Dobro increased popularity

[Darrell Criswell]

I have seen quite a few square neck resophonic guitars (Dobro's) in music stores lately. They are almost all low end instruments and new.

I wonder if the instrument has increased in popularity and if so why?

[Jerome Hawkes]

Back when I first started playing bluegrass in the late 80's you could count the dobro and mandolin players on each hand it seemed...I was "forced" to play mandolin cause I was the youngest and nobody else wanted to play it. Now when I go to major festivals they are both well represented, you see a lot more dobros for sure.
I think the main reason is exposure, plain and simple.

[Howard Parker]

It's because dobros are now "cool" and are being played by a number of young, technically "hot" players not only in bluegrass but in other "alternative" genres popular with younger audiences.

Not your fathers' dobro anymore!

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[Gene Jones]

I love the sound of a dobro, and it's simplicity. It's effect on the music world is too simple and at the same time too subtle to be acknowledged as a dominate sound of current recordings.

Simplicity is dominate today. You just need to lissten to the music that is used for the soundtrack in many of the television shows of today to appreciate their contribution.

[Mark Eaton]

Man, I wish being able to play like the late Mike Auldridge, Jerry Douglas, or Rob Ickes were simple!

I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about this and I believe it's a combination of a few different things. Working as an outside sales rep and spending a lot of time on the road, if I have the radio off, there's a lot of time to think between customer visits!

When I first started playing the thing in the mid '70s, dobros were not very easy to find and there was very little available in learning materials. At the big monthly regional bluegrass jam I was often the only dobro player among 30+ musicians in attendance, and even with my simplistic playing style I was welcomed into the different jam circles at these events. It helps when you're the only game in town.

I was reading an interview with Chris Martin IV of C.F. Martin Guitar Co. and he was describing the '80s as being "the dark years" for the company when sales dropped off dramatically. Instead of people buying acoustic guitars it seems more folks when taking up an instrument were interested in things like synthesizers. I'm fairly certain the majority of us here weren't buying much in the way of synths!

Fast forward to the '90s and shows like MTV Unplugged were enormously popular, featuring the likes of Eric Clapton and Nirvana taping "unplugged" concerts which were also released on video and compact disc. Acoustic music became cool again and some people were curious about the roots of this stuff and investigated further.

At the end of the decade a couple things happened that effected the popularity of the dobro itself and brought in some new players, and this was after the rise of specialty dobro luthiers like Tim Scheerhorn, Paul Beard, Todd Clinesmith, Crafters of Tennessee, etc. were building modern instruments with a different twist on the traditional Dobro, eventually followed by affordable imported resonator guitars.

The first was that the most well known dobroist in the world, Jerry Douglas, joined Alison Krauss & Union Station as an official member, and large audiences were exposed to the instrument through Jerry due to the group's increasing popularity. Indeed, no bluegrass or bluegrass-oriented group had known this level of success since the likes of Flatt & Scruggs appearing at Carnegie Hall in the '60s. I don't run across them here on the SGF as much as I do on the dobro-specific Reso-Nation forum, but I know quite a few folks over there that took up the dobro after being exposed to Jerry with Union Station both in concert and on CD.

The other thing that was a really big deal was what I call the "Oh Brother Effect." The popularity of the film "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" had a huge effect on people taking an interest in acoustic, roots, bluegrass, and old time country music. To date I believe the soundtrack CD has sold in excess of eight million copies. Following the film were two "Down From the Mountain" tours which filled some good-sized basketball arenas featuring many of the musicians whom were part of the movie. At an Alison Krauss & Union Station concert one of the required songs is "Man of Constant Sorrow" with Dan Tyminski on the lead vocal who was "the voice of George Clooney" in the movie. Union Station not performing this song would be like Tony Bennett not singing "I left My Heart In San Francisco" in a concert. As a long-time fly fisherman, I recall something similar happened after the popularity of the film "A River Runs Through It." Within a couple years I would travel to my favorite California and Oregon trout streams to find a lot more people out there thrashing around in the water with fly gear spooking the fish than in the past. It became known as The Movie to fly tackle industry people, kind of a blessing and a curse - good for business, bad for solitude on the stream.

The power of popular cultural events can often trickle down in a big way.

It's sort of a "golden age" for the resonator guitar these days - a lot of good instruments available, a plethora of teaching materials, and a bunch of hot pickers out there.

[Alvin Blaine]

Today's "Dobro®" crazy has almost as much to do with people making good quality instruments as much as great players out there now.

In the '60& '70s most production Dobros were not much to brag about, and some of the older ones had beat up & worn out cones, and no volume or tone.
The Dobro company had been traded & sold to many different companies and builders, and wasn't much more than a novelty production item with very low quality standards.
Then Rudy Q Jones started making his own line of instruments, in the late '70s, next thing Josh Graves, Mike Aldridge, Gene Wooten, and new comer Jerry Douglas all started playing his instruments. They were big, loud, full sounding guitars, and that started the whole Boutique Resonator building crazy. That made a big difference in the whole picture.
Now you could actually buy a high quality resonator guitar that had tone, volume, and could stand up in a jam session with old Martins and a bunch of banjos. It's just grown like crazy over the past 25 or 30 years, and I don't see any sign of it slowing down.
Even though I still play a mid '30s built Dobro, most of the time, I think all the custom builders (who can't even use the name Dobro) are the best thing to ever happen to the instrument.

[Mark Eaton]

Yeah, good point about Rudy - not sure why I blanked on including him in my post. He is "the father" of the modern high-powered resonator guitar.

News traveled slowly back in the day, especially in the esoteric world of the resonator guitar. I was playing on my turntable the other day a Josh Graves album called "Same Old Blues" I purchased after it came out around 1977. I was on fire for the dobro back then and bought just about every specialty dobro album that crossed my path, though there weren't a whole of them to be had.

Josh is posing with an R.Q. Jones on the cover and I can still vaguely remember thinking when I found it at the record store, "who is R.Q. Jones?" Being pretty new to the instrument, I thought the only company making the things back then had the word Dobro on the headstock.

[Brad Bechtel]

Besides the popularity of such performers as Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes, a new generation of resonator guitar players are becoming prominent. See Greensky Bluegrass featuring Anders Beck, The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Andy Hall, Black Prairie featuring Chris Funk, and many more.

The dobro is portable, you can play it standing up and moving around, and it fits well into the current crop of acoustic bands.

[William W Western]

Should also pay homage to Bev King's yeo(wo)man service in the early seventies in putting out her wee newsletters and several easy to follow songbooks for the dobro. There wasn't much out there besides that at the time.

[James Trout]

As a longtime bluegrass player (guitar) but a new resonator guitar player I agree with most of the items down the list. More exposure, fabulous instruments, and great players. Additionally, there are so many great ways to learn the instrument now thanks to the internet and people like Jimmy Heffernan, Lessons with Troy, etc. Additionally, (and I'll probably catch flack for this one) is the instrument is played so differently today compared to the early eras. Although I appreciate the work put in by the early pioneers, the early dobro sound was not pleasing to my ears until I heard Mike Auldridge's work with the Seldom Scene. Josh may have kicked this thing off, but Mike made people want to listen to it and most of the fabulous players today showcase tone and technique that he started. Regardless, the dobro/resonator guitar is here to stay and I look forward to the next 20 years to see where it goes from here!

[Dan Mahoney]

All of the above is true but is focused on bluegrass for the most part. The Dobro has been a mainstay in country music (I mean real country music) since the thirties. In the fifties and early 60s it was ubiquitous. I picked up the Dobro in the early 70s and first learned all I could from Shot Jackson's playing with Johnny and Jack and old Cliff Carlisle recordings. Recently at a jam another reso player said to me "Wow, you play a lot of slants". Thank you Shot.

[Jerry Overstreet]

+1 for Bev King and Country Heritage magazine when I picked up my first Dobro in the 80's. I learned a lot about the instrument and other makes and builds as well. It's information I wish I had prior to making a purchase, because I would have bought a much better instrument if I had known.

In the 70's and 80's all I heard from people I knew in the business was Jerry Douglas. Everybody was talking about him. I think his work with many popular acoustic groups, some that toured the college circuit, spawned much new interest among young people.

Anyone that has followed his career has to admit that his genius on the instrument and range of music recorded and assembled has to be one of the biggest reasons for the instrument's exposure and popularity.

[Rockne Riddlebarger]

As far as the availablity of quality dobros go, we live in the true golden age of the instrument. There are more talented luthiers building vastly superior instruments compared to those of the past. Plus the world finally realized that the awsome sound of the dobro could no longer be denied!