Last Friday, Jerry Douglas in Portland Oregon. There are two main strains in Bluegrass---Traditional, and Progressive. Jerry as a sideman (Alison Krauss, Iris Dement, Dolly Parton, hundreds of others) is involved in the Traditional wing. As a soloist/bandleader, he is more Progressive. While his dobro playing was fantastic on Friday, I didn't like his band or the music very much. There were no real "songs", just some chords strung together to give a structure for the instrumentalists to play off of, know what I mean? The band was too jazzy for my taste, the guitarist playing in "flurry of notes" style---no phrasing, no lyricism, no elegance or poetry. The drummer, though very accomplished technically and fairly musical, was way too busy for my taste, to the point of distraction. That's just my taste though, admittedly. I'm all about songs, and playing for them. I also love Bluegrass harmony, of which none was heard that night. A big disappointment, unfortunately. Still love Jerry's playing though!
