Doug "digndoug" Jernigan (born January 5, 1946 in Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...

) is an award-winning pedal steel guitar

Pedal steel guitar

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...

 musician. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1994.

Early life

When Jernigan was nine years of age his father bought him his first steel guitar

Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

. By the time he was fourteen years old, he was playing on the weekends at VFW and Legion Halls in the Pensacola area.

Playing career

At the age of eighteen he had his first professional job in Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 prior to being drafted

Conscription in the United States

Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...

 in 1965 into the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

.

Jernigan has toured as a backup player for David Houston

David Houston (singer)

Charles David Houston was an American country music singer. His peak in popularity came between the mid-1960s through the early 1970s.-Biography:...

, Faron Young

Faron Young

Faron Young was an American country music singer and songwriter from the early 1950s into the mid-1980s and one of its most successful and colorful stars...

, Ferlin Husky

Ferlin Husky

Ferlin Eugene Husky was an early American country music singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky honk, ballads, spoken recitations, and rockabilly pop tunes...

, Jack Greene, Johnny PayCheck

Johnny PayCheck

Johnny Paycheck was the legal name of Donald Eugene Lytle , a country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member most famous for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It"...

, Little Jimmy Dickens

Little Jimmy Dickens

James Cecil Dickens , better known as Little Jimmy Dickens, is an American country music singer famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size, 4'11" , and his rhinestone-studded outfits...

, Lorrie Morgan

Lorrie Morgan

In 1996 Morgan married Jon Randall, a singer/songwriter now credited with writing the 2004 Brad Paisley/Alison Krauss hit "Whiskey Lullaby"; they divorced three years later in 1999....

, and Vassar Clements

Vassar Clements

Vassar Clements was a Grammy Award- winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical...

. In 1977, Jernigan became a Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 and began to play in church and still does today. He has recorded with Betty Jean Robinson, Joe Paul Nichols and many other gospel music

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 groups.

For his many accomplishments on the steel guitar, Doug was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1994. The Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame Plaque reads:

DOUG JERNIGAN

CONCERT, SESSION AND MAJOR RECORDING ARTIST, HE HAS SHARED HIS KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCED THE STEEL AND DOBRO INTO COUNTRY JAZZ. HE ACHIEVED SINGLE STRING DELIVERY BEYOND MERE RIFFS, BUT FOR COMPLETE TUNES, WITH FLOWING, SCORCHING SPEED.

BORN: JANUARY 5, 1946 PENSACOLA, FLORIDA INDUCTED: 1994

source: http://www.scottysmusic.com/hofplq.htm

Jernigan continues as a recording artist, session player, teacher of the steel guitar and talented musician.

Tom Bradshaw quoted:

In the early '70s, I was bouncing around Nashville searching for good steel-men. With me was Sonny Curtis, at that time the steel player for George Jones' Jones Boys. We passed Demon's Den and heard some guy trying to play hoe-downs on steel, but wasn’t quite cutting it. Sonny and I elbowed our way inside and learned that the player was Jernigan. That was the first time I had heard Doug, although word of him had been circulating for some time. I commented to Sonny that no one would ever be able to play steel at the speed of a fiddle or banjo player, except for short riffs. I told Sonny, "The kid should give up trying." Fortunately, Doug never heard my comment, not that he should have paid any attention.

In his early years (1960s & '70s), Jernigan honed his skills as a backup player. In 1970 Ron Lashley of the Emmons Guitar Company recognized Doug's talent and produced his first album, Uptown To Country. Since then, Doug has recorded many more instrumental albums, shared billing on others, and has been the session steel guitarist on several recordings by such country music artists as Faron Young, Little Jimmy Dickins, Lorrie Morgan, and David Frizzell.

Today, Doug tours as a concert performer, records with a host of Country Music artists and has plays on the Opry. He is also an accomplished Dobro

Dobro

Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...

 player. His latest release is titled Doug Jernigan Plays Jazz Standards.

Discography

• Sounds of Doug Jernigan and Gary Adams (????)
• Roadside Rag (1976)
• Cross Country (1977)
• Doug and Bucky (1978)
• Skyhigh Steel (1978)
• Diggin' Doug (1993)
• Jazz by Jernigan (2000)
• Doug Jernigan Plays Jazz Standards (2006)

External links

• [ Doug Jernigan] profile on Allmusic
• Steel Guitar Hall of Fame website

Portions of this text are copied from the biography published by Phil Burton, released under the GFDL.