Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key: The Return of Alison Krauss & Union Station With Jerry Douglas

Jerry Douglas is never not entertaining. On stage, on record, or in conversation, Flux, as Bela Fleck famously dubbed him, is full of wit, joy and inventiveness. His talents have garnered him 16 Grammy Awards, 28 IBMA Awards, 3 Country Music Association Awards, 3 Americana Music Association Awards, an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, and an artist residency at the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum. I heard once that his style playing Dobro was so popular that practically every other player emulated it, to the point that he had to reinvent his own style to distinguish himself from the rest of the pack. This story could very well be apocryphal, but it points to the fact that his influence is everywhere in bluegrass and bluegrass-adjacent acoustic music. And Jerry Douglas has stories. Ask him about anyone in bluegrass, or even a ton of artists outside the genre, and chances are that he knows them and can spin a yarn or two about playing with them or being in their orbit. Get him going, and he may even tell you about his ancestor David Douglas, of Douglas fir fame, and the spectacular and mysterious way he met his end in Hawaii.

Here, we bring Jerry Douglas back to Southern Songs and Stories for a second time, following his 2021 episode “It’s Always Roots Music 12 O’Clock With Jerry Douglas”. Since then, Jerry has been inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame; he has served as festival host and solo performer as well as in his tribute band The Earls Of Leicester for the Earl Scruggs Music Festival, with frequent guest appearances for a number of other artists and bands there; he also fell right back in with Alison Krauss & Union Station for their first album since 2011, Arcadia.

Jerry Douglas will be the host once again at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival in late August 2025, where he will perform with the Earls of Leicester as well as Alison Krauss & Union Station, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and who knows how many artists as their on stage guest. Recently, he spoke with me on a video call while on tour with AKUS, where he gives us a preview of Scruggs Fest, plus he details a lot of what went into Arcadia. We also find out what he believes is the best key for playing bluegrass music, and learn how he approaches his instrument in Union Station differently than on his own.

Jerry Douglas plays at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival 09-01-24 (photo: Jess Maples)

Songs heard in this episode:

“When You Say Nothing At All” by Alison Krauss & Union Station, from Alison Krauss & Union Station Live

“Nashville Blues” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, from Will the Circle Be Unbroken, excerpt

“The Hangman” by Alison Krauss & Union Station, from Arcadia, excerpt

“One Ray Of Shine” by Alison Krauss & Union Station, from Arcadia

Thank you for visiting! We hope you can help spread awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice. You can find us on Apple here, Spotify here and YouTube here — hundreds more episodes await, filled with artists you may know by name, or musicians and bands that are ready to become your next favorites.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. You can follow us on social media: @southstories on Instagram, at Southern Songs and Stories on Facebook, and now on Substack here, where you can read the scripts of these podcasts, and get updates on what we are doing and planning in our quest to explore and celebrate the unfolding history and culture of music rooted in the American South, and going beyond to the styles and artists that it inspired and informed. 

Thanks to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. - Joe Kendrick

The Liminal Spaces and Myriad Phases Of Twisted Pine

On their third album, the Boston quartet pushes the roots music envelope with sass and wit, displaying harmony, hooks and chops for days. Hear about their unique approach, being at home in a liminal space, collaborating with fellow acoustic innovator Casey Driessen, and much more in this conversation from their appearance at the 2024 Earl Scruggs Music Festival.

Twisted Pine performs at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival 08-31-24

Songs heard in this episode:

“Green Flash (feat. Jerry Douglas)” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind

“Peaches en Regalia” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind, excerpt

“Goosebump Feeling” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind, excerpt

“After Midnight (Nothing Good Happens)” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind, excerpt

“Lonestar” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind

Thanks for coming by! We hope you can help spread awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice, so easy! You can find us on Apple here, and YouTube here— hundreds more episodes and many hundreds more artists await you.

From there it takes just a moment to give us a top rating, and where it is an option, a review! It makes a great difference because the more top reviews and ratings we get, the more visible we become to everyone on those platforms, which means that more people just like you connect with artists like Twisted Pine, Casey Driessen, Jerry Douglas and hundreds, literally hundreds more we have profiled that are at your fingertips. Speaking of Jerry Douglas, his episode from 2021 stands the test of time, and you can find that by looking up “It’s Always Roots Music 12 O’Clock With Jerry Douglas” on southernsongsandstories.com, as well as the search feature on your podcast platform of choice. Still to come in the series are artists interviewed at Scruggs Fest and at the last IBMA held in Raleigh, and I know you won’t want to miss those conversations with Lindsay Lou, The Faux Paws, Unspoken Tradition’s Ty Gilpin, author David Menconi and banjo innovator Tray Wellington.   

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Green Acres Music Hall, Revisited

Back in 2018, we dove into the history of a beloved venue that was its own cultural phenomenon over a span of nearly four decades. It was a sprawling, quirky, at times surprising and almost always joyful tale; those first three episodes of our Green Acres series totaled almost three hours (they started with fifteen separate interviews totaling over five hours), and included 19 songs or portions of songs played live at the venue.  

Acoustic Syndicate performs live on WNCW in the mid 1990s as Steve Metcalf (r) looks on. Steve Metcalf, Acoustic Syndicate and Darin Aldridge, who was a member at the time of this photo, are featured in this episode.

Those episodes detailed the history of the Acres, from its inception as a spot for dancing and country music to its embrace of Bluegrass and progressive acoustic bands, to the addition of an outdoor stage and larger and larger crowds in later years. In those first three episodes you can hear about how owner Nile Cuthbertson started Green Acres, how Steve Metcalf became its front man, while the episodes include a lot of context on external forces at play in the music scene locally and nationally in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. 

Steve Metcalf (l) and Phil Johnson (r) outside the WNCW control room in the 1990s.

People are just as ready to talk about Green Acres today as they were when we made those first episodes. Additionally, many artists who played there are set to perform at the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival on Labor Day weekend in 2022, and that got me thinking about revisiting the Acres by reworking all those hours of interviews and including many portions of our conversations that were left out the first time. Now, we put forward Green Acres alumni Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Darin Aldridge, and Acoustic Syndicate in this new context, as well as the person who made an indelible impact on the whole shebang, Steve Metcalf.

We are glad you stopped by, and hope you will follow Southern Songs on your podcast platform of choice. Once you’re there, could you take a moment and give us a top rating and, if possible, a review? Giving us a top rating is super easy, and ratings and reviews go a long way towards bumping us up in the rankings, which puts this series and the artists we profile in front of more music fans like you! Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series heard on public radio WNCW, and to our former intern Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it.   - Joe Kendrick

It’s Always Roots Music 12 O’Clock With Jerry Douglas

Jerry Douglas was effusive and ebullient all afternoon. He and his band approached their soundcheck session with a mixture of patience, focus and glee; it was the warmup for their first performance in front of a live audience in over a year. After sitting out the pandemic for all that time, the main hurdle to their exercise in knocking the rust off seemed to be finding what gear was in which bin, serving only to slightly delay them in getting things back into fifth gear. Jerry’s energy and enthusiasm continued afterwards, when he spoke about everything from his latest album project with John Hiatt to his analogy of the cyclical nature of musical tastes, which gave us the title to this episode.

The Jerry Douglas Band performs at Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre in Asheville, NC 06-03-21

Joe Kendrick and Jerry Douglas on stage at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain, NC 08-25-18

Songs heard in this episode:

“From Ankara to Izmir” by The Jerry Douglas Band, performed live 06-03-21 at Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, Asheville, NC

“All The Lilacs In Ohio” by John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band, from Leftover Feelings, excerpt

“Touch and Go” by Sean Jones from No Need For Words, excerpt

Thank you for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed the podcast, and might tell someone you know about it. You can follow the series on podcast platforms everywhere. Currently Southern Songs and Stories is ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts, which is great! But for this endeavor to be self-supporting, we ask that you follow the series and then give us a top rating and a review on your platform of choice. It is all free, and doing this will make all of the topics and artists covered on this series more likely to be found by more people just like you. Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Sean Rubin for recording and mixing The Jerry Douglas Band’s live performance of “From Ankara to Izmir”, and to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. - Joe Kendrick

Green Acres Music Hall, Part Three

We have covered a lot of ground so far, from the origin, to conversations with many key players and participants, and a lot of great music. Along the way, we have run up against biker gangs descending upon clubs and outdoor festival and taking them for their own, to finding a place on the map that no one had bothered to put on that map, to no sink, to snow collapsing a roof, to exploding concert ticket prices, and losses at the door. There’s a whole slew of stories packed into this little spot out in the western NC hill country.

Sam Bush in front of an energetic crowd at Green Acres Music Hall. Sam spoke with us at length about his many times on the indoor and outdoor stage at the Acres with everyone from New Grass Revival to his own band and Duck Butter.

In this episode we conclude our history of Green Acres Music Hall, with a focus on later years in its four decade run, and new interviews with artists like Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Mike Lynch, along with performances ranging from the very first bluegrass show played at the Acres on December 30th, 1978, to shows from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in 1991, Larry Keel with Snake Oil Medicine Show in 97, and Sam Bush’s band Duck Butter also in 1997. composition

A trio of artists who are very familiar with Green Acres. Jerry Douglas spoke with us at Merlefest 2018 about his times there, and that conversation if featured in this episode.

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P.S. I mentioned Duck Butter's cover of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" in the podcast as being a Cannonball Adderly cover. It is also a Joe Zawinul composition.