Charlie Cushman Archives - Bluegrass Today

Charlie Cushman – Banjo Doctor is in

Is your five-string ailing? If so, contact the doctor.

Charlie Cushman, banjoist with the Earls of Leicester and an Earl Scruggs devotee, is a top-notch banjo set-up man as well. Working out of his north Tennessee home, Cush has a shop filled with antique radios, vintage microphones, and everything that he needs to get banjos sounding their absolute best. His clientele includes current bluegrass A-listers such as Ron Block, Billy Strings, and Vince Gill, plus the banjos of past greats like Earl Scruggs and Uncle Dave Macon.

“I’ve played an old Mastertone since I was 21, and know what the sound is. I use that as my measuring stick. I have owned many fine original pre-war flathead Mastertones and have learned a great deal about their tonal abilities, and more importantly, how to achieve and retrieve the tone from the instrument.”

“Your banjo should be adjusted to perform in harmony with your current ability as a player. After 35 years of playing the banjo, I personally can say that as your ability to play progresses, the set-up of your instrument will become an extremely important component in your quest to be the musician you want to be,” stressed Cushman.

‘I got interested when I was four years old,” the TN native explained. “Watching Flatt and Scruggs’ TV show made me want to play the banjo.”

He took a few lessons when he was seven to “get off the ground,” but is basically self-taught.

“I started dissecting records, slowing 33 1/3 down to 16 to learn the licks.”

The professional musician began his career performing six days a week on Nashville’s Carl Tipton Bluegrass TV show when he was just 14 years old. He held the steady gig for five years.

As a young man, Cushman hit the road. First, he played a year with James Monroe, then a year with Jimmy Martin. Next, he performed for country singer, Mel Tillis.

“I started doing numerous banjo recording sessions. It got me off the road.”

During this time period, Cush also held a day job and partnered with fellow banjoist, Stan Brown (Wilma Lee Cooper), running a carpet cleaning business. He became a member of the Opryland Theme Park’s bluegrass band, performing five years on the Martin stage.

Cushman then joined Mike Snider’s Band, playing guitar alongside him for 14 years on the Grand Ole Opry. During the holiday season, the band also played the Ryman Auditorium.

“It’s the best stage in the country for acoustic music,” he readily affirmed.

Vince Gill petitioned the five string picker to record on his These Days boxed-set album and then tour. Cush performed on the bluegrass portion of the recorded and live productions.

“Vince had a monstrous touring band of 17 people. We played 115 dates. It was a great experience,” he fondly recalled.

Then the picker became involved in the mechanics of the banjo. He found his second calling.

“I worked for Gibson in 2004-05 as set-up guy in their factory. I was the banjo inspector and did all the set-ups.”

In January 2006, he started working in the repair shop of Gruhn Guitars for George Gruhn.

“It was a 60 mile round trip. That was when gas prices went so high. In 2007, I went into business for myself.”

That leap of faith proved profitable. Pickers began to seek out the banjo repairman at his Cottontown address.

“I got a lot of referrals from word-of-mouth. The best advertising is when someone hears a banjo and asks, ‘How did you get it to sound that way?’ Then in 2010-2011, social media (Facebook, Banjo Hangout) gave us an opportunity to create our own image. I learned how to build interest in my set-ups.”

The banjo technician outlined his process for improving a banjo’s sound.

“The term ‘Set-Up’ refers partially to the adjustment of string height, neck pitch, bridge height, proper alignment of strings, and several other key tolerance issues that result in correct intonation, ease of playing the instrument, and the maximum output of volume and tone.”

Another service Cushman provides is tone chamber tuning. “I have earned an income performing on a number of vintage 1930s Gibson flathead banjos. I am of the opinion that even the newer banjos of this quality and design are capable of producing vintage sound, similar to what we all want, through this process of tuning the tone chamber. I have seen very favorable results from new banjos time and time again. I have developed a methodical approach to achieve those results from most any new high quality Mastertone-style banjo.”

The 61 year old explained the term “Pre-War Sound” that many banjo enthusiasts strive to achieve in their instruments.

“The ‘Pre-War’ sound of these ‘acoustic marvels from old Kalamazoo’ must first ‘live’ and ‘be’ in your mind and memory before you can truly acquire the ability to recognize ‘Pre-War’ sound when you hear it. We have the luxury today to buy tone-rings to try this new pre-war formula and go for the ‘pre-war’ sound. The reality of the matter is until you have heard in person, the many different voices (actual pre-war flathead banjos) of this tonal phenomenon, for many years, day in and day out, as I have, you may not be grasping the full understanding of the of ‘Pre-War Sound.’ A common thread these banjos possess is in their tone and sheer power.”

This Tonal Awareness is the unmistakable sound that Cushman has developed a trained ear for, and strives to replicate.

“It is my desire to further explore and bring forth a similar tone and power found in these vintage banjos to others’ banjos. This is the most time consuming aspect of the service I render. Working in a consistent, clean, smoke-free/pet-free environment, I know I can improve the performance of a banjo. I have standing of most products on the market today that relate to pre-war banjo specs such as tone-rings, etc.”

“I am devoting my time to build this business to go along with my present musical career. I am looking forward to helping folks achieve their desires which lie from within their banjo. I am very fortunate to have this knowledge, to have owned several great pre-war flathead Gibson banjos in the past, and to have learned this aspect of the Gibson banjo from the many great banjo players and innovators who have carved out their careers on these special instruments.”

“If I sound like I’m some kind of privileged character, you’d better believe that I am! To be in the same community with so many of these legendary masters of the banjo, and to share with them in the interest of these old flatheads, I am truly privileged.”

Here is a brief video of Charlie playing my RB-150 after completing his set up.

To set up an appointment for banjo work with Charlie Cushman, call (615) 708-5075, email him directly, or send him a Facebook message.

The doctor is in.

Earl Scruggs: A Player’s Guide with Bill Evans live Zoom workshops

Peghead Nation, the online musical instruction site, is launching a new, eight-part, live Zoom workshop series this Saturday. Titled Earl Scruggs: A Player’s Guide, the course will be taught by noted banjo player and instructor, Bill Evans, with guest faculty on selected episodes.

Bill is already a familiar face on Peghead Nation with his Bluegrass Banjo and Beginning Banjo courses, and to the wider banjo community through DVD releases for Homespun Tapes, The Murphy Method, and AcuTab. His various solo albums and in-person workshops all over the world have won him a loyal following, and he is eager to get started in this new format.

The course will run on Saturday afternoon, every other week, from February 20 through May 29.

Topics to be covered include:

Easy Earl: straightforward tunes and solos (Shortnin’ Bread)
Early Earl: Earl with Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys
Fiddle tune and slow song (teardrop) back-up (Fiddle and Banjo, I’ll Just Pretend)
Solos to Flatt and Scruggs vocal tunes (Head over Heels, Doin My Time)
Up-the-neck solos & discussion of fingering (Why Did You Wander?)
Boogie-Woogie Earl, licks and solos (Six White Horses)
Drop-C tuning (Farewell Blues, Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow)
Earl’s most awesome licks for leads and back-up

Since these one-hour sessions will be conducted live, students will be able to pose questions and make requests during the classes. The session videos will be available to registered students to review following each class, and in perpetuity online. Tabs and any other lesson handouts will be emailed to each participant prior to the sessions.

Bill explains what to expect in this video tease.

For those who have already studied with Bill in his other banjo courses, he notes that this is all new material, with nothing repeated from his Bluegrass Banjo or Beginning Banjo lessons.

Course registration for Earl Srruggs: A Player’s Guide is $200 for the eight weeks of live Zoom sessions. Full details can be found online.

Jeff White at The Station Inn

This past weekend found bluegrass artist Jeff White at Nashville’s Station Inn, debuting the music from his new solo project, Right Beside You.

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper served as his band, with Jeff’s Earls Of Leicester bandmate Charlie Cushman on banjo.

We were able to obtain a number of photos from the show.

Right Beside You is available now from Jeff’s web site and several popular online download sites. We’ll have our review shortly.

Purely Instrumental – Johnny Warren & Charlie Cushman

So what appears in my mailbox this week but a pre-release copy of Johnny & Charlie’s latest salute to the great instrumental sound of Flatt & Scruggs! Glory Hallelujah Land!

Same band as their 2011 Tribute to Paul Warren Vol. 2: Del McCoury, Jerry Douglas, Brian Sutton and Kent “Superman” Blanton, with Mike Bub playing bass on some numbers. Ah, but the music! This time it’s not all familiar Flatt & Scruggs tunes or Paul Warren fiddle numbers. Seven of the numbers are brand new compositions by Johnny and Charlie, and they’re dandies. There are 3 real old time fiddle pieces — quite obscure. Only Earl’s arrangement of Lonesome Reuben is truly familiar. A very nice surprise is a Scruggs-ified reading of Liza Jane.

It’s more of that great Foggy Mountain locomotive rhythm “band sound,” with the lead instrument gliding over the top like a boat on a fast but smooth river of 10W weight motor oil.

The cover portrait by Aly Callaghan is a nostalgic salute to the Thomas B. Allen paintings that graced the covers of Flatt & Scruggs’ Columbia LPs for 10 years or so. This cover painting, the title Purely Instrumental, and the arrangements, all reference the 1966 Strictly Instrumental Columbia LP that Lester & Earl made with Doc Watson. The only thing missing is harmonica (thank God).

Tempo varies from stately to medium-paced to breakdown. An unexpected treat which aligns with the Doc Watson reference, is that Brian Sutton takes very nice flat pick breaks on some of the fiddle tunes.

Charlie’s banjo playing just screams tone, TONE, TONE all the way through. How long has it been since a banjo player let some ¼ notes or ½ notes ring out and really show the banjo’s voice? A term came to mind, “plain spoken banjo.” And yet, especially up the neck, Charlie does some of the finest syncopated tricky power picking since Earl stopped doing this over 40 years ago. Banjo players will grin. Also Charlie brilliantly supports the fiddle with wonderful runs and chord structures on the “non-banjo” numbers, as nicely as Earl ever did.

And for the fiddlers – a master class in short bow fiddling, also much lost and lamented now for decades. On a couple of tunes Johnny’s joyous fiddling is so evocative of his dad that I envisioned Paul’s smiling face bobbing and twisting at the mike as he fiddled a solo on the Martha White TV show.

A tip of my hat to Jerry Douglas for once again keeping his dobro playing “close to the ground” and evoking the old Uncle Josh style so beautifully, while adding a few of his own notes and licks without wretched excess. Whether taking a lead break, or in understated back up.

As on their last project, big props to the rhythm section of Del and the bass men, plus the slap rhythm guitar (Sutton and Cushman both do this to a T). On the banjo numbers and breakdowns, Lawd Lawd, they conjure up that old Foggy Mountain rhythm that nearly tumbles over itself in the joy of running free. And how nice to have bass playing that’s loose enough to let things sound and feel like they’re accelerating when the fiddle comes back in during a breakdown – it’s exciting!

Every cut has a highlight for someone whether performing or listening. Too much to describe here. Something you hear on this CD will leave you all agog, I promise.

So there you have it friends and neighbors. You can still hear fresh terrific top-drawer bluegrass picking as it was 50 years ago. Back when all the bluegrass on your car radio didn’t sound the same. When the cut Way On Down The Road from this CD comes on Sirius/XM Bluegrass Junction you’ll know what I mean. And the pickers among you can fatten up your list of jam tunes with some great new stuff from Purely Instrumental. Order it!

The Earls of Leicester, New Bluegrass Royalty

If you stumbled here through a Google search for information about British bluebloods, you landed in the wrong place. But if you’re looking for bluegrass royalty, here it is.

Musically, the Earls of Leicester, some of the best pickers of this or any other generation, are direct descendants of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and their band, the Foggy Mountain Boys.

I’m assuming Bluegrass Today readers are familiar with Prince Lester and Prince Earl. Do yourselves a favor and don’t skip this self-titled CD, thinking you know the Flatt & Scruggs catalog and style, and don’t need to hear anything but the originals.

But, if you know someone who doesn’t know bluegrass—a young picker, maybe—do that person a favor and gift him or her with this CD. It’s one of the best introductions to bluegrass that you can find. It will not only open new ears to some first-rate picking and singing, but may prompt that person to circle back to Flatt & Scruggs themselves.

That’s what you call a win-win, for those listeners and for the future of bluegrass itself. And it’s one of the main reasons Jerry Douglas assembled an all-star cast to pull off this project.

“We have a younger audience for this kind of music now, and it’s important to me that the listeners understand the origins of what they are hearing,” said the man who plays on and produced the CD.

Douglas, who grew up listening to F&S, developed the idea of a tribute record over the years as he became a great Dobro player and settled into a long-term home with Alison Krauss & Union Station. Fortunately, he found the time to make his dream come true and he convinced great players to join him: Charlie Cushman on banjo and guitar; Tim O’Brien on mandolin; Barry Bales on bass; and Johnny Warren on fiddle. (His father, Paul, held the fiddle slot with Flatt & Scruggs for a long time).

All that was left was finding someone to fill Lester’s shoes at the lead vocalist. Douglas was smart to ask his wife for advice, because the first name out of her mouth was Shawn Camp. He’s the perfect fit.

The songs, themselves, are not at all surprising. They’re mainstays from the F&S catalog, and if you asked a dozen DJs to list Flatt & Scruggs standards, most of the 14 selections here would be mentioned six or eight times—or more.

What’s special is the care and pride that went into each of them. Sure, you expect a band of superstars to be fantastic. But these six guys go far beyond that superlative. I’ve heard I’ll Go Stepping Too, Shuckin’ the Corn, On My Mind, and Dim Lights, Thick Smoke countless times, by Flatt & Scruggs and in covers by many other artists. But the approach here is fresh and crisp, faithful to the original but not at all feeling old and tired.

For most of us, the CD will be the only chance to hear this music. The players, busy with their regular gigs, will tour only sporadically. But, cross your fingers. Douglas hints that the Earls just might turn to a new project down the road.

Who knows, there might be a little kid out there who will hear the Earls some day—the way Douglas heard Flatt & Scruggs—and will grow up to honor them with a tribute album of his or her own. It wouldn’t be far-fetched at all, given the quality of the artists gathered here to pay tribute to some of bluegrass music’s first-generation pioneers.

Groundspeed from Rogers & Larrance

Rogers & Larrance have released Groundspeed, a second track from their upcoming reimagining of Flatt & Scruggs’ classic Foggy Mountain Banjo album.

What makes their effort unique is that Tyson Rogers is a pianist, and Bryon Larrance a drummer. The pair met working with jazz banjoist Ryan Cavanaugh, and later hooked up again in Alison Brown’s group. They decided that the banjo was the thread running through their musical lives, and have been recording as time allows in Nashville to create this new album.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear Rogers replicating the exact Scruggs-style banjo roll notes in unison with ace picker Charlie Cushman on the banjo breaks in a manner that Floyd Cramer had perfected. Johnny Warren joins them on fiddle, with Barry Bales on bass.

It’s a very cool sound, offering a different take on Earl’s masterpiece, without straying too far from the original.

No word yet on when the full album will be available.

Earls of Leicester in September

Jerry Douglas’ next project is something of a departure for him. Typically a decidedly forward-loooking artist focused on new music, the Dobro master is turning his gaze back to the 1950s for The Earls of Leicester, a Flatt & Scruggs tribute project he has organized with a group of Nashville grassers.

This superstar collaboration, which features Tim O’Brien on mandolin, Shawn Camp on guitar, Johnny Warren on fiddle, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Barry Bales on bass, and Jerry on reso-guitar, has done only a few select live appearances since they started working on this project last year. These are established bluegrass artists who have studied the music and the mannerisms of both Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and the various side musicians who were an important part of the Flatt & Scruggs sound.

When he was learning to play as a child, Douglas was deeply and personally influenced by the slide work of Josh Graves, who had himself devised a picking style that both emulated and supported that of Earl Scruggs on the banjo. Cushman is a recognized expert on the Scruggs style, and Camp is not only a solid guitar player and singer, but also a pretty fair Lester Flatt mimic as well.

Warren is the son of Paul Warren, who played fiddle with Flatt & Scruggs from 1954 until they broke up in ’69, after which time he worked with Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass until his retirement in 1977. Add O’Brien to play mandolin and sing the Curly Seckler parts, and the always reliable Bales, who had made his own study of the early bass players in bluegrass, and you’ve got a rhythm section fit to tackle a Flatt & Scruggs tribute.

For Jerry, who also produced the Earls of Leicester album, Lester and Earl were what made him want to play bluegrass.

“Flatt and Scruggs were the major influence on me when I was growing up. I was around seven years old when I first saw them, and there were two or three more times after that. It had a huge impact on me. I remember the warmth of the auditorium, I remember the smell of the popcorn, I remember the outfits they were wearing. It’s still all very vivid to me, and it’s still influencing me 50 years later.”

The idea of a tribute, which had been on his bucket list, occurred to him again after working a session with Warren and Cushman.

“The banjo, the fiddle and the Dobro came together in a way that sounded exactly like what I’d heard so many years ago, the first time I saw Flatt and Scruggs. Right then, it dawned on me that this was my chance to complete that dream, and I didn’t want to let it go by. So I called Tim O’Brien and Barry Bales. The hardest part for me was finding the right lead singer, but then my wife suggested Shawn Camp. We got everyone together one night and had a rehearsal, and I realized that we had to do this.”

The 14 songs chosen for the record are all drawn from the Flatt & Scruggs songbook, including familiar titles like Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, Dig A Hole, Shuckin’ The Corn, and Big Black Train in the mix.

Douglas says he created this for the sake of bluegrass music’s new audience, who never had the chance to see Lester and Earl live.

“I’m hoping people will hear it and ask ‘What’s that?’, then do some investigating and discover where this stuff came from. We have a younger audience for this kind of music now, and it is important to me that the listeners understand the origins of what they are hearing.”

Look for The Earls of Leicester September 16 on Rounder.

Vinyl EP coming from Jessica Stiles

Jessica Stiles has been working the acoustic and Americana scene in both DC and Nashville for some time, but her next project, a 4 song/7” vinyl EP is all bluegrass.

She’s set to call it Little Darlin’ (Pal of Mine), after the Carter Family classic which will lead off side one. That song is expected to also serve as a digital single in advance of the record’s Spring 2014 release.

Stiles tracked at Hilltop Studio in Nashville with Josh Williams on guitar, Mike Compton on mandolin, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Shadd Cobb on fiddle and Kent Blanton on bass. Jessica sings the lead vocals, and contributes one original song, a Gospel number titled Answer Him, which she said she styled after the Gospel songs of Hank Williams and Flatt & Scruggs.

For Jessica, everything seemed to fall right into place.

“Working with (recording engineer) Steve Chandler at Hilltop Recording Studio makes my job as producer super easy. Steve works with the top names in the business, from Merle Haggard to Larry Sparks, and is currently up for a Grammy award for his production and engineering work on James King’s country bluegrass album.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to make this recording with such gifted personnel and especially right now where I’m at in this point in my life. I sincerely look forward to finishing up production and getting to drop the needle on the platter!”

There are no audio samples available just yet, but the single will be up at Airplay Direct before too much longer.

Out of These Mountains – Shad Cobb and Charlie Cushman

The folks at A Simple Life magazine have called on a pair of noted bluegrass/old time musicians to help encapsulate the publication’s wistful and nostalgic look at simpler times when lives were less stressful and crowded.

A Simple Life is a project from Jill Peterson, whose several books amplify that same theme, generally with ample photographs, celebrating primitive home furnishings, gardens, holiday decorations and recipes. And what goes better with antiquing, home gardening and the old timey way than a banjo and a fiddle?

This new record is called Out Of These Mountains, containing 15 mountain favorites performed by Shad Cobb and Charlie Cushman. It’s split between vocal and instrumental music, with Shad providing vocals, clawhammer banjo and fiddle, and Charlie laying down three finger banjo, bass and guitar.

Most of the songs and tunes will be familiar to anyone who has followed traditional Appalachian music, with songs popularized by The Carter Family (My Home’s Across The Blue Ridge Mountains, Will The Circle Be Unbroken), The Stanley Brothers (Rank Stranger, Little Birdie, Shout Little Lulie, Pretty Polly), Doc Watson (Shady Grove), and Fred Cockerham and Tommy Jarrell (When Sorrow Encompasses Me ‘Round).

Peterson shared a few words about how this CD came to be.

“Although A Simple Life magazine is more about antiques and history, I personally just have a profound love of early mountain music and bluegrass. So I am always looking for ways to incorporate the two. The magazine does often feature articles on life in early Appalachia, and Appalachian culture, which is also a passion of mine. We publish articles about early musicians, fiddlers, and songs as often as we can as well.

I had been looking for the ‘sound and voice’ of A Simple Life for quite awhile and just never could put the right sound with the right musicians with the right personality to make it all come together. And then along came Shad and Charlie. They ended up filling in for another group who was supposed to play for us on the porch of our log cabin booth at the Heart of Country Antique show in the Opryland Hotel last year. Things were looking rather desperate at the final hour when the hotel was able to contact Charlie, who then gathered up Shad and came to the rescue. At that point, I was just thankful for warm bodies and had no idea what kind of music they would play, (although it was a good sign that Shad carried a fiddle case and Charlie carried a banjo case!)

I asked Charlie if either of them sang and he said no. But again, I was just happy they were going to play at that point. An hour or more into their gig, I was inside the cabin working with a customer when I heard the purest voice I had ever witnessed. I went outside and stood in awe of Shad’s beautiful expression. Until that point, Shad has spoken very little so when he was done, I said, ‘You don’t talk, but you sure can sing.’ He gave me his signature grin. Charlie looked over in amazement and said, ‘I’ve known this boy for nearly twenty years and I didn’t know he could sing like that!’

So here we are, at this beautiful place in life when everything came together in a perfect way. I found the two most talented musicians in Nashville, literally, and one of them sings like you can’t believe. They already had the spirit of the old mountain songs that I love so much, in their blood. I had several songs already in mind for the project but as we got deeper into it, Shad had the uncanny ability to just bring forth songs from within, that I had either not heard before, or had forgotten, that fit our purpose perfectly.

These fine men are truly the, ‘Sound of A Simple Life,’ and I am very proud to call them friends.”

Out Of These Mountains is being distributed through A Simple Life, and could certainly serve as a proper introduction to traditional mountain music for the magazine’s many subscribers. It would serve as a fine addition to the collection of any fan of banjo and fiddle music as well.

Details for ordering the CD can be found at the magazine’s web site. Download purchases are enabled from popular online resellers.

Traveler – Jerry Douglas

Bluegrass musicians often stretch the boundaries of the genre, using their chosen instruments to mix their traditional backgrounds with new and different styles of music. Sometimes this results in an interesting concert, a unique collaboration, or simply some fun jams. Other times, it produces an excellent album in which the bluegrass musician and his instrument sound right at home in any of a variety of genres. With his new album, Traveler, released today, Jerry Douglas has accomplished the latter.

Traveler offers the listener a grab bag of musical styles, ranging from bluegrass to blues, with Celtic, folk, and rock influences mixed into various songs. Douglas has assembled an all-star list of guest musicians and vocalists from every genre present, including Sam Bush, Eric Clapton, Keb’Mo, Bela Fleck, Paul Simon, Mumford and Sons, and Alison Krauss and Union Station. Five tracks are instrumentals, with Douglas’s dobro and lap steel featured prominently. Douglas even makes his debut as a lead vocalist on the opening track, a cover of Leadbelly’s On a Monday that sounds like it came straight out of the Mississippi Delta.

Even though the numerous sounds on Traveler may seem like they shouldn’t fit together, Douglas and his group of guest artists have created a cohesive album, with the different styles helping to keep the album fresh. Peaceful sounding folk tunes such as The Boxer, written by Paul and Simon and featuring British folk rock group Mumford and Sons sit alongside the jazzy piano and horns of blues numbers like High Blood Pressure.

The album also includes several pieces with a bluegrass influence, like the mandolin/dobro tune Duke and Cookie, composed and performed by Douglas and Bush. Fans of more traditional bluegrass will enjoy the album’s closing track, King Silkie, which was co-written by Douglas and Dan Tyminksi and is driven by Douglas’s dobro and Charlie Cushman’s banjo.

Though most bluegrass fans will recognize Douglas’s expertise on the dobro (he has been named “Musician of the Year” eleven times from the ACM and three times from the CMA), he also shows his skills on the lap steel, particularly with the original instrumental tune So Here We Are. Composed with Viktor Krauss and Omar Hakim, who play bass and drums on the track respectively, the song features amazing solos which seem to have a bit of an ’80s rock influence.

Traveler seems to be appropriately titled, having been recorded in a variety of cities across both the United States and the world, ranging from Nashville and New Orleans to New York and Banbury, United Kingdom. The album’s liner notes reflect this, being designed like a passport and featuring “stamps” for each of the album’s songs. Douglas will also continue the traveling theme with his summer and fall tour, which takes him not only around the United States but also to such European countries as Belgium, Norway, and Sweden.

While he has been quite active in serving as a guest musician on other artist’s recordings (even having participated in over 20,000 recordings in his lifetime), Traveler is Douglas’s first solo release since 2009’s Jerry Christmas!.

For more information, visit Douglas’ website at www.jerrydouglas.com.