Jerry Douglas (born 1956) is a Dobro and lap steel player whom Wikipedia describes as perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music. He has won 14 Grammy Awards and the IBMA’s top resophonic guitar award ten times, including the first six. He has played with the Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe and the New South, Boone Creek, the Whites, and Alison Krauss and Union Station, and he leads the Earls of Leicester. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame says he has appeared on more than 2,000 recordings. He entered the Hall of Fame in 2024.
Why Douglas matters
Douglas took the Dobro everywhere. He kept the Josh Graves tradition alive in bluegrass, then carried the instrument into country hits, jazz, rock, Celtic music, and film soundtracks. The Hall of Fame credits him with raising the status of the Dobro in bluegrass, mainstream country, and every other genre he touched. Mid-1980s hits by Gary Morris and Randy Travis put his Dobro in front of country producers, and session work followed.
Life and career
Douglas was born on May 28, 1956, in Warren, Ohio. His father played guitar and sang in a local band, the West Virginia Travelers. Jerry started on mandolin at five. In 1963 he saw Flatt and Scruggs with Josh Graves and Roy Acuff with Brother Oswald on the same night, and that settled it. He raised the strings on his guitar to play it like a Dobro and got his first real Dobro two years later.
He played with his father’s band, then toured with the Country Gentlemen in the summer of 1973 and joined them full time after high school in 1974. In 1975 he guested on J.D. Crowe and the New South’s Rounder 0044 album and then joined the band with Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs. In 1976 he and Skaggs formed Boone Creek, which recorded for Rounder and Sugar Hill. Around 1979 he joined the Whites, a family band that had country hits and joined the Grand Ole Opry. His first solo album, Fluxology, came out on Rounder in 1979.
Through the 1980s and 1990s he became a top session player and producer. He produced records for Alison Krauss, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and the Del McCoury Band. He played in Strength in Numbers with Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O’Connor, and Edgar Meyer, and in a trio with Russ Barenberg and Meyer. He organized and produced The Great Dobro Sessions with Tut Taylor, which won the 1995 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
In 1998 he joined Alison Krauss and Union Station and played on its platinum-selling albums and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and tour. He has also co-directed the BBC’s Transatlantic Sessions with Aly Bain since 1998. In the 2010s he formed the Earls of Leicester, a band that plays the music of Flatt and Scruggs, and released The Earls of Leicester in 2014. With Mike Auldridge and Rob Ickes he made Three Bells. His solo album The Set came out in 2024, the year he entered the Hall of Fame.
Playing style
Douglas plays the Dobro and the lap steel. He learned from the bluegrass picking of Josh Graves and the older Hawaiian-rooted slide of Brother Oswald. His records range from bluegrass to jazz covers such as Joe Zawinul’s Birdland. His nickname, Flux, comes from a word meaning to become fluid.
He has said he wants to keep the essence of bluegrass while making records that stand up to the full sound of country recordings. As a producer he pays close attention to equipment and microphone position.
Influences and legacy
Douglas learned from Josh Graves and Brother Oswald. He played beside Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, J.D. Crowe, Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Barry Bales, Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O’Connor, and Edgar Meyer. He recorded with Mike Auldridge and Rob Ickes on Three Bells.
Signature tunes and songs
Birdland, from The Great Dobro Sessions Abilene Gal, from The Great Dobro Sessions.
Essential recordings
Fluxology (Rounder, 1979) Slide Rule (Rounder, 1992) Skip, Hop and Wobble, with Russ Barenberg and Edgar Meyer (1993) The Great Dobro Sessions, producer (Sugar Hill, 1994) The Earls of Leicester (2014)
Awards and honors
IBMA Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2015, 2016) IBMA Recorded Event of the Year, Slide Rule IBMA Instrumental Recording of the Year, Skip, Hop and Wobble (1994) CMA Musician of the Year (2002, 2005, 2007) National Heritage Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts (2004) Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2011) 14 Grammy Awards International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2024)
Watch and listen
Douglas plays a solo set on Dobro for a Nashville TV station.
What to learn from Douglas
Learn Abilene Gal, then pick one fast passage and play it with a metronome until every note is even. Douglas’s lesson is clarity: fast lines on the Dobro only work when the bar is placed right over the fret and every note is picked clean. Slow down until you can play it perfect, then speed up.
Sources
Gerald Calvin “Jerry” Douglas, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Jerry Douglas, Wikipedia Douglas, Jerry, BluegrassBios.com The Great Dobro Sessions, Wikipedia Awards by Category, IBMA
Related players
See the Dobro players hub and the Dobro guide. Josh Graves and Brother Oswald made him want to play. Rob Ickes and Mike Auldridge joined him on Three Bells, and Barry Bales is his bandmate in Union Station and the Earls of Leicester.