{"id":799010,"date":"2019-08-29T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/picking-through-the-past-jerry-douglas-and-the-earls-of-leicester-bring-history-to-copper-country\/"},"modified":"2019-08-29T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T02:40:00","slug":"picking-through-the-past-jerry-douglas-and-the-earls-of-leicester-bring-history-to-copper-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/picking-through-the-past-jerry-douglas-and-the-earls-of-leicester-bring-history-to-copper-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking through the past: Jerry Douglas and The Earls of Leicester bring history to Copper Country"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.7791262135922\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-370795-429\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Patrick Sheehan | The Earls of Leicester, a Grammy Award-winning sextet, will perform at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Main Stage of the Copper County music festival at Copper Mountain Resort.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"12\">\n<p><strong>The Earls of Leicester, a Grammy Award-winning sextet, will perform at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Main Stage of the Copper County music festival at Copper Mountain Resort.<\/strong><br \/>Patrick Sheehan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Earls of Leicester, a Grammy Award-winning sextet, will perform at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Main Stage of the Copper County music festival at Copper Mountain Resort.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Patrick Sheehan | Composed of Jerry Douglas, Shawn Camp, Barry Bales, Johnny Warren, Charlie Cushman and Jeff White, The Earls of Leicester bring the historic sounds of the Foggy Mountain Boys to life.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Composed of Jerry Douglas, Shawn Camp, Barry Bales, Johnny Warren, Charlie Cushman and Jeff White, The Earls of Leicester bring the historic sounds of the Foggy Mountain Boys to life.<\/strong><br \/>Patrick Sheehan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Composed of Jerry Douglas, Shawn Camp, Barry Bales, Johnny Warren, Charlie Cushman and Jeff White, The Earls of Leicester bring the historic sounds of the Foggy Mountain Boys to life.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Patrick Sheehan | Formed in 2013, The Earls of Leicester won a Grammy Award for its debut album that recreated the iconic music of guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Formed in 2013, The Earls of Leicester won a Grammy Award for its debut album that recreated the iconic music of guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs.<\/strong><br \/>Patrick Sheehan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"Formed in 2013, The Earls of Leicester won a Grammy Award for its debut album that recreated the iconic music of guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Patrick Sheehan | Jerry Douglas formed The Earls of Leicester in 2013 to bring the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to a modern audience. The band plays at the Copper Country music festival this Labor Day weekend.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Jerry Douglas formed The Earls of Leicester in 2013 to bring the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to a modern audience. The band plays at the Copper Country music festival this Labor Day weekend.<\/strong><br \/>Patrick Sheehan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/CopperCountry-ESW-083019-1-3.jpg\" alt=\"Jerry Douglas formed The Earls of Leicester in 2013 to bring the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to a modern audience. The band plays at the Copper Country music festival this Labor Day weekend.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/picking-through-the-past-jerry-douglas-and-the-earls-of-leicester-bring-history-to-copper-country\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/picking-through-the-past-jerry-douglas-and-the-earls-of-leicester-bring-history-to-copper-country\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Though he\u2019s playing at the Copper Country music festival for the first time this weekend, Dobro player Jerry Douglas is a man of many genres. \u201cI\u2019ve just become a chameleon of sorts,\u201d said 14-time Grammy Award-winning Douglas, who is known for his solo work and as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Like <a id=\"N0x1252b20N0x1460580:N0x1252b20N0x12cc320\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/everything-summit\/infamous-stringdusters-play-at-10-mile-music-hall-this-weekened\/\">Andy Hall of the Infamous Stringdusters<\/a>, Douglas sees the Dobro, a resonator slide guitar, as an immensely versatile instrument. \u201cIt instantly recognizes the blues, and that\u2019s where everything comes from,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cIt\u2019s where all music comes from. That\u2019s probably the first time I ever said that, but I think it\u2019s true. \u2026 To me it\u2019s like the juxtaposition of playing all the time using a regular handsaw and then someone hands you a chain saw.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Douglas said playing the lap-style Dobro has allowed him to channel people like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton \u2014 who Douglas will be playing with for the third time at the Crossroads Festival later in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Growing up in the steel mill town of Warren, Ohio, Douglas was caught between two worlds. In one, he listened to the Cleveland radio stations to catch the latest singles by Cream, The Beatles and The Who. In the other was his West Virginian steel worker father who played guitar, sang and introduced him to the legendary bluegrass band Foggy Mountain Boys, which was composed of Lester Flatt on guitar, Earls Scruggs on banjo and Josh Graves on Dobro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cHe had his own bluegrass band, and that\u2019s where I learned just about everything I know,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cThat led to a lot of places.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Throughout his life, Douglas has tried to marry rock and bluegrass since the two have their roots in blues. He could have picked up the electric or acoustic guitar, but it was the Dobro that beckoned him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019ve heard and seen all of those instruments up close, but the Dobro was a mystery to me when I first heard it. I could see pictures of it and imagine it, and then I got to see Josh Graves play with Flatt and Scruggs in 1963 when I was about 7 and it all became clear to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">And in 1998 one of those places his bluegrass background took him was Union Station, the backing band for multiple Grammy Award-winning Alison Krauss. He met Krauss when she was 14 and produced her work, but it wasn\u2019t until then that she called him to officially join the band.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat became my main source of inspiration for 20 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Douglas doesn\u2019t keep track, but it\u2019s estimated that he\u2019s played on more than 1,600 records with artists like Ray Charles, Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, Mumford &amp; Sons, Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris. Most of the time, he is simply an accompanying studio musician, and though he has one more Grammy than Michael Jackson and one less than Alicia Keys and Adele, it doesn\u2019t bother him that he might not be a household name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI just love to play,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels good when people recognize you in the street or grocery store, but it doesn\u2019t happen that often. I\u2019ve kind of kept a low profile. It wasn\u2019t my face on those 1,600 records or whatever it was. You can be a session musician and still have a normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">One of those records is the soundtrack to the acclaimed Joel and Ethan Coen movie \u201cO Brother, Where Art Thou?\u201d Recruited by producer T Bone Burnett, he became part of the fictional Soggy Bottom Boys where Douglas lent both his sound and appearance to the film. \u201cThey gave us really bad haircuts and three-piece wool suits that dead people have worn \u2014 realistic costumes. It really was an experience, and it really turned things around for bluegrass music and traditional music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Burnett wanted to make the music authentic to the style of the Great Depression by having tracks recorded with old technology. \u201cYou weren\u2019t close miking something,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t walk up to a microphone, you walked up to an area. It was choreographed that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That same choreography of soloists weaving in and out can be seen in Douglas\u2019 newest project, The Earls of Leicester. Formed in 2013 as a creative outlet and composed of Shawn Camp, Charlie Cushman, Johnny Warren, Daniel Kimbro and Douglas, the group \u2014 as the punny name implies \u2014 focuses on bringing the music of Flatt and Scruggs to a new audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">However, they keep it as traditional as possible. Along with the limited number of microphones, the band plays on older instruments from that era.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe newer instruments didn\u2019t sound right. They sounded too beefy; they were trying too hard. So we all went back to old instruments, and it gelled.\u201d Warren even plays on the same fiddle that his father, Paul, used when he was in the Foggy Mountain Boys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt is the holy grail of bluegrass fiddles, and it\u2019s with us,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cIt sounds exactly the same, and he only plays like his dad. \u2026 No one else does that. He\u2019s our linchpin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Douglas had the honor of playing with his heroes Scruggs and Graves, and he frequently surprises himself with the accuracy of the group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cYou\u2019re reliving the history while at the same time make the history. It\u2019s a strange place to be. But when it\u2019s right, we\u2019re all up there beside ourselves with joy. Hearing this stuff again, it\u2019s like it never left. Those guys sounds so authentic sometimes it give me cold chills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Though Douglas originally thought the band would perform only on special occasions, their historical experiment struck a chord with audiences young and old, winning a Grammy for their debut album. Now he is excited to bring the group to Copper Mountain, but he isn\u2019t exactly looking forward to experiencing the high elevation he\u2019s familiar with from Copper Guitar Town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe strings don\u2019t oscillate, don\u2019t vibrate, like they do at sea level. It\u2019s slower. It\u2019s like hitting a brick wall when you hit the string, and it doesn\u2019t move it like normally would. \u2026 Man wasn\u2019t meant to play bluegrass at 9,000 feet,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Yet that hasn\u2019t stopped him from playing at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival for 35 years in a row. \u201cIt\u2019s like a family reunion. Sam (Bush) is there. B\u00e9la (Fleck) is there. All of my best friends are there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Those looking for a similar vibe as The Earls of Leicester play Flatt and Scruggs circa 1954-1965 should mark their calendars for Saturday\u2019s concert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIf you like that kind of music, you couldn\u2019t be in a better place on the planet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/picking-through-the-past-jerry-douglas-and-the-earls-of-leicester-bring-history-to-copper-country\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Earls of Leicester, a Grammy Award-winning sextet, will perform at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Main Stage of the Copper County music festival at Copper Mountain Resort.Patrick Sheehan Composed of Jerry Douglas, Shawn Camp, Barry Bales, Johnny Warren, Charlie Cushman and Jeff White, The Earls of Leicester bring the historic sounds of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-799010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 19:14:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}