John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas: A Legendary Combination

Starting their careers in the 1970s, John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas are among the most esteemed musicians to emerge out of Nashville, but they’ve never recorded together—until now. On May 21, Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band released Leftover Feelings, their first collaborative album. 

Working with Hiatt—who has long commanded respect as a singer-songwriter across multiple genres including rock, country, and Americana—was “a no-brainer for me,” says Douglas, calling American Songwriter from his Nashville home. “John Hiatt is one of the greatest writers we’ve ever had that has contributed to the American song bag. When this [album] came up, I thought, ‘Wow, this would be great to work with a songwriter of this magnitude.’” 

In return, Hiatt allowed Douglas to contribute to the project without limitations. “He turned me loose,” Douglas says. “He said, ‘Man, I just want to hear what you would do with this.’” It was probably not a risky move to trust Douglas, who has lent his legendary dobro guitar playing and production skills to a dozen albums of his own, and who has contributed to a lengthy list of recordings for a wide array of artists. 

Hiatt wrote all the tracks on this album, which were mostly completed after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Although he’s been a prolific writer during his career, releasing two dozen albums prior to Leftover Feelings, he admits that he initially struggled to compose this time. “It was tough sledding, to be honest with you,” he says, also calling from his Nashville home. “I didn’t know if I was ever going to write any more songs. It was a huge change to be home all the time and learning how to navigate that. So, making this kind of adjustment to my personal life, songwriting took a back seat there for a minute.” 

In the end, though, Hiatt found inspiration from what was happening around him. “If I’m going to write lyrics, I figure they should be a story about something that has a bearing on real life,” he says. “Oh, my goodness, all you have to do to be inspired is breathe. Wake up in the morning and look around you. Read something. Overhear a conversation. Go through some changes with your family. Or have your heart broken and learn to live again without that person. All those things add up to material for making up stories. You don’t have to look far.” 

Hiatt showed these songs to Douglas, who knew just how to approach them, both as a producer and as an artist. “I try to adapt to the situation and listen to what’s going on around me, what instruments are there, what the song’s about, song substance, what kind of attitude the song is sung with—all these things come into play,” Douglas says, “but I’m playing an instrument that brings its own characteristic to a track. I try to shape that sound and where it occurs to make the track work.” 

Douglas also brought in his own band for the recording sessions. “They’re all great musicians. I trust them, and they all have great ideas all the time,” he says. “These guys just fell right in line and did exactly what I thought they would do. I have great trust in them, which makes a producer’s job easier.” 

While this collaboration already seemed special in itself, the project took on even greater significance when Hiatt and Douglas were invited to record the album at the legendary RCA Studio B in Nashville, where artists such as Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, The Everly Brothers, and thousands more have recorded. This musical history, Hiatt says, “is oozing out of the walls of the place. It was a wonderful place to record. It was a magical experience.” 

“The Country Music Hall of Fame [and Museum] asked us if we would like to use that room because they want people to record there,” Douglas says. “They don’t want it to be just a museum piece because it’s so important and it sounds great. The sound of that room is different than any other room I’ve ever been in.” 

Leftover Feelings was clearly a special project for its creators, and now Douglas hopes that listeners will feel the same way. “As musicians, we are all just waiting for somebody to say, ‘I like that,’ or to be broken-hearted when they don’t,” he says. “Records are like kids. As you’re making it, they grow and they turn into something. It starts out with words and music, and then it takes on a heartbeat at some point.” 

Hiatt, after working so hard to create these songs during such a difficult time, seems to take this project’s successful completion as proof of music’s resilience: “Music is the most powerful force, and it survives in spite of all odds. Music is one of the essences of life. It’s like water or sun or food.”  

Photo by Zach Pigg