Post by fogcitygal on Dec 17, 2004 0:58:38 GMT -5
Excerpted from an old but good article on Dobro's:
"More Than You Really Wanted To Know About the Dobro
Part 2 of 2 By Ken Brown
April 11, 1995
JERRY AND THE DOBRO
Where any of the other bluegrass instruments are concerned, it's difficult to achieve any kind of consensus among pickers as to who's the best. Who's the best bluegrass fiddler? Kenny Baker? Blaine Sprouse? Stuart Duncan? Alison Krauss? Hard to say. It sounds like a good way to start a jam session fistfight, if you ask me. But if you're talking about the dobro, as far as I'm concerned, Jerry Douglas is The Man. In my book, the "D" in dobro stands for Douglas (see Wolfe 1991 for a recent interview). Jerry has done a lot more than just endorse the GHS dobro string set that bears his name. It's hard to explain about Jerry to folks who don't play the dobro. It isn't that there are a bunch of good dobro 0pickers and he's just a little better than the rest. No, it isn't like that at all. Jerry is entirely in his own orbit. Nobody else can do what he does, or even come close. He has a unique and incredibly tasteful style, one that I doubt anyone else will ever be able to copy. Words can't describe it. You must hear it to understand. I can remember a number of times when I've been sitting in a restaurant somewhere with a Top 40 country station on the house PA system, and a brand-new song by Randy Travis or someone would come on the air, a new song that I'd never heard before anywhere, and by the time the first three notes of the dobro lead-in rang out, I knew without a doubt who was working the dobro. That's how distinctive Jerry's touch is. What does Josh Graves think of Jerry? "Jerry's gone on to fancier stuff but I'll tell you he's a genius. He can do everything. He can play it straight or whatever he wants to" (Wolfe 1990). What Jerry has done is to show us all where the dobro can go and what it can really do -that is, if you're Jerry Douglas. "
Full article: www.cybergrass.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=65
"More Than You Really Wanted To Know About the Dobro
Part 2 of 2 By Ken Brown
April 11, 1995
JERRY AND THE DOBRO
Where any of the other bluegrass instruments are concerned, it's difficult to achieve any kind of consensus among pickers as to who's the best. Who's the best bluegrass fiddler? Kenny Baker? Blaine Sprouse? Stuart Duncan? Alison Krauss? Hard to say. It sounds like a good way to start a jam session fistfight, if you ask me. But if you're talking about the dobro, as far as I'm concerned, Jerry Douglas is The Man. In my book, the "D" in dobro stands for Douglas (see Wolfe 1991 for a recent interview). Jerry has done a lot more than just endorse the GHS dobro string set that bears his name. It's hard to explain about Jerry to folks who don't play the dobro. It isn't that there are a bunch of good dobro 0pickers and he's just a little better than the rest. No, it isn't like that at all. Jerry is entirely in his own orbit. Nobody else can do what he does, or even come close. He has a unique and incredibly tasteful style, one that I doubt anyone else will ever be able to copy. Words can't describe it. You must hear it to understand. I can remember a number of times when I've been sitting in a restaurant somewhere with a Top 40 country station on the house PA system, and a brand-new song by Randy Travis or someone would come on the air, a new song that I'd never heard before anywhere, and by the time the first three notes of the dobro lead-in rang out, I knew without a doubt who was working the dobro. That's how distinctive Jerry's touch is. What does Josh Graves think of Jerry? "Jerry's gone on to fancier stuff but I'll tell you he's a genius. He can do everything. He can play it straight or whatever he wants to" (Wolfe 1990). What Jerry has done is to show us all where the dobro can go and what it can really do -that is, if you're Jerry Douglas. "
Full article: www.cybergrass.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=65
