Beyond his solo releases, Douglas' stellar slide work has graced over 1500 albums encompassing a dizzying range of musical styles. As a sideman, he's recorded with artists as diverse as Garth Brooks, Ray Charles, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Earl Scruggs, Phish, The Chieftans, George Jones and Trisha Yearwood, as well as performing on the landmark O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. As a producer, he's overseen albums by such esteemed acts as the Del McCoury Band, Maura O'Connell, Jesse Winchester and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. He's been part of such notable groups as the Whites, J.D. Crowe and the New South, the Country Gentlemen and Strength in Numbers. Since 1998, he's been a key member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, touring extensively and co-producing and playing on a series of platinum albums.

The Best Kept Secret—Douglas' tenth solo album and his first for the KOCH label—features a memorable set of original instrumentals that seamlessly merge Douglas' far-flung influences into a cohesive, consistently adventurous whole. The material ranges from the jazzy bluegrass workout "Who's Your Uncle?" to the funky country-rocker "She Makes Me Want To Sing" to the epic, jazz-inflected title song to the haunting, reflective "Sir Aly B." The latter track references legendary Celtic fiddler Aly Bain, with whom Douglas recently collaborated on the all-star roots-music summit Transatlantic Sessions series for BBC TV. In addition to Douglas' own compositions, the album features a haunting reading of the vintage Weather Report number "A Remark You Made," underlining Douglas' instinctive affinity for jazz.

"This record ended up being a surprise to me," states Douglas, "and it wasn't until I was halfway through it that I realized it was gonna be different. For a minute, I worried about what the bluegrass people would think and what the country people would think, but I know better than to think too much about that stuff."

Along with the current lineup of Douglas' band the Brickbats—guitarist Keith Sewell, bassist Derek Jones, drummer Shannon Forrest and violinist Gabe Witcher, known to rock fans as a former bassist for Eve 6—The Best Kept Secret features a typically varied array of guest musicians. The cast includes young axe hero Derek Trucks, who plays bracing counterpoint slide guitar on "She Makes Me Want to Sing"; revered jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who lends his trademark touch to the languid, bluesy "Lil' RoRo"; noted bassist Viktor Krauss, who also plays on the latter song; and longtime Douglas pals Sam Bush and Béla Fleck, whose world-class mandolin and banjo, respectively, are featured on "Who's Your Uncle?"

The Best Kept Secret also includes memorable vocal numbers featuring two notable guest singers. Alison Krauss delivers a heartfelt performance on the track "Back in Love Again," while roots-rock legend John Fogerty is in fine form on the rollicking "Swing Blues No. 1." Those tunes follow in the tradition of Douglas' prior albums, which have featured such singers as Maura O'Connell, Steve Earle and James Taylor.

"Much of my musical life has been spent accompanying some great singers; I think it is something that I do well and I like to represent that on my records," says Douglas. "There is a real art to backing singers, to staying out of their way and complementing what they are saying."

Douglas originally met Fogerty through their mutual love of Dobro guitars. "He came through the South on a Dobro-buying trip, and he asked to see my collection," he says. "That completely freaked me out because I was such a huge Creedence fan. I found out that we had the same birthday and had all these things in common, and we became good friends. I played on one of his records not long ago, and I sheepishly asked him if he'd be interested in someday doing something on one of mine. He said 'When do you want to do it?,' and I said 'I am working on an album right now...' I jumped on a plane, flew to Los Angeles, we went through the song five or six times, and basically nailed it in one take."

In addition to showcasing his expressive Dobro work, The Best Kept Secret also features Douglas' equally stellar abilities on lap steel guitar, on such tracks as the opener, "She Makes Me Want To Sing", "Ya Ya etc.", and "U R My Flower." "It's the most lap steel I've played on any record I've ever done," he says, adding, "Going from acoustic Dobro to lap steel is kind of like going from using a handsaw to using a chainsaw. The two instruments are related, but they call for completely different sets of of technique and two different ways of thinking."

The Ohio-born Douglas was seduced by music early in life. At the age of eight, he was taken by his father—a steelworker who played bluegrass in his spare time—to a Flatt and Scruggs concert, where he was immediately attracted to the sound of the Dobro playing of Josh Graves. He began playing the instrument in earnest soon after. "I just liked the sound it made," he recalls. "It can be real lonesome, or it can be really brash and percussive. It's such a vocal instrument; you can do so many things on it, because of the sustain and because there are all these different voices you can get out of it."

After several years of playing with his dad's group the West Virginia Travelers, the 17-year-old Douglas joined the pioneering newgrass band the Country Gentlemen in 1973. In 1975, he became a member of the seminal J.D. Crowe and the New South, which also included future stars Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice. In 1976, Douglas and Skaggs co-founded the now-legendary bluegrass combo Boone Creek. In 1979, Douglas launched his solo career with his LP Fluxology, and became a full-time member of the beloved family group the Whites. He remained with the Whites until 1985, but still found time to play on such now-classic albums as Emmylou Harris' Roses in the Snow and Ricky Skaggs' Don't Get Above Your Raising.

By the time he left the Whites, Douglas had become Nashville's busiest session Dobro player, while continuing his solo career with such albums as 1982's Fluxedo, Under the Wire (1986) Changing Channels (1987), Everything Is Going To Work Out Fine (1987), Plant Early (1989) and Slide Rule (1992). In the late '80s, he formed the acoustic supergroup Strength in Numbers with Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor; the quintet debuted with 1989's landmark recording The Telluride Sessions.

Douglas formed a trio with Russ Barenberg and Edgar Meyer to record the 1993 album Skip, Hop and Wobble. The next year, Douglas co-produced and performed on the all-star multi-artist project The Great Dobro Sessions, for which he won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. In 1996, Douglas joined Edgar Meyer and Indian musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for the genre-bending experiment Bourbon and Rosewater, and collaborated with singer-songwriter Peter Rowan on the album Yonder. Douglas released his next solo effort, Restless on the Farm, in 1998.

It was around that time that Douglas chose to abandon his lucrative session career, which had ceased to offer new musical challenges. "I did so many sessions for so long, and it wasn't really doing anything for me anymore," he explains. "I was making a fine living playing on other people's records, but the music changed, and I didn't really like where mainstream country was going. It started to really bother me, so I had to stop."

At around the same time, Alison Krauss asked Douglas to fill in on a Union Station tour. "The shows went so well that he was offered a permanent slot in the group. I really love playing with these people; it is a creative atmosphere and the music is coming from all of us, so it is a dream gig." Since then, he's managed to balance his Union Station work with his solo career and a variety of collaborative efforts. One such project was the surprise smash O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, for which Douglas helped to recruit musicians and played on three songs, including the Soggy Bottom Boys' "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." He also made a brief onscreen appearance in the film.

In 2002, Douglas released the solo album Lookout for Hope and won three Grammy Awards for his work with Union Station and one Grammy for his work with Earl Scruggs, as well as receiving five Grammy Award Acknowledgements for the O Brother soundtrack and its live sequel Down From The Mountain. He was also named Musician of the Year by the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association's Musician of the Year, as well as the Americana Music Association's Instrumentalist of the Year. Summer 2003 found Douglas on stage with Norah Jones and her band for sets at the Montreal Jazz Festival and at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. That fall, he was honored with his second Instrumentalist of the Year title from the Americana Music Association. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Douglas a National Heritage Fellowship.

The restless creative spirit that's the common thread in his eclectic discography continues to propel Jerry Douglas forward into new musical adventures. That spirit is prominent through every moment of The Best Kept Secret.

"It's important to me to keep stretching," Douglas concludes. "I'll be 50 next year, and I don't feel any different or any less motivated than when I was 19 or 20. It's still an evolving process for me, and I feel like I still have things to learn. When you stop learning, you're dead."