Jerry Douglas - Americana
Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years
Review By: Jim
Moulton, CSO Staff Journalist
Sugar Hill Records, home of many a great artist, is making a tribute to three of it's best, longtime artists; including Jerry Douglas, Guy Clark and James McMurtry. Douglas has made five CDs for Sugar Hill Records.
Sadly, Sugar Hill is closing it's Carolina doors where it has been for about thirty years under the direction of President Barry Poss. They will be opening up an office in Nashville and continue it's marketing deal with Welk media.
Dobro and Jerry Douglas are two words that just go together. You would have trouble finding a better player. Douglas played with the Whites during the Eighties before going
solo. A big influence for Douglas was veteran player Josh Graves who has a very unique style.
This Disc represents five CDs that Douglas did with Sugar Hill, fifteen tracks in all
from his Sugar Hill period which hopefully will continue. Douglas is probably most well known as Dobro player for Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Douglas plays many styles on this sampler, ranging from bluegrass to acoustic country to jazz and in between. He plays with the best on these discs, like Viktor Krauss/bass, Bryan Sutton/acoustic guitar, Tim O'Brien/vocals
and mandolin, Sam Bush/mandolin and Peter Rowan/vocals and guitar.
"Birdland" has a real acoustic, jazzy feel. Bela Fleck on banjo, Stuart Duncan on fiddle. Great melody and hooks on this song. By the way, Airshow Mastering did an awesome job of mastering this disc, it shimmers with tight bass and great tone.
"A New Day Medley" is sweet, just Douglas and his Dobro, playing a medley of tunes.
"Cave Bop" is a tune that really rocks, with a great sounding melody. Viktor Krauss on bass really rocks the song. Bryan Sutton plays some aggressive acoustic
guitar plus some nice sax by Jeff Coffin.
"Ride The Wild Turkey" is a more traditional bluegrass song. Scott Nygaard on guitar here. Great banjo on this instrumental by Craig Smith.
I highly recommend this disc, just a great collection by Nashville's best Dobro player.
Imprint- Sugar Hill Records
