to go out on a limb and say,
Jerry Douglas really did not have a Plan B in
mind for his career.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well I did. I did have a Plan B.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I was gonna I was actually going to become an
English teacher and uh and I was all set up
to go to University of Maryland and then I joined
The Country Gentleman in d C. And that was as
close as I got to Maryland. And I remember walking
around one night at a festival as I was in
(03:31):
between my junior and senior years of high school with
out on the road with this band, you know, And
I just remember walking that around really late one night
at a festival and going, this would not be such
a bad way to go, you know, listening to all
these people play, you know, around campfires, and just what
(03:54):
a cool scene it was. But what a musical scene
I was in. You know and learning, just you know,
being that young and just being exposed to all of
these bands, all these different kinds of music under one
banner was really bluegrass at that point, and I just
felt like I belonged and felt like it was something
(04:16):
I could get better, you know, see how far this
could go. And I don't ever remember thinking about throwing
in the towel of any kind. You know, times were hard,
you know, we coming up as young musicians. We didn't
make a lot of money, but man, we had a
lot of fun. We ended up playing great music and
(04:38):
you know, discovering each other's music, and that's what really
made me want to be become and stick and become
a musician. You know, there was such camaraderie in that
and the cream of the crop, you know, when the
cream would rise and you got to play with those
guys or those women, men everybody more men back at
(05:00):
that point. You know, I'm glad to see there's so
many women now, it's unbelievably great.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
But I just.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Felt like there was I belonged there, and so I've
been working all of these years to stick in there,
try to make it better when I could.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You know, when.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I I've done a lot of studio work, so I'm
trying to make the records sound as good and be
able to compete with any genre that they come up against.
And that's something I think I've helped improve a little
bit over the years, and just from doing so many
(05:39):
country sessions, you know, being in the studio for you know,
twelve sixteen hours a day, just taking that and and
and you know, passing that forward to onto bluegrass music,
which wasn't always recorded so well. You know, it was
mostly field recording at first, and then and you know
(06:01):
they're the great old the great old Stanley Brothers and
Flatten Scrubs and Bill Monroe stuff you know that was
recorded early on. But I've always thought that I could
make it sound better, you know, sonically, and that's what
I that's what I worked toward when i'm you know,
when I'm producing somebody. But it's it's just a music
(06:24):
that deserves to be heard. You know, once you've heard it,
you like it and it's with you forever. So it's
it's it's just something. It's it's it's the grand experiment,
you know for me.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You know, other musicians are in awe of you, and
in fact, I've wanted to get you on the podcast
for a long time because we had the great Bill
Payne from Little Feet on the podcast. And once we
were done, I said, Bill, who do you think I
should get? This was early on in doing the podcast,
(06:58):
and the first person he mentioned, You've got to get
Jerry Douglas.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You know, Wow, Bill, I love him.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Man, what an incredible musician in person he is. You know,
I didn't really know Billy paid until you know, the
last two or three years really, and uh, just I
was around you know, Little Feet, you know, and and
just as a fan. Really yeah, I thought, man, you know,
(07:29):
they're there are like another level up from from most
bands that.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Play that kind of music. They have so many things
going on in their band.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's just and it's loose and it's tight at the
same time. It's uh and Billy is an amazing keyboard player,
amazing piano player. And I just went to Brussels with
with him and we just we played on some sessions
that you know, and only only French was spoken there,
and neither Bill nor nor spoke French. So we're just
(08:02):
kind of like going, uh huh, right, right, okay, here
we go, and no one seemed to know the difference,
and so but Billy, Billy took me. He said, there's
some sessions in Brussels. I've played on this guy's record
a couple of times. I think you would, I think
you would enjoy this. And they're looking for something new,
and I told him you were the thing that we needed.
(08:23):
So we went over and we've done it, and uh,
we're back from that. But you know, I spent a
lot of time with with Bill and he's just a
lovely guy and and a major, major mover shaker in
the whole rock and roll world here, you know. And
whatever that kind of music is that Little Feet played,
it was so many it was an amalgamation of so
(08:46):
many things, and Billy was, you know, at the head
of that charge. So I got millions of great things
to say about Billy Payne. That that's that's that's what
I can tell you about that.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Well, you've collaborated with so many different people, and I'm
sure this is an unfair question, but who are some
of the favorite studio collaborations first out of the I
don't know, fourteen hundred collaborations that you've you've had.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's kind of a blur, you know,
it's and I'm asked that question a lot. And and
you know, the first there have been so many things
were you know, when I've been just sitting in the
studio and i would just say to myself, remember this,
remember this, because this is something. This is a big deal,
(09:37):
This is a big deal, this is this is uh
you know, you think about making the best music you
could make. Well, okay, right now you're in that situation.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So step up.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, things that at times like with James Taylor
or Elvis Costello with Strength to Numbers, with my with
my guys you know, Edgar Meyer and Baylifleck and Sam
Bush and and Mark O'Connor. We were all the five
of us on this record called Strengthen Numbers. You know,
(10:12):
that was one that was a really great learning experience
for me. And it was, you know, was I was
in this cocoon with my friends, but we were pushing
each other really hard, you know, into territory that maybe
we hadn't sampled before. And the payoff for that was
(10:33):
was really great in uh, not I'm not talking about financially,
I'm talking about just just information and and uh lessons,
you know, life lessons and uh, just cooperating with people, collaborating.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, I am a collaborator. I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I mean I get a chance to do that so
much with the trans Atlantic Sessions, the thing that I
do in Scotland.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Every year.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I go over and we have musicians coming from America
and we have musicians coming to all meeting in one
place up in Scotland, in Glasgow. We start formula forming
this show, you know, and people people from both sides
who've never met, I have no idea, don't know about
(11:26):
each other, you know, and we just kind of throw
everybody together and collaborate. It's a giant collaboration experiment and
it always turns out so beautiful. And you know, I
get I get five songs from each of the artists
that are going to be on it every year, and
then I start balancing that and trying to create a
(11:49):
show out of that. By the time I get to Glasgow,
I have a show. So we rehearse that show and
throw these people together and it's just amazing what they
what they end up with. It's it's uh, and it
only happens one time.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
We do nine shows and we finish in London at
the at the Queen's Festival Hall in London on the
South Bank, right by the right by they love the
London Eye over there, and we finished, We finished the
tour there and it never happens again.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You know. It's just one of those things.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's it's it's like we we get into this world
and we we flesh it out.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We try everything we we uh.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
And we create the most beautiful music we can in
the time that we have, and uh, it always turns
out so good. I always think it the first of it,
how in the world are we going to make a
show out of this? Everybody is so different, But by
the end of it, you know, they've all embraced each
other's differences and and you know, you look back and
(12:55):
some there's one person standing in the star position, but
the other stars are back here singing background vocals or
whatever it takes, you know, to it's a huge band
and it's a it's a beautiful sound, and that, you know,
is the I can't think of a of a circumstance
(13:15):
where collaboration is is a bigger you know, it starts
with a bigger c you know than that right there,
it's that and that's what I do, That's what I
love to do, is just you know, trade ideas with people,
you know, and turnover turn over every stone and try
every idea.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You know, let everybody in.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
So much like an athlete in the zone when they're
performing at their highest level. Can you explain how a
master musician like you gets into the zone and what
that feels like.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well, you know, I've done it for many years with
it with Alison Krause and Union Station. I mean, and
we all enter that zone because we have that musical
music is just beautiful and and for us to uh,
you know, we feel like we're we're stewards, you know,
whereas we've just been handed these beautiful songs. Now, what
(14:16):
are you going to do with them? You know, how
are you going to uphold this standard? You know, keep
this bar high? And but but sometimes you can be
out on stage and having a good night and just
not even you know, it's sort of like being in
an out of body experience. I mean, you're standing there
(14:37):
watching yourself do this. It feels like you can't make
a mistake, and you know, of course you do.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Then eventually start thinking about it that way you're going
to make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
But it's just it becomes so refined with that band.
It's it, it gets into it, it gets into that
zone where it's we're all there at the same time,
and uh, every every cylinder is hitting perfectly in time
(15:09):
and everything is great with the world.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's a really good it's a great feeling to just
kind of it is really like standing there watching this thing.
It's out of body. It's a it can get that
good with a band like that.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, we'll be right back with more of the Taking
a Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
What was the experience like doing the uh being part
of the Old Brother where art the soundtrack?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It was wild and funny and and you know, I've
known I've known t bow and Burnett for years before that,
and he when he explained to me what we're gonna do,
he said, we're gonna make We're gonna make a record
to go with a movie. But we're we're going to
record all these songs that we've been told we can't
make any money making, you know, playing so Uh, I said,
(16:07):
how many records do you think this is going to sell?
T Bow and then he said eight million, and he
was too off, or maybe four off by now, I
don't know, but it's been.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It was a great record, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
And and at the time when we were doing the record,
we were we were all playing this music you know
that we had played, you know, early in our lives
and had had surpassed, you know, the the simplicity.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Of it in a way, and we had to get
that back.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That was what we were really there for, was to
create music from a time capsule.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And uh and uh.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
We actually got to be in the movie uh uh
toward the end of the movie, right before we're in
a building where they were right a guy out on
a they take him out on a rail.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
We were on stage.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Dan Tamensky and Barry Bales and Ron Block and I
were up there with really bad haircuts they gave us,
uh that were from the twenties and thirties, you know,
and we so we sported those haircuts all summer. But
it was worth it, you know. And I got a
(17:24):
lot more respect for actors. George Clooney and everybody was
they were they have to do their part like six
seven times to get every angle because there was one
camera shooting. So and it was, you know, held by
Roger Deakins. He was the guy sitting on the camera
(17:45):
and would arrive every day in a nice crisp pair
of jeans and a nice crisp white shirt, you know,
and he's sitting there on that camera and he's in command.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And so he would shoot it from every angle.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And I watched those people go through the same thing exactly,
you know, six times to do it perfectly. It's very
time consuming. What they have to do is like we
can go back and do something over again. We don't
have to do the whole thing over again. We can
do just a piece of it when we're recording, you know,
in our lives.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
But they're on film. You know, they have to.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
They have to they have to speak, they have to act,
they have to look right. You know, it has to
it has to go together.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
But but it was.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It was wonderful because my wife is from Mississippi, so
the mississippissippy is is is still a source of wonderment
to me. And I don't totally understand everything that goes
on down there, but but what an amazing place. And
we were in Vicksburg and we did our part. We
did it in Vicksburg and a building that had never
(18:51):
had air conditioning. And we're in dead people suits, you know,
we're we're in wool three piece suits and it's and
it's July in a building that never had and so
they would have this truck that would pump all this
air conditioning in. And there were two hundred people in
other dead people's suits sitting at the tables.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And we're up there playing in sweat.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And there was one room in the back that had
air conditioning going all the time, and George Cloning was
piling in there with us as musicians. He was in
there with us just going wow, is it hot out there?
You know, it just and you got to know these people,
they're just people, you know, they're just like us. It's
like people people are afraid to come up to you
(19:37):
once in a while just because you're you know, they
saw you on stage and they.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Just don't know, you know, what a marvelous thing that is.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Well they do know what a marvelous thing it is,
and they wish they could do it, and they treat
you in a different way because you've done that.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
But you know, we're just people. We're just just we
just happened to do what we do. It's a little
bit different.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Tell me how you have first ran into Molly Tuttle
and what it's been like doing project work with Molly.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Molly's Molly is such a powerhouse and such a such a.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So soft you know and.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
So quiet and reserved and everything until she picks up
that guitar, you know, and when she's when she straps
on the guitar, is this other this other person takes
over and Uh, she's not afraid of anything. She's she
she'll wade right into anything.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
And the whole band is that way.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And you know, the first record I did with her
was sort of like I call in the ringers and
we make a record, you know, and she gives presents
me with all the ideas and the songs and everything,
and we worked them out, figured out what we were
going to play, and then then we picked the music
the musicians. And the only person she knew for sure
was she said, Ron Block, I definitely want Ron Block
(20:59):
to play banjo on the recognis done.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I know that guy, and so we can get him.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And we started bringing in, you know, filling in the
band and and that was a great record, really fun
record to make and getting her feet wet, really really,
you know, she's been playing bluegrass for years in her
family band in California and with other people you know
of her same you know her age and all that.
(21:27):
But and it is a different language. I did have
to learn a different language. I had to learn, you know,
millennial language and what not to say, what to say.
It's like I felt, I never there were times when
I felt really old, you know, I would say something
that was some something that they go ooh, you can't
(21:48):
say that. Please educate me on what I can say.
And you know me, I'm only mean the best. I
only mean the best. Anything I say, please don't take
it in a derogatory way or I'm not against anything,
so so please just tell me when I went across
(22:08):
the line, and I did, and they told me, and
but we got along so fine. But then the second record,
the band came in and she said, I want to
do this one with the band, with the band we
have and yeah, amazing music musicians, young group of musicians.
And I said, it'll take longer because bands working bands
(22:31):
take longer in the studio because they're not usually a
studio savvy. You know about not to move on the
microphone because your sound changes, you know, and you hear that.
You know you want you want to you want to
be as steady and as as you can, you know,
just just stay in your lane, just stay right there
and give that microphone the best performance you can. And
(22:55):
they knocked it out of the park. They came in,
and I I was wrong about that band being not
being savvy, because they were totally and I would just
you know, make up, just have something to say once
in a little while, but not much mean, and we'd
get in I had. What I did was with the
second record, was brought everybody down front because Molly and
(23:18):
I had really worked the songs out and the band
didn't really know the songs yet. So I after they
kind of got recordings of them and got in advance,
you know, recordings of what we wanted to do. But
then I set them all down in the front of
the studio in a circle, and so we could look
at each other and talk to each other as we
(23:39):
went through the songs, and we all learned them at
the same time, and you know, and we had the
same groove going on, you know, we were thinking the
same things. And it then went to our stations, you know,
in our little blocked out places where we won't the
fiddle won't end up on the banjo tracker or the
(23:59):
other way around, things like that, you know, to just
move everybody around so we're you know, completely clean recording.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
And but they nailed it. They nailed it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And personalities just overflowing with personalities, you.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Know, but one end in mind, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Just to make a great record and sound like a band,
you know, and they do and they are and they've
and since we've recorded, they've gone out and they just
have this persona that's like no other band out there.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I mean, it's just like, I don't know, it's it's a.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Glitz and glamour, you know, and that a lot of
glamour and a lot of really good playing, really good playing,
and they can they can back it all up. And
and but Molly is her songwriting gets better and better
and better.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I didn't know you could work use the word cassiopeia
in in a song, but she did. Uh, the name cassiopeia,
you know, so you look up on the sky and
you see. But I'd never heard it in a song
until it came running by me, but she would bring
(25:13):
these songs up. It.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
There was only.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
One song that I said, I don't know about this
song and she said, catch said the same thing, So
that one's out, you know. So you know, but we've
we've had nothing but great times in the studio and uh,
it's just been a it's been a wonderful trip, you know.
And for me to get her to ride along with
(25:36):
that band and watch its success, you know, a couple
of Grammys and uh, who knows, who knows what's ahead
for them? You know, it's it's a the whole scene
is changing, you know. You can see with Billy Strings
and Molly Sierra Hole just it's all that and they're
(25:57):
they're at the there at the front of it, there
at the spearhead of this thing. And Billy's just you know,
selling out. His thing is a totally different.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Scene.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I mean, to play into fifty fifty thousand people or
something like that in the night, it's a phenomena, is
really what's going on with Billy. And he couldn't happened
to a nicer fella either, because he's just I love
that guy. I mean, he made the right choice when
he got to his fork in the road. He took
the right turn and everything's looking up for him. It's
(26:29):
all great, who.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Are you taking on the road for this round of shows?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
In the band? Who's going to be with you? Well?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
In my band, Mike Seal is an amazing electric guitar player.
And it sounds funny to say that I've got a bass, violin,
dobro and electric guitar, But what a wall of sound
we can make, you know. And we had we had
a drummer, great drummer for a long time, and then
I did the John Hyett record to John Hyatt record,
(27:01):
and he didn't on this particular record. He wanted to
go at it without drums, so we just went I
took my band in the studio just without the drummer.
And since then we just thought, well, there's all look,
look at all this space that's out here that drums
were kind of covering it before, and now we've got
all this space to work with.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
What do we do with this? So you know, it's
just a new chapter.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
But that's the band that I'll have with me and
Mike Seal on on guitar, Daniel Kimbrough on bass, and
Christian Settlemeyer on violin and just master musicians, master musicians.
They pushed me around all the time. It's great. I
love the pushing, I love the challenge.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I love the pushing. I need that.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
You know, we run out of people who who inspire
us that way, you know, and on stage. So it's
it's great having these guys and I respect them as
much as musicians as anyone I've ever met. These guys
are these guys can they can hold there? They can
(28:09):
hold it right there, and they don't if they fear nothing,
they're fearless.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
In closing, Jerry, anybody on the dream list that you
haven't collaborated with that you're itching to collaborate with.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Well, you know, I've done this thing that for the
last three or four years, my managers put me in
these situations.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Like a gray fox.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
For a couple of years, I was the residence, the
artists and residence, so I would play with just practically
every band that was on stage. And that's a good
way to get to know people, because you're not when
you go out on stage with somebody, you're not only
taking you're not only just taking up a you know,
some real estate on stage. You need to fit into
(28:58):
what they're doing. You need to become a chameleon, you know.
And that's something that I've learned to do over the years,
just from doing sessions, you know, and being called in
so many times to replace the saxophone because it took
the song too far away from the genre and the
market they wanted to sell it in. So here comes
(29:18):
to dobro player to get rid of the saxophone, solo,
replace the saxophone. But you know, sometimes you have to
do that. Sometimes you have to be a chameleon. And
these instruments allow us to do that.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
It's our personalities. The instruments are conduit for our own personalities.
And when you hear somebody play, that's their real personality.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
That's what I believe. And so there are people who
I want to play with.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I've played with so many people in that situation like
I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
And at Earl Scruggs Festival that's.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Coming up in the end of August, the last weekend
Labor Day festival.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Really I'm the host of that festival.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Somehow the Scruggs family took me on and I am
I'm a I'm a spokesman and happy to be earlse
If it hadn't been for Earl Scruggs, I wouldn't be here,
None of us would be here, you know. And so
I'm I'm paying back. I'll be forever paying back for that.
(30:26):
But you know, there are musicians and other genres and
and but there are musicians in this in this bluegrass
genre too that I've wanted to play with. And you know,
guys like Danny Paisley, you know, whose father, Bob Paisley was,
was an icon in sort of Pennsylvania Maryland area of
(30:48):
bluegrass for years and years and and his son Bob
passed away, but his son Danny took it up, took
up the mantlin.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You know, he's he's one of these guys. He's he's
he's like he's just he's like Dale McCurry. He's from
the same he's cut from the same cloth. And they
just go out there and they make you love this music,
you know, they just they just pour their hearts out
and you and you can't walk away from there without
just thinking, man, I've just seen something I didn't think
(31:19):
I would ever see in my life. You know, it's
just eye opening experiences. You know that people bring Dell
and people like people like Danny and and you know,
to fit them into my other worlds, you know, with
Sam and Baylea and Edgar and you know, all the
things we do it tell your I that are so crazy,
(31:41):
and all these different collaborations that we do out there,
you know, and bringing the older bluegrass guys forward into
that is really fun for me. I love to hear
the two worlds collide, you know, but it's what comes
out on the other is always beautiful.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
August twentieth, City Winery in Boston, August twenty third, The
City Winery in New York City. Mister force of nature,
Jerry Douglass, it's really awesome to have you on taking
a walk.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for asking me to
be on and sello to everybody up there for me
and what we're really looking forward to playing in Boston.
I don't know if we've played the Boston City Winery before.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
I don't think I have, but I have played the
New York and loved it.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So looking forward to seeing all our friends up there,
you know, we have so many and we're gonna spend
some time up there in that area during that during
that tour.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
So yeah, it'll be good to get up there.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And be in New York City and being in Boston,
being the big city.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Can't wait. You're awesome. Thanks Jerry, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I remember walking around one night at a festival as
I was in between my junior and senior years.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Of high school with out on the road with this band.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I just remember walking that around really late one night
at a fastball and going, this would not be such
a bad way to go. I just felt like I
belonged and felt like it was something I could get better,
you know, see how far this could go.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast. This is the
podcast hosted by Buzz Night, talking with musicians about the
inside stories behind their music, their passions, their challenges, and
their latest projects. Today, buzz speaks with Dobra Master and
sixteen time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas. His music spans country, bluegrass, rock, jazz,
(00:53):
and more into a distinctive musical vision. Man considered a
musical trailblazer, Jerry Douglas joins Buzz Night next on Taking
a Walk.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Jerry Douglas, It's so great having you on the Taking
a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Nice to see you, Nice to see you. How's everything
been with you? Everything has been great.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
The nice folks at City Winery were kind enough to
sink us up. August twentieth, a Boston date and also
August twenty third a City Winery New York.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
City date as well. So you're going to be making
the rounds, sir, who are the city wineries? And I
don't drink?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Who am I going to give it all to?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Well, you know what, just go easy on everybody. But
how did a young man from Warren, Ohio get the
music bug man?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
My father, my parents moved up to Ohio from West Virginia,
where there was either work in the coal mines or
be a farmer or work on the state road. I mean,
you didn't have many choices. So they moved up to Ohio,
Northeastern Ohio for work. My dad moved up there and
(02:09):
worked in steel mills, and he played, he played guitar.
You know, all those people had moved up from the South,
they brought their music with them, if nothing else, you know,
whatever they could carry in, all the music they could remember.
And so it was through my father that I got
the love to play music. He was a guitar player
(02:31):
and a singer and had his.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Own bluegrass band.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And I got to watch those guys, you know, And
I be rolling around on the floor watching these guys
arrange a song, you know, and figure out who took
a solo here, who took a solo there.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And it all kind of like sunk in.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And plus I just I don't remember a time when
I didn't love music, you know, or want to hear it,
you know, whenever it wasn't there.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
So I'm going to go out on a limb and say,
Jerry Douglas really did not have a Plan B in
mind for his career.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well I did. I did have a Plan B.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I was gonna I was actually going to become an
English teacher and uh and I was all set up
to go to University of Maryland and then I joined
The Country Gentleman in d C. And that was as
close as I got to Maryland. And I remember walking
around one night at a festival as I was in
(03:31):
between my junior and senior years of high school with
out on the road with this band, you know, And
I just remember walking that around really late one night
at a festival and going, this would not be such
a bad way to go, you know, listening to all
these people play, you know, around campfires, and just what
(03:54):
a cool scene it was. But what a musical scene
I was in. You know and learning, just you know,
being that young and just being exposed to all of
these bands, all these different kinds of music under one
banner was really bluegrass at that point, and I just
felt like I belonged and felt like it was something
(04:16):
I could get better, you know, see how far this
could go. And I don't ever remember thinking about throwing
in the towel of any kind. You know, times were hard,
you know, we coming up as young musicians. We didn't
make a lot of money, but man, we had a
lot of fun. We ended up playing great music and
(04:38):
you know, discovering each other's music, and that's what really
made me want to be become and stick and become
a musician. You know, there was such camaraderie in that
and the cream of the crop, you know, when the
cream would rise and you got to play with those
guys or those women, men everybody more men back at
(05:00):
that point. You know, I'm glad to see there's so
many women now, it's unbelievably great.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
But I just.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Felt like there was I belonged there, and so I've
been working all of these years to stick in there,
try to make it better when I could.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You know, when.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I I've done a lot of studio work, so I'm
trying to make the records sound as good and be
able to compete with any genre that they come up against.
And that's something I think I've helped improve a little
bit over the years, and just from doing so many
(05:39):
country sessions, you know, being in the studio for you know,
twelve sixteen hours a day, just taking that and and
and you know, passing that forward to onto bluegrass music,
which wasn't always recorded so well. You know, it was
mostly field recording at first, and then and you know
(06:01):
they're the great old the great old Stanley Brothers and
Flatten Scrubs and Bill Monroe stuff you know that was
recorded early on. But I've always thought that I could
make it sound better, you know, sonically, and that's what
I that's what I worked toward when i'm you know,
when I'm producing somebody. But it's it's just a music
(06:24):
that deserves to be heard. You know, once you've heard it,
you like it and it's with you forever. So it's
it's it's just something. It's it's it's the grand experiment,
you know for me.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You know, other musicians are in awe of you, and
in fact, I've wanted to get you on the podcast
for a long time because we had the great Bill
Payne from Little Feet on the podcast. And once we
were done, I said, Bill, who do you think I
should get? This was early on in doing the podcast,
(06:58):
and the first person he mentioned, You've got to get
Jerry Douglas.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You know, Wow, Bill, I love him.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Man, what an incredible musician in person he is. You know,
I didn't really know Billy paid until you know, the
last two or three years really, and uh, just I
was around you know, Little Feet, you know, and and
just as a fan. Really yeah, I thought, man, you know,
(07:29):
they're there are like another level up from from most
bands that.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Play that kind of music. They have so many things
going on in their band.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's just and it's loose and it's tight at the
same time. It's uh and Billy is an amazing keyboard player,
amazing piano player. And I just went to Brussels with
with him and we just we played on some sessions
that you know, and only only French was spoken there,
and neither Bill nor nor spoke French. So we're just
(08:02):
kind of like going, uh huh, right, right, okay, here
we go, and no one seemed to know the difference,
and so but Billy, Billy took me. He said, there's
some sessions in Brussels. I've played on this guy's record
a couple of times. I think you would, I think
you would enjoy this. And they're looking for something new,
and I told him you were the thing that we needed.
(08:23):
So we went over and we've done it, and uh,
we're back from that. But you know, I spent a
lot of time with with Bill and he's just a
lovely guy and and a major, major mover shaker in
the whole rock and roll world here, you know. And
whatever that kind of music is that Little Feet played,
it was so many it was an amalgamation of so
(08:46):
many things, and Billy was, you know, at the head
of that charge. So I got millions of great things
to say about Billy Payne. That that's that's that's what
I can tell you about that.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Well, you've collaborated with so many different people, and I'm
sure this is an unfair question, but who are some
of the favorite studio collaborations first out of the I
don't know, fourteen hundred collaborations that you've you've had.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's kind of a blur, you know,
it's and I'm asked that question a lot. And and
you know, the first there have been so many things
were you know, when I've been just sitting in the
studio and i would just say to myself, remember this,
remember this, because this is something. This is a big deal,
(09:37):
This is a big deal, this is this is uh
you know, you think about making the best music you
could make. Well, okay, right now you're in that situation.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So step up.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, things that at times like with James Taylor
or Elvis Costello with Strength to Numbers, with my with
my guys you know, Edgar Meyer and Baylifleck and Sam
Bush and and Mark O'Connor. We were all the five
of us on this record called Strengthen Numbers. You know,
(10:12):
that was one that was a really great learning experience
for me. And it was, you know, was I was
in this cocoon with my friends, but we were pushing
each other really hard, you know, into territory that maybe
we hadn't sampled before. And the payoff for that was
(10:33):
was really great in uh, not I'm not talking about financially,
I'm talking about just just information and and uh lessons,
you know, life lessons and uh, just cooperating with people, collaborating.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, I am a collaborator. I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I mean I get a chance to do that so
much with the trans Atlantic Sessions, the thing that I
do in Scotland.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Every year.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I go over and we have musicians coming from America
and we have musicians coming to all meeting in one
place up in Scotland, in Glasgow. We start formula forming
this show, you know, and people people from both sides
who've never met, I have no idea, don't know about
(11:26):
each other, you know, and we just kind of throw
everybody together and collaborate. It's a giant collaboration experiment and
it always turns out so beautiful. And you know, I
get I get five songs from each of the artists
that are going to be on it every year, and
then I start balancing that and trying to create a
(11:49):
show out of that. By the time I get to Glasgow,
I have a show. So we rehearse that show and
throw these people together and it's just amazing what they
what they end up with. It's it's uh, and it
only happens one time.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
We do nine shows and we finish in London at
the at the Queen's Festival Hall in London on the
South Bank, right by the right by they love the
London Eye over there, and we finished, We finished the
tour there and it never happens again.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You know. It's just one of those things.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's it's it's like we we get into this world
and we we flesh it out.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We try everything we we uh.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
And we create the most beautiful music we can in
the time that we have, and uh, it always turns
out so good. I always think it the first of it,
how in the world are we going to make a
show out of this? Everybody is so different, But by
the end of it, you know, they've all embraced each
other's differences and and you know, you look back and
(12:55):
some there's one person standing in the star position, but
the other stars are back here singing background vocals or
whatever it takes, you know, to it's a huge band
and it's a it's a beautiful sound, and that, you know,
is the I can't think of a of a circumstance
(13:15):
where collaboration is is a bigger you know, it starts
with a bigger c you know than that right there,
it's that and that's what I do, That's what I
love to do, is just you know, trade ideas with people,
you know, and turnover turn over every stone and try
every idea.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You know, let everybody in.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
So much like an athlete in the zone when they're
performing at their highest level. Can you explain how a
master musician like you gets into the zone and what
that feels like.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well, you know, I've done it for many years with
it with Alison Krause and Union Station. I mean, and
we all enter that zone because we have that musical
music is just beautiful and and for us to uh,
you know, we feel like we're we're stewards, you know,
whereas we've just been handed these beautiful songs. Now, what
(14:16):
are you going to do with them? You know, how
are you going to uphold this standard? You know, keep
this bar high? And but but sometimes you can be
out on stage and having a good night and just
not even you know, it's sort of like being in
an out of body experience. I mean, you're standing there
(14:37):
watching yourself do this. It feels like you can't make
a mistake, and you know, of course you do.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Then eventually start thinking about it that way you're going
to make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
But it's just it becomes so refined with that band.
It's it, it gets into it, it gets into that
zone where it's we're all there at the same time,
and uh, every every cylinder is hitting perfectly in time
(15:09):
and everything is great with the world.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's a really good it's a great feeling to just
kind of it is really like standing there watching this thing.
It's out of body. It's a it can get that
good with a band like that.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, we'll be right back with more of the Taking
a Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
What was the experience like doing the uh being part
of the Old Brother where art the soundtrack?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It was wild and funny and and you know, I've
known I've known t bow and Burnett for years before that,
and he when he explained to me what we're gonna do,
he said, we're gonna make We're gonna make a record
to go with a movie. But we're we're going to
record all these songs that we've been told we can't
make any money making, you know, playing so Uh, I said,
(16:07):
how many records do you think this is going to sell?
T Bow and then he said eight million, and he
was too off, or maybe four off by now, I
don't know, but it's been.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It was a great record, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
And and at the time when we were doing the record,
we were we were all playing this music you know
that we had played, you know, early in our lives
and had had surpassed, you know, the the simplicity.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Of it in a way, and we had to get
that back.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That was what we were really there for, was to
create music from a time capsule.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And uh and uh.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
We actually got to be in the movie uh uh
toward the end of the movie, right before we're in
a building where they were right a guy out on
a they take him out on a rail.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
We were on stage.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Dan Tamensky and Barry Bales and Ron Block and I
were up there with really bad haircuts they gave us,
uh that were from the twenties and thirties, you know,
and we so we sported those haircuts all summer. But
it was worth it, you know. And I got a
(17:24):
lot more respect for actors. George Clooney and everybody was
they were they have to do their part like six
seven times to get every angle because there was one
camera shooting. So and it was, you know, held by
Roger Deakins. He was the guy sitting on the camera
(17:45):
and would arrive every day in a nice crisp pair
of jeans and a nice crisp white shirt, you know,
and he's sitting there on that camera and he's in command.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And so he would shoot it from every angle.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And I watched those people go through the same thing exactly,
you know, six times to do it perfectly. It's very
time consuming. What they have to do is like we
can go back and do something over again. We don't
have to do the whole thing over again. We can
do just a piece of it when we're recording, you know,
in our lives.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
But they're on film. You know, they have to.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
They have to they have to speak, they have to act,
they have to look right. You know, it has to
it has to go together.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
But but it was.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It was wonderful because my wife is from Mississippi, so
the mississippissippy is is is still a source of wonderment
to me. And I don't totally understand everything that goes
on down there, but but what an amazing place. And
we were in Vicksburg and we did our part. We
did it in Vicksburg and a building that had never
(18:51):
had air conditioning. And we're in dead people suits, you know,
we're we're in wool three piece suits and it's and
it's July in a building that never had and so
they would have this truck that would pump all this
air conditioning in. And there were two hundred people in
other dead people's suits sitting at the tables.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And we're up there playing in sweat.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And there was one room in the back that had
air conditioning going all the time, and George Cloning was
piling in there with us as musicians. He was in
there with us just going wow, is it hot out there?
You know, it just and you got to know these people,
they're just people, you know, they're just like us. It's
like people people are afraid to come up to you
(19:37):
once in a while just because you're you know, they
saw you on stage and they.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Just don't know, you know, what a marvelous thing that is.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Well they do know what a marvelous thing it is,
and they wish they could do it, and they treat
you in a different way because you've done that.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
But you know, we're just people. We're just just we
just happened to do what we do. It's a little
bit different.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Tell me how you have first ran into Molly Tuttle
and what it's been like doing project work with Molly.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Molly's Molly is such a powerhouse and such a such a.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So soft you know and.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
So quiet and reserved and everything until she picks up
that guitar, you know, and when she's when she straps
on the guitar, is this other this other person takes
over and Uh, she's not afraid of anything. She's she
she'll wade right into anything.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
And the whole band is that way.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And you know, the first record I did with her
was sort of like I call in the ringers and
we make a record, you know, and she gives presents
me with all the ideas and the songs and everything,
and we worked them out, figured out what we were
going to play, and then then we picked the music
the musicians. And the only person she knew for sure
was she said, Ron Block, I definitely want Ron Block
(20:59):
to play banjo on the recognis done.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I know that guy, and so we can get him.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And we started bringing in, you know, filling in the
band and and that was a great record, really fun
record to make and getting her feet wet, really really,
you know, she's been playing bluegrass for years in her
family band in California and with other people you know
of her same you know her age and all that.
(21:27):
But and it is a different language. I did have
to learn a different language. I had to learn, you know,
millennial language and what not to say, what to say.
It's like I felt, I never there were times when
I felt really old, you know, I would say something
that was some something that they go ooh, you can't
(21:48):
say that. Please educate me on what I can say.
And you know me, I'm only mean the best. I
only mean the best. Anything I say, please don't take
it in a derogatory way or I'm not against anything,
so so please just tell me when I went across
(22:08):
the line, and I did, and they told me, and
but we got along so fine. But then the second record,
the band came in and she said, I want to
do this one with the band, with the band we
have and yeah, amazing music musicians, young group of musicians.
And I said, it'll take longer because bands working bands
(22:31):
take longer in the studio because they're not usually a
studio savvy. You know about not to move on the
microphone because your sound changes, you know, and you hear that.
You know you want you want to you want to
be as steady and as as you can, you know,
just just stay in your lane, just stay right there
and give that microphone the best performance you can. And
(22:55):
they knocked it out of the park. They came in,
and I I was wrong about that band being not
being savvy, because they were totally and I would just
you know, make up, just have something to say once
in a little while, but not much mean, and we'd
get in I had. What I did was with the
second record, was brought everybody down front because Molly and
(23:18):
I had really worked the songs out and the band
didn't really know the songs yet. So I after they
kind of got recordings of them and got in advance,
you know, recordings of what we wanted to do. But
then I set them all down in the front of
the studio in a circle, and so we could look
at each other and talk to each other as we
(23:39):
went through the songs, and we all learned them at
the same time, and you know, and we had the
same groove going on, you know, we were thinking the
same things. And it then went to our stations, you know,
in our little blocked out places where we won't the
fiddle won't end up on the banjo tracker or the
(23:59):
other way around, things like that, you know, to just
move everybody around so we're you know, completely clean recording.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
And but they nailed it. They nailed it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And personalities just overflowing with personalities, you.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Know, but one end in mind, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Just to make a great record and sound like a band,
you know, and they do and they are and they've
and since we've recorded, they've gone out and they just
have this persona that's like no other band out there.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I mean, it's just like, I don't know, it's it's a.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Glitz and glamour, you know, and that a lot of
glamour and a lot of really good playing, really good playing,
and they can they can back it all up. And
and but Molly is her songwriting gets better and better
and better.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I didn't know you could work use the word cassiopeia
in in a song, but she did. Uh, the name cassiopeia,
you know, so you look up on the sky and
you see. But I'd never heard it in a song
until it came running by me, but she would bring
(25:13):
these songs up. It.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
There was only.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
One song that I said, I don't know about this
song and she said, catch said the same thing, So
that one's out, you know. So you know, but we've
we've had nothing but great times in the studio and uh,
it's just been a it's been a wonderful trip, you know.
And for me to get her to ride along with
(25:36):
that band and watch its success, you know, a couple
of Grammys and uh, who knows, who knows what's ahead
for them? You know, it's it's a the whole scene
is changing, you know. You can see with Billy Strings
and Molly Sierra Hole just it's all that and they're
(25:57):
they're at the there at the front of it, there
at the spearhead of this thing. And Billy's just you know,
selling out. His thing is a totally different.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Scene.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I mean, to play into fifty fifty thousand people or
something like that in the night, it's a phenomena, is
really what's going on with Billy. And he couldn't happened
to a nicer fella either, because he's just I love
that guy. I mean, he made the right choice when
he got to his fork in the road. He took
the right turn and everything's looking up for him. It's
(26:29):
all great, who.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Are you taking on the road for this round of shows?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
In the band? Who's going to be with you? Well?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
In my band, Mike Seal is an amazing electric guitar player.
And it sounds funny to say that I've got a bass, violin,
dobro and electric guitar, But what a wall of sound
we can make, you know. And we had we had
a drummer, great drummer for a long time, and then
I did the John Hyett record to John Hyatt record,
(27:01):
and he didn't on this particular record. He wanted to
go at it without drums, so we just went I
took my band in the studio just without the drummer.
And since then we just thought, well, there's all look,
look at all this space that's out here that drums
were kind of covering it before, and now we've got
all this space to work with.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
What do we do with this? So you know, it's
just a new chapter.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
But that's the band that I'll have with me and
Mike Seal on on guitar, Daniel Kimbrough on bass, and
Christian Settlemeyer on violin and just master musicians, master musicians.
They pushed me around all the time. It's great. I
love the pushing, I love the challenge.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I love the pushing. I need that.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
You know, we run out of people who who inspire
us that way, you know, and on stage. So it's
it's great having these guys and I respect them as
much as musicians as anyone I've ever met. These guys
are these guys can they can hold there? They can
(28:09):
hold it right there, and they don't if they fear nothing,
they're fearless.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
In closing, Jerry, anybody on the dream list that you
haven't collaborated with that you're itching to collaborate with.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Well, you know, I've done this thing that for the
last three or four years, my managers put me in
these situations.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Like a gray fox.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
For a couple of years, I was the residence, the
artists and residence, so I would play with just practically
every band that was on stage. And that's a good
way to get to know people, because you're not when
you go out on stage with somebody, you're not only
taking you're not only just taking up a you know,
some real estate on stage. You need to fit into
(28:58):
what they're doing. You need to become a chameleon, you know.
And that's something that I've learned to do over the years,
just from doing sessions, you know, and being called in
so many times to replace the saxophone because it took
the song too far away from the genre and the
market they wanted to sell it in. So here comes
(29:18):
to dobro player to get rid of the saxophone, solo,
replace the saxophone. But you know, sometimes you have to
do that. Sometimes you have to be a chameleon. And
these instruments allow us to do that.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
It's our personalities. The instruments are conduit for our own personalities.
And when you hear somebody play, that's their real personality.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
That's what I believe. And so there are people who
I want to play with.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I've played with so many people in that situation like
I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
And at Earl Scruggs Festival that's.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Coming up in the end of August, the last weekend
Labor Day festival.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Really I'm the host of that festival.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Somehow the Scruggs family took me on and I am
I'm a I'm a spokesman and happy to be earlse
If it hadn't been for Earl Scruggs, I wouldn't be here,
None of us would be here, you know. And so
I'm I'm paying back. I'll be forever paying back for that.
(30:26):
But you know, there are musicians and other genres and
and but there are musicians in this in this bluegrass
genre too that I've wanted to play with. And you know,
guys like Danny Paisley, you know, whose father, Bob Paisley was,
was an icon in sort of Pennsylvania Maryland area of
(30:48):
bluegrass for years and years and and his son Bob
passed away, but his son Danny took it up, took
up the mantlin.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You know, he's he's one of these guys. He's he's
he's like he's just he's like Dale McCurry. He's from
the same he's cut from the same cloth. And they
just go out there and they make you love this music,
you know, they just they just pour their hearts out
and you and you can't walk away from there without
just thinking, man, I've just seen something I didn't think
(31:19):
I would ever see in my life. You know, it's
just eye opening experiences. You know that people bring Dell
and people like people like Danny and and you know,
to fit them into my other worlds, you know, with
Sam and Baylea and Edgar and you know, all the
things we do it tell your I that are so crazy,
(31:41):
and all these different collaborations that we do out there,
you know, and bringing the older bluegrass guys forward into
that is really fun for me. I love to hear
the two worlds collide, you know, but it's what comes
out on the other is always beautiful.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
August twentieth, City Winery in Boston, August twenty third, The
City Winery in New York City. Mister force of nature,
Jerry Douglass, it's really awesome to have you on taking
a walk.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for asking me to
be on and sello to everybody up there for me
and what we're really looking forward to playing in Boston.
I don't know if we've played the Boston City Winery before.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
I don't think I have, but I have played the
New York and loved it.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So looking forward to seeing all our friends up there,
you know, we have so many and we're gonna spend
some time up there in that area during that during
that tour.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
So yeah, it'll be good to get up there.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And be in New York City and being in Boston,
being the big city.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Can't wait. You're awesome. Thanks Jerry, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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