The Jerry Douglas Band Premiere Lead Single 'Cavebop' with RELIX

By: Jun. 07, 2017
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THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND--led by 14-time Grammy Award-winning musician JERRY DOUGLAS--have today (6/7) announced their new studio album WHAT IF will be released Friday, August 18 via Rounder Records. To coincide with the announcement, RELIX.com has partnered to premiere the album's lead single "Cavebop," which DOUGLAS tells the publication is "an experiment employing Bebop Jazz improv with a dash of Bluegrass for good measure." Listen to the track here. The album is now available for pre-order via Amazon here.

Throughout the album's 11-tracks, WHAT IF decisively merges jazz inclinations with the bluegrass, country, blues, swing, rock, and soul that DOUGLAS spent his life absorbing and performing, forging a sound that flies beyond the boundaries of anything he--or anyone else--has done before.
WHAT IF marks the recorded debut of THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND; thoughDouglas has recorded several of these songs previously; he turns them inside out here in bold new arrangements filled with unexpected elements. For example, in 1992 he covered "Hey Joe," the Billy Roberts folk tune that became one of Jimi Hendrix's most beloved blues-rockers, as an uptempo bluegrass song. Here, it's re-contextualized again with drums and fiddle--and horns instead of mandolin. Speaking of changing the feel, Douglas' rendering of Tom Waits' "2:19" is a funky revelation, dripping with soul--and vocals that sound like they're rolling from the lips of a grizzled Beale Street bluesman killing it at 3 a.m., not a three-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year. He also radically reconfigures the album opener "Cavebop," originally recorded in 2002. This time, it contains the horns he always wanted it to have. "The first time I recorded it, we just played it as fast as we possibly could," says DOUGLAS. "This time, we made it a bit more sophisticated, with more of an arrangement. A lot of times, when you record songs, you don't really know 'em yet. I got another shot at this one."
As soon as he graduated from high school, DOUGLAS headed to Washington, D.C., to join Charlie Waller, Ricky Skaggs, and Doyle Lawson in the Country Gentlemen. He's since performed in so many incarnations; at one point, he counted membership in eight bands--simultaneously. His recent history includes his band the Earls of Leicester--his version of the Flatt and Scruggs band--with Shawn Camp, Charlie Cushman, Jeff White, Johnny Warren, and Barry Bales; their self-titled 2014 debut earned Douglashis 14th Grammy. He'd already picked up eight with Alison Krauss & Union Station, with whom he's closing out his second decade, and shared the Album of the Year win for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the film soundtrack that helped replant traditional roots music in the modern American psyche.
TRACKLISTING FOR WHAT IF:
"Cavebop"
"Unfolding"
"2:19"
"What If"
"Hey Joe"
"Battle Stick"
"Go Ahead and Leave"
"Butcher Boy"
"Freemantle"
"The Last Wild Moor"
"Hot Country 84.5"
CATCH JERRY DOUGLAS ON TOUR:
DATE LOCATION VENUE
FRI
6/16
Telluride, CO Telluride Bluegrass Festival
FRI
6/23
Owensboro, KY ROMP Fest
SAT
6/24
Rochester, NY Rochester International Jazz Festival
FRI
7/14
Fall River, MA Narrows Center for the Arts
SAT
7/15
Oak Hill, NY Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival
SUN
7/16
Sellersville, PA Sellersville Theater
MON
7/17
Annapolis, MD Ram's Head
TUE
7/18
Rocky Mount, VA Harvester Performance Center
THU
8/10
New York City, NY City Winery
FRI
8/11
Turner Falls, MA Shea Theater
SAT
8/12
Bay Shore, NY Boulton Center
SUN
8/13
Ithaca, NY The Haunt
TUE
8/15
Newark, OH Thirty One West
THU
8/17
Ann Arbor, MI The Ark
FRI
8/18
St. Louis, MO Delmar Hall
SAT
8/19
Monticello, IL Allerton Park & Retreat Center
SUN
8/20
Evanston, IL SPACE
TUE
8/22
Madison, WI Majestic Theatre
WED
8/23
Minneapolis, MN Dakota
THU
8/24
Kansas City, MO Knuckleheads
SAT
9/23
Franklin, TN Pilgrimage Festival
SUN
10/8
Roseland, VA Festy Experience
TUE
10/10
Charlotte, NC McGlohon Theatre
WED
10/11
Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall
THU
10/12
Atlanta, GA City Winery
FRI
10/13
Asheville, NC The Orange Peel
For more information on THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND, visit:


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