Erie native, part of the nominated Jerry Douglas Band, says the recongnition is ‘like a bonus’
ERIE, Pa. — Cathedral Preparatory School grad Christian Sedelmyer (class of 2003) never imagined he might be up for a Grammy Award someday. Even after he moved to Nashville, the “what if” question only crossed his mind once, namely because he recorded an album by that very title with the Jerry Douglas Band.
On Sunday, however, he could bag his first Grammy as part of that group. The Jerry Douglas Band, led by the foremost dobro player in the world, is up for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for 2017’s “What If.”
“When I moved to Nashville and started playing professionally, I suppose, it was sort of in the back of mind,” said Sedelmyer, 33, who plays the five-string fiddle. “But the way I think about it now, the way I’ve approached my career here in Nashville is more incremental and with an attention to just trying to make good art and do it humbly.
“I’ve been lucky enough to make a humble living doing it, rather (than doing it) for the accolades. So, when this happens, and there’s recognition, then it just feels like a bonus. A very good bonus, at that.”
Sedelmyer will attend Sunday’s Grammy Awards in New York with his bandmates, including Douglas, who could give a tutorial on how to accept a Grammy. As a longtime member of Alison Krauss & Union Station — as well as a career that has seen him play with J.D. Crowe & the New South, The Country Gentlemen and The Earls of Leicester — Douglas has racked up 14 Grammys. He’s also played on albums by Paul Simon, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello and other giants.
“Every nomination for any award is special, but (this) was the first nomination for a band that I travel with and confide in, which makes it all the more special,” Douglas said in a news release. “We are brothers on the road in every way, and I am so proud to be among these wonderful musicians in this endeavor.”
Douglas may be an Americana superstar, but Sedelmyer said he’s no taskmaster or tyrant with the Jerry Douglas Band.
“He really gives the runway to be ourselves. That’s one thing that’s so fun about playing in the band,” Sedelmyer said. “He just wants to play with players he trusts. He says that to us. He trusts us immensely. So, no matter where we go on a live gig, we all collectively trust we’ll end up where we’re supposed to be.”
In fronting his own band, Douglas enlisted not just fiddle, but also upright bass, drums, electric guitar, sax and trumpet. Premier Guitar magazine called “What If” as “a daring fusion of jazz, rock and bluegrass.”
Sedelmyer especially loves the title cut. “It’s very cinematic,” he said, adding that he came up with the string solo that appears midway through. He also likes “Go Ahead and Leave” because “it feels like a very classic Jerry-doing-Jerry tune.”
Sedelmyer and Douglas met at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 2013. Sedelmyer — a former member of Farewell Drifters — was then playing with Alison Brown, but he was also enlisted for the fest’s house band. Emmylou Harris sat in. So did Douglas.
“Afterward, we talked, and I told him I lived in Nashville,” Sedelmyer said. “He said, ‘Oh, really? I’ll call you. You can’t hide from me! I’ll find you.’ I was like, ‘OK, this guy is pretty quirky. I like him.’
“Sure enough, six or eight months later, he called and asked me to play a string of gigs with him and just sent me a bunch of tunes. I showed up at his house, and we had two rehearsals. Then we went on the road for two weeks, and I was in his band. That was summer of 2014.”
Sedelmyer has also played or recorded with such stars as the Indigo Girls, Jim Lauderdale, Vince Gill, Steve Earle and Kacey Musgraves in his career. Music has panned out much better than his first career choice: working for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., after he studied business management and political science at Wake Forest University.
“I totally hated it,” he said.
Now he plays in a band with a music legend and is a Grammy nominee.
“It’s really an honor to work with him,” Sedelmyer said. “It’s also an inspiration to see how many moving parts he still has. After being at it so long, he’s still inspired.”
Later this year, the Jerry Douglas Band will play MerleFest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and Del McCoury’s DelFest in Cumberland, Maryland. Sedelmyer will also tour with his own 10 String Symphony, including — he hopes — a date in Erie.
Dave Richards for the Erie (Pa.) Times-News.