Jerry Douglas
Album: Traveler
Label: Membran
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.jerrydouglas.com

Dobro, slide and steel guitar specialist - nay veritable world champion - Jerry, on his latest solo album, features a host of guest musicians and singers and thus often sounds very little like the Jerry we've come to expect from the thousands of Nashville bluegrass sessions in which he's been involved over the years. Which, depending on your predisposition, may well be a good thing; me, I'm not entirely sure, although Jerry clearly does his best to convince and there's some very appealing music-making on display here.

In fact, possibly the best way to approach this collection is to almost forget that Jerry's name heads the roster and concentrate instead on the classy musicianship and generally distinguished performances from all concerned. Jerry himself turns in his debut as lead vocalist on the opening cut, a fine funky version of the Leadbelly number On A Sunday, while heavier funk rhythms are the order of the day on the eastern-inflected electricity of the instrumental So Here We Are and swampy piano figures from Dr. John kick off Eric Clapton's guest appearance on Something You Got. More standard fare for bluegrassers comes with the delicious romp through King Silkie (featuring, and jointly composed with, underrated guitarist Dan Tyminski), and Duke And Cookie, a chunky, spicy dobro-mando duet with Sam Bush, and the eastern influence rears its head again on the Transatlantic Session-style Gone To Fortingall.

Alison Krauss is her usual beauteous vocal self on Frozen Fields, with her Union Station band giving sterling support. Paul Simon and Mumford & Sons all drop in rather convivially for a reworking of The Boxer, while Paul crops up again later on, this time as a composer credit for American Tune which Jerry ingeniously pairs with Chick Corea's Spain on the disc's lone genuinely solo track. The restrained soulfulness of Right On Time (featuring Marc Cohn) is an attractive proposition, but I find Keb Mo rather anonymous on High Blood Pressure. Even so, I emerged from this 45 minutes slightly jet-lagged but with enough highlights jotted on my notepad to ensure an early revisit to several of the musical climes visited and embraced by this veteran Traveler.

David Kidman