Dobro's power still resonates today.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

The sound of the Dobro (`good" in Slovak) has been described as "vocal," "lyrical," "percussive," "round" and "bell-like."

"It's all of those things," said undisputed Dobro master Jerry Douglas, speaking by phone from Telluride, Colo. "It has so many nuances.

`It can be a percussive instrument. It can be really vocal. It can be really like the human voice."

A wood-bodied, metal-plated instrument with an aluminum cone for amplification, the Dobro, or resonator guitar, is played laid flat, sometimes across the lap.

Invented by two Slovakian brothers in Chicago in 1927, the instrument was designed to stand up to the noisy trumpets, banjos and saxophones that once dominated popular music.

Stand up it does.

"You can move the note anywhere you want to," Douglas explained. "You're not limited to just one point. It slides. It goes anywhere."

For the last couple of decades, Douglas has taken the Dobro pretty much anywhere he wants it to go.

Widely regarded as the Michael Jordan of the instrument, he has played with highbrow bluegrass bands, performed on more than 1,600 recordings as a Nashville session guy, launched a successful solo career and become a member of Alison Krauss + Union Station - possibly the most famous bluegrass band in the world.

He can be heard (and seen briefly) in the Coen Brothers' movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" And today, he can be seen and heard at the Shedd, performing with his band.

The show is part of the Oregon Festival of American Music's Now Hear This series.

Bluegrass across boundaries

Last week, Douglas was at the Telluride Bluegrass Festi- val, where he played with his band (not to mention the likes of Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris and Krauss and company).

Although Douglas' music often is chucked in the category of bluegrass, his sound is a twangy amalgamation of blues, jazz, rock, classical and other forms.

At a traditional bluegrass festival, he said, he would play straight-ahead bluegrass. But at Telluride, he was free to be himself.

"At this thing, anything goes," Douglas said. "It's like what we'll be playing in Eugene next week. Dump the whole barrel out see what falls out."

What falls out at tonight's show is likely to be a mix of Douglas' older material and some more daring stuff from his recent album "Lookout for Hope." The record features new songs, new arrangements of traditional songs, an Allman Brothers cover (`Little Martha') and the album's title track, a 10-minute exploration written by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.

That title tune highlights the more vocal qualities of Douglas' instrument. It also features an all-star cast of musicians that includes guitarist Bryan Sutten, dueling mandolinists Chris Thile and Sam Bush, and Phish's Trey Anastasio on guitar.

On his latest album, Douglas also contributes vocals to one track, a slightly sad, swaying ballad called "Footsteps Fall" that features Irish singer Maura O'Connell. Douglas has produced several records for O'Connell, along with albums for Jesse Winchester, the Nashville Bluegrass Band and the Del McCoury Band.

Don't expect to hear Douglas singing in concert. He says his voice is a largely undeveloped instrument - and one he'd like to keep in the studio.

"I try not to make that a habit," Douglas said. "I like to sing, but it's just like playing the Dobro; if you don't play it a lot, you're not that good at it. You have to hone the instrument, you have to work on it, be relentless, to get a sound."

Douglas said he stopped thinking of himself as a singer when he started playing the Dobro. That happened shortly after he heard Dobroist "Uncle Josh" Graves, who played with bluegrass pioneers Flatt and Scruggs.

Although Douglas didn't play an instrument then (he said he was just 6 years old), he heard something different in Graves' playing and resolved to imitate it.

"He was really soulful, really lyrical, and (there was) a lot of depth to what he was playing," Douglas said. "It had so many dimensions; it seemed like it could do so many things in his hands.

`I just aspired to be like him someday and never thinking that I'd be doing this for a living. ... He really inspired me to play the guitar, and when I finally got one and started playing, it just seemed to be so easy to me.

`I guess it was just something I was meant to do."

Dobro is a star

After playing with his father's band, the West Virginia Travelers, Douglas joined a "new-grass" group called the Country Gentlemen and hit the road.

He cycled through a number of different bands, played on the landmark 1975 bluegrass record "J.D. & the New South," and eventually struck out on his own when he grew tired of playing supporting roles.

In 1983, he won his first of five Grammy Awards, for the country instrumental song "Fireball."

Douglas soon became Nashville's busiest Dobro session player, but he still managed to keep his solo career going. He accompanied everyone from Ricky Skaggs to Emmylou Harris. He formed a quintet with Bela Fleck, Mark O'Connor, Edgar Meyer and Sam Bush, and he played on the Grammy-winning 1994 collaboration "The Great Dobro Sessions."

In 1998, Douglas began touring with Krauss and her band. For years he resisted officially joining the group. Then one day Krauss, who has called Douglas the greatest Dobro player in the world, offered him a personal invitation; he signed on.

Douglas' playing hasn't just furthered his own career; it has advanced his instrument as well.

Almost singlehandedly, he has transformed the Dobro from a novelty instrument into a twangy staple of country and bluegrass. Today there are plenty of young players imitating his sound.

When he started playing, the Dobro was still seen as a secondary instrument. But Douglas said he always saw his specialty as the main attraction.

"The more I played it, and the more influences that I let creep into my playing, the more doors it opened up for me," Douglas said. "And it also opened doors up for me personally to play with other musicians - Bela Fleck and Sam Bush, Mark O'Connor, Edgar Meyer and James Taylor - people like that who heard me playing and heard something in my playing that they could use in their music.

"It (the Dobro) has legs. It travels, and it can do a lot of things that people never thought it could do before"

Lewis Taylor can be reached at 338-2512 or [e-mail].

CONCERT PREVIEW

Jerry Douglas Band

What: Dobro master and his band

When: 7:30 p.m. today

Where: John G. Shedd Institute For the Arts, 285 E. Broadway

How much: $14.50 to $32.50

GuardLine: To hear musical selections by Jerry Douglas, call GuardLine at 485-2000 from any touch-tone phone and request category 7664

CAPTION(S):

Jerry Douglas' mastery of the Dobro will be on display tonight when his band plays at the Shedd as part of the Now Hear This series from the Oregon Festival of American Music.