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Author Topic:  Jerry Douglas - Hey Joe
Chris Templeton


From:
The Green Mountain State
Post  Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:38 am    
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The thing I love about Jerry's playing is the way he slides all over the place, stays in tune and his hammer-ons are refreshing not the standard beaten-to-death licks that are so common on dobro, like overuse of the A & B pedals on a pedal steel.
His "skating" technique is phenomenal and when you watch/hear him play, you get the feeling, like Tommy Emmanuel, that he can play ANYTHING.
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Mark Eaton


From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Post  Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:44 am    
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Yeah - I agree - it seems like Jerry pretty much can play anything.

More Hey Joe research:

I forgot about this slowed down version by folkie Tim Rose from around 1966. It is said Jimi might have been inspired by this one - and when you listen to it that comment seems to be pretty much on the money:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wsiMjWTRI

I'd like to hear Jerry give it a treatment more like the Tim Rose version. That to me is when the dobro is at its best.
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Brooks Montgomery


From:
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Post  Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:46 am    
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Using Jerry Douglas's analogy of a chain-saw (electric guitar) and handsaw (dobro),
I'm equally amazed at both Jimi's Chainsaw version and Jerry's hand saw version.
To my taste, it's steak and lobster. Pass the butter.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:47 am    
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Mark, Thanks for posting that video of The Leaves doing "Hey Joe". When I read your post about The Leaves it didn't ring a bell, but as soon as I heard the song I immediately flashed back to the mid-60s... I vaguely remember hearing that song on the radio in my teenage daze.

Sometimes a cover becomes the standard. A lot of people think "All Along the Watchtower" is a Jimi Hendrix original. They never heard the Dylan original. And they think "Mr. Tamborine Man" is a Byrds original. And that Hank Williams wrote "Lovesick Blues". That song was written in 1922 when Hank was 1 year old. A lot of us associate "Hey Joe" with Jimi. His is certainly the best-known version.
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Andy Volk


From:
Boston, MA
Post  Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:59 am    
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At the risk of seriously boring the pants off everyone, back in 2009 I attended a small audience performance and talk by Jerry at the Music Emporium store in Lexington, Mass. I sat about three feet away from Jerry that night. FYI, these were my impressions (posted originally on Resonation.com) ...

"The man is preternaturally talented (but we all knew that already) and one of the nicest, most down-to-earth musicians I've met. This is almost universally true of Dobro and steel players I've found but not necessarily true of guitar players.

A lot of Jerry's style is based on rolls played with incredible precision and consistency and very canny use of open strings. Those famous hammer/pull flurries were there in abundance and amazing to see and hear up close. I noticed that there was incredible economy of movement in his left hand for those. The bar barely lifted above the strings, just enough to clear the strings but not more. His right hand attack was very strong with the heel of his hand constantly down on the bass strings. The flurries were a little faster and more accurate when his right hand was braced through the strap. When he played the shop's guitar sans strap, they were a little less controlled.

Jerry played Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time is Here" almost solely in single notes. It was an object lesson in tone production, not rushing a melody and in many extremely subtle bar inflections and in moving in and out of vibrato to express feeling in single-note playing. He uses rip strokes with great power to inflect a line and his overall control of dynamics to express feeling was very cool.

A lot of JDs playing is built around set arrangements of his original tunes rather than wild improvisation but he performs them slightly differently each time adding improvisational elements along the way. He said that "If you can't play the melody well you can't improvise around it."

I asked if he picked or palm block. He said he did both but never realized it until it was pointed out to him in teaching situations at workshops.

JD is human! He flubbed a few times but powered through. Once he acknowledged it verbally, once he smiled to himself and once few people caught it but the clam was there and a sly indication caught JD's face for a fleeting moment.

When he gets in a rut he likes to go on vacation and NOT take the Dobro and everything's fresher two week's later. Also, when the ideas aren't flowing, he goes back to playing as simply as possible even doing things like going back to his roots trying to play a Josh Graves tune note-for-note to sound exactly like Josh.

Jerry said people have no idea how hard he practiced to acquire the skills he has.
The Aura sounded great and colored the sound in beautiful ways but interestingly, when Jerry played his Beard a bit before he was plugged in, my impression was that even in his hands, the instrument sounded about as good as my Benoit and any number of high-end Dobros I've heard - definitely not life-changingly better. So as Jerry Byrd once said, "If you can play, it doesn't matter what guitar you've got. If you can't play, it doesn't matter what guitar you've got." I had the same impression seated three feat away from Bernie Greenhouse (one of the world's great cello players) playing Bach on his Strad. We get so caught up in chasing instruments but ultimately it's the musician we want to hear and who really makes this inanimate object sing.

I showed him my Tribo-Tone bullet bar and jerry held it and regarded it as if it were some strange object from another planet. Guess he was and always will be a rail bar man.

He talked about how hard the road is and how it really destroys some people as does the grueling session work he used to do but he retains an obvious joy in making music and playing and talking about the Dobro. It was an incredible privilege to see and hear him play so beautifully and expressively. It was an inspiring evening all around. They even pulled my name out of the hat for his show with the band tonight in Foxboro but I can't go. Dang!"
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Brooks Montgomery


From:
Idaho, USA
Post  Posted 28 Jul 2017 10:07 am    
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Thanks Andy---very insightful.
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 29 Jul 2017 4:35 am    
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Jerry is phenomenal, and that is some mighty fine bass playing. I really like his singing, which he can do at the same time.

I think he had to play it more up-tempo because Hendrix couldn't play that fast.
The sixties version was in the middle of the drug haze. Jimi was here to demonstrate being experienced.
Even if you didn't do drugs, you could get the idea.

Listening to Jerry's duo, I think, these guys aren't doing drugs.

That was very interesting, Andy. So he practiced!
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Gregory Horne

 

From:
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Post  Posted 30 Jul 2017 2:27 pm    
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The bass player is Daniel Kimbro from Knoxville, TN. I've been lucky to be friends and bandmates with him here and there over the years.http://danielkimbro.com

That upcoming Jerry Douglas band record is going to be great. Y'all non-pedal steelers might also enjoy Daniel's two duo albums with British slide artist Martin Harley.
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Dave Manion

 

From:
Boise, Idaho, USA
Post  Posted 2 Aug 2017 1:14 pm    
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Did anyone notice that chunk of metal at the end of the bridge? Looks to be fine tuning machines, but could contain some other doohickey(s)? Curious about that.
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Howard Parker


From:
Maryland
Post  Posted 2 Aug 2017 1:40 pm    
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That hunk of metal is the Hipshot "Doubleshot" tailpiece that allows the player 2 tunings on the guitar. Jerry's guitar is tuned "open" to D tuning. In the "closed" position the guitar is tuned to standard dobro G tuning.

Developed by Hipshot with assistance by Jerry Douglas and Paul Beard.
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Dave Manion

 

From:
Boise, Idaho, USA
Post  Posted 2 Aug 2017 3:13 pm    
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I thought it might have had some of those levers to toss it down to D etc... I love D tuning, but not always de-tuning.
THanks for the reply!
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Andy Volk


From:
Boston, MA
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 9:24 am    
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Here's the video for the full band version:

http://www.rollingstone.com/country/videos/jerry-douglas-bands-hey-joe-see-video-w495893
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Howard Parker


From:
Maryland
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 9:39 am    
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From the article:

"If there's guilt involved about advancing the music and trying to change it at all, I'm certainly guilty of that and bringing other influences from other genres of music into it,"

Cool

h
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Mark Eaton


From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 10:23 am    
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Howard Parker wrote:
From the article:

"If there's guilt involved about advancing the music and trying to change it at all, I'm certainly guilty of that and bringing other influences from other genres of music into it,"

Cool

h


I have told the story below on another forum, not sure if I have ever shared it here. Jerry has gotten some heat from "the bluegrass police" over the years for veering away from 'grass. Though in recent years with the formation of The Earls of Leicester and their 100% sets of songs which were historically played by Flatt & Scruggs, in the minds of these "police" he has apparently righted the ship.

This story comes from a Jerry Douglas Band show here in northern California as I recall in 2004 at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma. (fellow forumite Todd Clinesmith was in attendance as well). Jerry said from the stage and of course I'm paraphrasing: "I was reading a bluegrass blog the other day and somebody wrote 'Jerry Douglas Band - bluegrass content: nil.' Well I think we still know how to play a little bluegrass."

They proceeded at that point to go into a high octane 'grass number that if Jerry's dobro were hooked up to a generator he might have been able to power downtown Petaluma. It's not like he forgot how to do it or anything like that...
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Howard Parker


From:
Maryland
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 10:55 am    
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I don't think I've read anything here dissing Jerry for abandoning bluegrass. Not that it matters.

I think that the music that Jerry and others, particularly the "youngsters" demonstrate why the popularity of the Dobro style guitar has exploded over the last 20 years.

Go to the dobro forums and search for bluegrass content. I think while still significant many players are into other stuff.

Nope..I don't have a genre measuring tool. just an informal observation.

h
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Mark Eaton


From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 2:06 pm    
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Howard Parker wrote:
I don't think I've read anything here dissing Jerry for abandoning bluegrass. Not that it matters.


h


No Howard, I haven't read anything of that nature in this thread either.

I was sharing an anecdotal story that was sort of piggybacking on the quote you gleaned above from the article in Rolling Stone. There have been folks around the country over the years who have decided Jerry is "guilty" of something in his dobrolic explorations.
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Howard Parker


From:
Maryland
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 2:17 pm    
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Mark Eaton wrote:
There have been folks around the country over the years who have decided Jerry is "guilty" of something in his dobrolic explorations.


Not that it matters Winking

h
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Mark Eaton


From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 3:46 pm    
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No, to you - and I guess in the grand scheme of things - it may not matter.

But when Jerry told that story from the stage some 13 years ago, though as I recall he delivered it with a touch of his trademark wry humor, I also got the sense that to him it did indeed, to some degree, matter.
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Andy Volk


From:
Boston, MA
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 4:19 pm    
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People like to keep musicians/genres/instruments in their boxes but adventurous players MUST break out. Look at Yo Yo MA ... there's an open mind. Like Jerry, Mike Auldridge pushed against those limits 40+ years ago.
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Brooks Montgomery


From:
Idaho, USA
Post  Posted 4 Aug 2017 8:00 pm    
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Jerry's dobro playing, and Rob Ickes, and Mike Auldridge (Mike's was my first dobro vinyl when I was a young man) is what drew me to bluegrass. My dobro heroes all seemed to be bluegrass gurus. And so I followed. I was raised on blues and rock and folk and country. I've grown to really like bluegrass, mostly because of my bluegrass dobro heroes, and of course, Old and in the Way, like a lot of guys my age, but Jerry Douglas's adventures into blues and jazz and Celtic and all other forms have always been my favorites (except maybe those old bluegrass sessions albums from the 80's?? which still kill me).
None of this matters of course, but I love the Hey Joe cuts, and all the other dobro adventures that stray from bluegrass, and Jerry, keep on following your North Star, even if it drifts into other constellations.
Sincerely,
A huge fan.
(He never lurks here does he?) Cool
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 5 Aug 2017 4:41 am    
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I think the full band version is credible bluegrass.

But where do those horn parts come from? They're not bluegrass--is there brass in bluegrass?
I'm glad when musicians break the mold. Makes the grass greener. Guilty!
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HowardR


From:
N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville
Post  Posted 8 Aug 2017 4:55 pm    
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Andy Volk wrote:
one of the nicest, most down-to-earth musicians I've met!"



I'll second that........



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