Post by Doug on Mar 16, 2005 1:16:21 GMT -5
A Nice little write-up mainly on Jerry www.fresnobee.com/lifestyle/music/story/10107954p-10932255c.html
Douglas and Krauss reap the benefits of a bluegrass boom.
By Mike Osegueda / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Friday, March 11, 2005, 10:02 AM)
These days, Jerry Douglas of Alison Krauss and Union Station is just happy he doesn't have to explain things anymore.
Bluegrass? What the heck is that?
That's one of the questions he used to get all the time. But the mass popularity of the soundtrack of the 2000 film "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" helped clear that up for many people.
But then there's that other question.
What's that instrument you play? A Dobro? What's that? He'd been hearing that question for decades. Now, not so much. Now, the Dobro — a resonator guitar, the younger brother to the traditional guitar — is becoming more recognizable.
"I feel like when I don't have to explain what it is, when I say I play Dobro, and they say 'Oh,' That I've done my job," says Douglas, one of the instrument's ambassadors long before he joined Krauss' band.
Without having to explain everything to everyone, Douglas can focus on other things, like enjoying his recent Grammy win for best country instrumental performance, or the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship he won last year — a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
There's also the current tour he's on with his top-of-the-heap bluegrass band, Alison Krauss and Union Station, which stops Sunday at the Saroyan Theatre.
Usually, the band has stopped in Hanford at the Fox Theatre. Last year, it drew 2,800 to a outdoor concert outside the theater. This time around, the band had just become too big and too expensive for the Fox.
"She's just a magical vocalist," Fox owner Dan Humason says. "It's just magic."
"It wasn't a fad," Douglas says of bluegrass' out-of-nowhere popularity at the start of the decade. "It didn't turn into a disco thing. It's not going away. It turned on a whole new legion of fans that maybe we wouldn't have had, had we not had a movie to get the word out. It also woke a whole lot of people up who really loved the music but lost it in their everyday routine and lives."
For younger, up-and-coming artists, bluegrass coming back into the spotlight has given them new avenues to getting their music out. For artists such as Krauss and Douglas, who were already established before the bluegrass boom, it's meant more than answering fewer questions. It's meant more opportunity.
Douglas has been commissioned to play in commercials for Dodge trucks, Chevy trucks, McDonald's and a bunch of films, and he even scored a gig at Carnegie Hall.
The allure of bluegrass and Dobro has surprised even Douglas, who was watching TV not too long ago and heard some Dobro in a commercial for Century 21 real estate company.
He thought to himself: "I wish I had gotten that gig. They made it sound good." Then he started getting paychecks.
Finally, he realized the music in the commercial had been lifted from a song he did with Amy Grant. He didn't recognize it without the rest of the song.
"You can be fooled," he laughs. "There's a lot of people out there playing now. It's part of the evolution of the instrument."
Douglas is proud to be a part of that evolution.
"It's just amazing," Douglas says. "I don't think I would be a very good gas station attendant. So I'm lucky I can do this. I'm blessed that I can go out and make a living doing this."
Even if that means he has to answer the occasional question.
Douglas and Krauss reap the benefits of a bluegrass boom.
By Mike Osegueda / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Friday, March 11, 2005, 10:02 AM)
These days, Jerry Douglas of Alison Krauss and Union Station is just happy he doesn't have to explain things anymore.
Bluegrass? What the heck is that?
That's one of the questions he used to get all the time. But the mass popularity of the soundtrack of the 2000 film "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" helped clear that up for many people.
But then there's that other question.
What's that instrument you play? A Dobro? What's that? He'd been hearing that question for decades. Now, not so much. Now, the Dobro — a resonator guitar, the younger brother to the traditional guitar — is becoming more recognizable.
"I feel like when I don't have to explain what it is, when I say I play Dobro, and they say 'Oh,' That I've done my job," says Douglas, one of the instrument's ambassadors long before he joined Krauss' band.
Without having to explain everything to everyone, Douglas can focus on other things, like enjoying his recent Grammy win for best country instrumental performance, or the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship he won last year — a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
There's also the current tour he's on with his top-of-the-heap bluegrass band, Alison Krauss and Union Station, which stops Sunday at the Saroyan Theatre.
Usually, the band has stopped in Hanford at the Fox Theatre. Last year, it drew 2,800 to a outdoor concert outside the theater. This time around, the band had just become too big and too expensive for the Fox.
"She's just a magical vocalist," Fox owner Dan Humason says. "It's just magic."
"It wasn't a fad," Douglas says of bluegrass' out-of-nowhere popularity at the start of the decade. "It didn't turn into a disco thing. It's not going away. It turned on a whole new legion of fans that maybe we wouldn't have had, had we not had a movie to get the word out. It also woke a whole lot of people up who really loved the music but lost it in their everyday routine and lives."
For younger, up-and-coming artists, bluegrass coming back into the spotlight has given them new avenues to getting their music out. For artists such as Krauss and Douglas, who were already established before the bluegrass boom, it's meant more than answering fewer questions. It's meant more opportunity.
Douglas has been commissioned to play in commercials for Dodge trucks, Chevy trucks, McDonald's and a bunch of films, and he even scored a gig at Carnegie Hall.
The allure of bluegrass and Dobro has surprised even Douglas, who was watching TV not too long ago and heard some Dobro in a commercial for Century 21 real estate company.
He thought to himself: "I wish I had gotten that gig. They made it sound good." Then he started getting paychecks.
Finally, he realized the music in the commercial had been lifted from a song he did with Amy Grant. He didn't recognize it without the rest of the song.
"You can be fooled," he laughs. "There's a lot of people out there playing now. It's part of the evolution of the instrument."
Douglas is proud to be a part of that evolution.
"It's just amazing," Douglas says. "I don't think I would be a very good gas station attendant. So I'm lucky I can do this. I'm blessed that I can go out and make a living doing this."
Even if that means he has to answer the occasional question.