Not so long ago and not so far away, near the mountains in a place the Canadians call Alberta, a young man fell in love with the blues. Bottleneck slide blues, to be precise, maybe the most soulful and haunting music to ever come out of black life in the Deep South.
Slide is all about the notes between the notes, the ones just this or that side of the frets that hold so many kinds of music together. It’s an ancient thing, going back thousands of years in India and it’s a familiar thing, something we hear in the cello, the violin, the oud and the voice of a great singer.
As fate would have it, one night that young bluesman saw Jerry Douglas play the Dobro and on that night everything changed. The next morning, he went out and bought a Dobro, and started teaching himself how to play. Twenty years later, that Dobro is still on his lap and if you were to ask Doug Cox today, he’d tell you he’s still learning.
Depending on where and when you hear Doug these days, he might be sitting cross-legged with Indian slide guitarist Salil Bhatt and a tabla player, creating an intricate musical dialogue that weaves centuries of tradition into something contemporary and beautiful.
He could have been on a stage from Spain to the Southern States and the UK with Californian tunesmith, Corinne West, performing songs with her from “The Promise”, her third album which they co-produced this year.
Or, teaching someone something new on the Dobro at a music camp in Alaska, or adding a couple of tracks to someone else’s record, or out on the road with friends like Steve Dawson and Jim Byrnes or a long-time mentor and road buddy like Amos Garrett.
One doesn’t find ones’ self in such esteemed musical company without some serious chops, and Doug’s got those - on the Dobro, for sure, and also on the guitar, the mandolin, the Weissenborn and the National Steel. Less often remarked upon, but every bit as important is the fact that Doug Cox has 'big' ears.
Everybody says so – newspapers like the Toronto Daily Star and the Boston Globe, music magazines like Folk Roots, Guitar Player and Acoustic Guitar, national broadcasters like Jurgen Goethe and all kinds of other folks. They use words like ‘brilliant’, ‘stunning’, ‘ground-breaking’, ‘virtuoso’ and ‘a musician’s musician’, but it adds up to the same thing. His journey is worth watching.
Musically, he covers the waterfront, the wild mountain thyme and well up the valley. From Blues to New Acoustic Music to World Music and Americana, Doug has made music with the likes of people from the late iconic British Blues master Long John Baldry to India's musical royalty Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, from America's great songwriters like Chuck Brodsky to Austrian Dub band Dubblestandart. as well as dozens of other musical admirers.
Doug's music has been featured in many soundtracks and movies from documentaries to feature films such as Terry Gilliam's 'Tideland.' He even earns a cameo appearance (as Doc Coggs) next to Amos Garrett in the Sci-Fi Robert Heinlien/Spider Robinson novel 'Variable Star!'
In a musical combination, or as a solo artist, Doug’s played every major roots music festival in Canada – usually more than once- as well as many of the fascinating ones a little further off the beaten track.
He’s played for ship sinkings in Victoria, BC (where they sink old ships for underwater diving adventures) and at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He's busked on airplanes (back in the day when that was allowed!) and played for Prime Ministers. He was the first featured Dobro player ever booked by the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the first Canadian invited to play Dobrofest in Trnava, Slovakia where people gather each year to celebrate the instrument's inventor's birthplace.
He’s taught at music camps from Kerrville, Texas to the Cotswalds in England, to Fairbanks, Alaska. The demand for his teaching abilities led him to create 8 educational books and DVDs. The great response to these led him to start a company called “Learn RootsMusic.Com” with a buddy of his, Chris Manuel. They’ve now created more than 35 titles and their catalogue is distributed internationally by Mel Bay Publications.
Doug’s approach to touring and performing live is also informed by a solid understanding of the realities facing presenters. Over the last 20 years, he’s presented hundreds of successful concerts with other musicians.
In turn, he’s applied all this experience to become one of Canada’s most respected music festival programmers and in 2009, he was chosen by Canada’s National Art Centre in Ottawa to create the programming for their celebration of music in British Columbia.
Doug’s worked hard on his art and his craft, and you can hear it when he plays. You can also see it, in the names of the artists he’s making music with and the places he’s played and when you read between those lines, you know he’s earned the respect of his peers and a lot of very happy listeners. What a long, strange trip it's been.
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Doug's Selected Discography...
Doug's Solo CD Projects
Canadian Borderline 1993Bone Bottle Brass or Steel 1996
Life Is So Peculiar 1999
Stay Lazy 2002
Without Words 2009
with Strung
Band Of Gypsies 2009with Salil Bhatt, Ramkumar Mishra & special guest, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
Slide to Freedom 2007Make a Better World 2009 (w John Boutte as well)
with Sam Hurrie
Hungry Ghosts 2005Blues From The Forbidden Plateau 2007
with Todd Butler
Live Blues 2002Dobro and Guitar 2003
select recordings with others
Travels With Charley - all recordings availableThe Irish Rovers "The Boys Come Rollin Home" 1994
Will Millar "The Keeper" 1994
Bob Bossin "Gabriola V0R 1X0 " 1994
Ken Hamm "Eagle Rock Road" 1995
Joel Fafard "Fierce Warmth" 1996
Diamond Joe White "Honestly" 1997
Resophonics Anonymous 2000
Six Strings North Of The Border 2001
Michael Messer "King Guitar" 2001
Caring For Our Coast 2001
Hornby Island Blues Camp 2002
Frank Hoorn "Solid Ground" 2002
Rhythm & Green - Cumberland Compilation 2002
Eric Westbury 2003
Rick Henry "Wide Open" 2004
Resophonics Anonymous - Relapse - 2004
Todd Butler - Idle Canadian - 2005
Layla Zoe - Shades of Blue - 2006
Lynne Hanson - Things I Miss - 2006
Frank Hoorn - Years In The Making - 2006
David Essig - Presbyterian Guitar - 2007
Dubblestandart - dub mix - 2007
Lynne Hanson - Eleven Months - 2008
Corinne West - The Promise - 2009
Bill Dalton - Grass Clippings - 2009
MAITRI - 2009
Leela Gilday - Calling All Warriors - 2009
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Instructional Workshops
Wells Roots Guitar Wkshop - 1996-1998Bulkley Valley Guitar Wkshop - 1997,1999 to 2005 , 2008
BC Bluegrass Wkshop - 1997, 2004
Georgia Straight Guitar Wkshop - 1998
Toronto Blues Guitar Workshop - 1998, 2007 (host)
Hornby Island Blues Camp - 2000-2002, 2009
Kerrville, Texas Blues Guitar Camp - 2000
Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp -2003 to 2008
Sore Fingers,The Cotswolds, England - 2005/06
Aboriginal Music Performers Camp -2006-09
Bowen Island Music Camp 2006/07/08
1st Annual Calgary Folk Festival Boot Camp - 2006
Vancouver Island Music Workshop - 2007/08
Steve Kaufman's Flatpik Kamp - 2008
Fairbanks Festival of the Arts - 2009
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Classes Doug Has Prepared and can offer at Workshops...
Dobro - beginner, intermediate and advancedIntro To Roots Guitar
Intro to Blues Guitar
Intro To Blues Mandolin
Slide Guitar
Intro to Open Tunings for Guitar
The Soundboard and You
Chord Theory
Music Theory 101
Exploring the Guitar Neck
Chart Writing
Music Business 101
Touring 101
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Instructional Books, Videos and DVDs
Understanding The Dobro DVD (learnrootsmusic.com)Understanding the Slide Guitar DVD (learnrootsmusic.com)
Hot Blues Licks For The Lap-Style Dobro DVD (learnrootsmusic.com)
Blues Dobro Book (centrestream publications)
Slide Guitar and Open Tunings Book (centrestream publications)
Intro To Roots GuitarBook (centrestream publications)
More Dobro DVD (learnrootsmusic.com)
Backup Dobro Book (centrestream publications)
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Recordings Doug Produced
Travels With Charley - Uncle Herbs Amusements (co-producer)Travels With Charley - Red Rome Beauty (co-producer)
Doug Cox - Canadian Borderline
Doug Cox - Bone Bottle Brass or Steel
Diamond Joe White - Honestly
Stacy Phillips and Paul Howard
Doug Cox and Todd Butler - Live Blues (co-producer)
Doug Cox and Todd Butler - Dobo and Guitar (co-producer)
Gorden Carter - Rivers and Roads
Doug Cox and Sam Hurrie - Hungry Ghosts (co-producer)
Doug with Salil Bhatt, Ramkumar Mishra & Special Guest, V.M. Bhatt - Slide to Freedom (co-producer) & Make a Better World (co-producer)
Strung - Band of Gypsies (co-producer)
Corinne West - The Promise (co-producer)
Maitri - Maitri
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Some Favorite Gigs...
The Edmonton Folk Festival 1993 with Ken Hamm and Tony TrischkaSilverstar Bluegrass Festival 1993 with Slavik Hanzlik
Summerfolk, Owen Sound Folk Festival 1994 with Travels With Charley
Regina Folk Festival 1995 with the Ken Hamm Trio
The Vancouver Folk Festival 1995
The Yellow Door - Montreal, PQ - 1996
The Harbourfront Centre Molson Stage - Toronto, ON - 1996, 1997 (Blues Fest)
The Freight and Salvage - San Francisco, CA - 1997
The Stan Rogers Folk Festival - Canso, Nova Scotia - 1997
The Calgary Folk Festival - Calgary, Alberta (got to play w Jerry Douglas) - 1998
The Jasper Folk Festival - Jasper, Alberta - 1998
The World Next Door Festival - Winnipeg, Manitoba - 1998
The Baseball Hall Of Fame, Cooperstown, NY. with Chuck Brodsky - 1998
Fast Folk Cafe - New York City - 1998
The Ottawa Folk Festival w Rick Fines - 1999
The North Country Fair, Joussard, AB - 1999, 2001, 2003
The Kerreville Wine and Music Festival, Kerreville, Texas - 1999
The Victoria Roots Festival (got to play with Lindley!), 2000
The Winnipeg Folk Festival, 2001
The Dawson City Music Festival, 2001
The Edmonton Folk Festival,(got to play w D'Gary, Corey Harris & Amadou Et Marium)) 2002
Long John Baldry's Birthday Bash, Vancouver, BC 2003
The Montreal Jazz Festival with Todd Butler, 2003
The Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival, 2003
Prince George Folk Festival, 2004
Sore Fingers Teachers Concert with Tim O'Brien, Darryl Scott and others - The Cotswolds, England 2005
The Dream Cafe in Penticton - with Amos Garrett 2005
The Epcor Center For the Arts in Calgary, Alberta with Sam Hurrie 2005
The Vancouver Folk Festival Collabatory (concerts w Ganesh Ananden) 2005
The Edmonton Folk Festival with Sam Hurrie 2005
La Grande rencontre 2005 Parc Lafontaine in Montréal - with Sam Hurrie and Keith Bennett 2005
Sore Fingers 2006 - played with John Paul Jones!
House Concert, Perth, Ontario, 2006 w Sam Hurrie
Blacksheep Inn - Wakefield, Quebec w Sam Hurrie - 06
Northern Lights Folk Club, Edmonton, Ab w Sam Hurrie - 06
Saxon Pub, Austin, TX, w Sam Hurrie - 06
South Country Fair w Sam Hurrie, Vihswa Mohan Bhatt, Salil Bhatt, Ramkumar Mishra - 06
The Calgary Folk Festival w Sam Hurrie - 06
Maine Island w Ken Hamm & David Essig - 06
Ulm, Germany w Sam Hurrie- 07
Tournai, Belgium w Sam Hurrie - 07
Bowen Island w Spider & Jeanne Robinson, Corbin Keep & Rene Worst - 07
Festival Place in Sherwood Park w Strung - 08
Regina Casino w Strung - 08
Hugh's Room in Toronto w Slide to Freedom - 08
The Epcor Centre in Calgary w Slide To Freedom - 08
Stan Rogers Folk Festival - 08
Vancouver Folk Festival - 08
Ottawa Folk Festival - 08
Margaret Greenham Theatre in Banff, AB w Fathers and Sons - 08
Bibao Spain w Corinne West - 09
Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Scotland w Strung - 09
Cromarty, Scotland w Corinne West - 09
Chatanooga, TN , Riverbend Festival - 09
Shrewsbury Folk Festival, UK w Corinne West - 09
Cornish Bgrass Festival , UK, w Corinne West - 09