A Lesson in Musical Generosity with JERRY DOUGLAS
- Susan Marquez
- Mar 1
- 4 min read
Long before he was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, Jerry Douglas was a little boy surrounded by music in his hometown of Warren, Ohio.
“My father was from West Virginia and worked in the steel mills in Ohio, and he and some of his co-workers had a band (the West Virginia Travelers) that easily could have gone professional,” Jerry says. “They played in local beer joints, but their main focus was their work at the mills.”
Like many kids, Jerry says he plunked on an instrument when he was a small child. “I started playing the mandolin when I was four or five and did that for a few years before I got a Sears and Roebuck guitar,” he recalls. “It was like playing a cheese grater.”
When he heard the music of Flatt and Scruggs, a lightbulb went off in Jerry’s head. “I saw Josh Graves play Dobro with them, and I was hooked. I wanted to be him.”
The boy asked his father to help him modify his guitar. “My dad raised the strings on my Silvertone, and I used a piece of copper pipe for my first slide,” he says. Jerry started playing Dobro with his dad’s band when he was 13 years old. “The guys in the band were great to me,” he remembers. “I learned by watching my dad play, and I practiced all the time.”
During that period, he explains, there seemed to be a lot of bluegrass on people’s minds, but there were not a lot of players. His dad took him to festivals, and when he was 13, the young musician met his idol, Josh Graves. “We were at a campground, and we were told that he was coming with Lester Flatt,” says Jerry. “When he saw me, he approached me and suggested we swap guitars before we started playing. I remember to this day what the neck of his guitar felt like.”
What Graves taught young Jerry that evening was a valuable lesson in musical generosity. “Now I’m an open book,” he says. “I’ve had the opportunity to teach a few times with Hot Rize. We took over an elementary school in Oregon for a few summers to teach. I love seeing people learn and watching them progress in their music careers.”
Becoming Flux
Jerry joined the Country Gentlemen in 1973 and toured with them until joining J.D. Crowe’s New South in 1975. In September of that year, he formed Boone Creek with his New South bandmate Ricky Skaggs. When Boone Creek disbanded in 1978, Jerry joined The Whites, recording several albums with Buck, Cheryl, and Sharon over the next seven years.
VIDEOS:
J.D. Crowe & The New South, “Devil In Disguise”
Boone Creek, “One Way Track”
The Whites with Jerry Douglas, “Swing Down Chariot”
Over his long career, Jerry’s work has been recognized with many awards, from the ten times he’s been recognized as the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year, to his induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2024... and many other honors in between, including an amazing 16 GRAMMY awards and three CMA Musician of the Year awards. (Oh, and he’s also the winner of a 2004 NEA National Heritage Fellowship.)
He’s a sought-after Nashville session musician and producer, and his distinctive sound can be heard on more than 1,500 albums. What Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar, Jerry Douglas is to the resonator guitar. He doesn’t just play the instruments; he transforms, elevates, and reinvents them. It’s no wonder that he is a 16-time GRAMMY winner.
Years ago, Jerry was given the nickname “Flux” by Ricky Skaggs because Skaggs thought he was fluid, with the ability to play anything, anytime, with anyone. Flux is playing now more than ever, fronting The Jerry Douglas Band and recording and touring for many other projects, including John Hiatt, The Earls of Leicester, Transatlantic Sessions, and, of course, Alison Krauss & Union Station.
VIDEOS:
The Jerry Douglas Band, “Gone To Fortingall,” DelFest 2022
The Earls of Leicester, “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” Salt Stage/FreshGrass Festival
Transatlantic Sessions, “Route Irish”
And 2026 started with a bang: first, there was the McCoury & Douglas Family Pickin’ Party, followed by Peter Rowan’s birthday party at the Ryman Auditorium, followed by a tour of the United Kingdom with the Transatlantic Sessions. After this month’s Suwannee Spring Reunion, he’ll go back out on tour until October, performing more than 60 shows with AKUS in concert halls and amphitheaters all over the country.
VIDEO:
Alison Krauss & Union Station on reuniting and their first album in over a decade
Jerry’s fascination with different musical genres and their origins has led to a board position with the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), which produces the National Folk Festival. “I’ve been to several cities for the festival over the past several years, and I’ve played in many of them,” he says. “I love that festival because it is so educational. It exposes audiences to music they may never have heard before.”
In addition to touring and playing on his own projects, Jerry has co-produced or produced over 100 albums for major artists, including The Del McCoury Band, The Whites, John Hiatt, Molly Tuttle, Alison Krauss, Steep Canyon Rangers, Maura O’Connell, and others. He also produced The Great Dobro Sessions (winner of the GRAMMY for Best Bluegrass Album in 1995), and Southern Filibuster: The Songs of Tut Taylor, a passion project that honored the late flatpicking Dobro man.
VIDEO:
The Great Dobro Sessions (complete album)
While his schedule doesn’t allow for one-on-one teaching as much as he’d like, Jerry has developed an online resonator guitar course for Modern Music Masters. This video series, described as a “guided tour towards learning and mastering the Dobro, teaches foundational skills for beginners who want a solid start, shares insights with experienced players to help fix bad habits, and offers fans of reso guitars an inside look at how the guitars are made and played. (Check it out at https://modernmusicmasters.com/jerry-douglas-lp.)
That certainly ties in with Jerry’s musical generosity. Whether he is teaching, promoting, producing, or creating it, Jerry Douglas has made an indelible and lasting mark on bluegrass.
Visit Jerry Douglas online at https://jerrydouglas.com.
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