By any definition, John Jorgenson could be considered not only a multifaceted musician, but an extraordinary multitasker as well. Although he’s best known for his guitar work at the helm of the Desert Rose Band and the Hellecasters, Jorgenson’s restless muse has propelled him into other realms as well, including no fewer than three ongoing outfits — the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band, the John Jorgenson Electric Band and the John Jorgenson Quintet — along with on-again, off-again projects such as Hooker, John & Harry and JJDDMM, an occasional collaboration with Smithereens members Dennis Diken and Mike Mesaros.
His efforts don’t end there. He’s an adept artist who excels not only on guitar but also on mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone and bouzouki. He’s also been a go-to session player and touring musician who’s contributed to any number of projects by such superstars as Earl Scruggs, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Peter Frampton, Barbra Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, Bob Dylan and many others.
As far as his instrumental acumen is concerned, Jorgenson insists he came by it quite naturally. “I started on the piano really young,” he recalls. “Then I started the clarinet, but kept on the piano. Then I started the guitar. The guitar sort of took over the piano eventually, you know, and then the bassoon after that, then the saxophone and the bass, on and on. But what I would do in a normal day was practice on two or three instruments. I might have a rehearsal with an orchestra or a concert band, and then I would also go practice with my friends in a garage band and play rock. So it was normal. Even as a kid, I was playing different styles and different instruments within a day.”
In the years to come, his efforts would not go unnoticed. A Grammy winner for Best Country Instrumental Performance with Brad Paisley, he was also nominated for Best Bluegrass Album with Earl Scruggs. Jorgenson himself was likewise honored recently by the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band has received kudos of its own, scoring high marks from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Reviewing the group’s initial live performances in 2016, the organization pointed to the warmth, the storytelling and the laughter on display, and said the four sounded as though they had been playing together in that configuration for years.
The band, which performs at the Clayton Center for the Arts on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 7:30 p.m., is nothing less than an all-star ensemble.
Herb Pedersen, who plays banjo and acoustic guitar and sings, was a member of the legendary bluegrass band the Dillards as well as a later incarnation of the bluegrass supergroup Old & In the Way. In addition, he’s worked alongside such legends as Chris Hillman, Earl Scruggs, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Tony Rice, Dan Fogelberg, Stephen Stills, Linda Ronstadt, Kris Kristofferson, John Prine, Jackson Browne and John Denver. Bassist Mark Fain toured and recorded with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder for 13 years, in addition to working with the Chicks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakam, Bob Seger, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton and any number of other artists in the realms of jazz, country, bluegrass and gospel. Multi-instrumentalist Patrick Sauber is equally adept on guitar, mandolin and banjo, and has toured with Peter Rowan and Laurie Lewis.
Jorgenson himself first came to national attention in the mid-’80s as co-founder of the Desert Rose Band, which found him partnering with Chris Hillman, a founding member of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. While a member of the Desert Rose Band, Jorgenson won the Academy of Country Music’s Guitarist of the Year award three consecutive years. His efforts with the Hellecasters furthered his reputation as a unique instrumental artist with a seemingly unlimited musical palette. He even portrayed Django Reinhardt in the feature film “Head in the Clouds.”
In a sense, J2B2 (as the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band is commonly known) is an outgrowth of his partnership with Pedersen in the Desert Rose Band following Chris Hillman’s retirement. The band’s debut album, “From the Crow’s Nest,” was released as part of a limited-edition, three-CD Jorgenson box set called “Divertuoso,” which collected three distinct new albums — J2B2’s “From the Crow’s Nest”; a gypsy jazz effort from the John Jorgenson Quintet titled “Returning”; and a solo instrumental electric guitar album dubbed “Gifts From the Flood.”
Indeed, Jorgenson’s diversity is quite impressive, and it does seem remarkable that he’s able to adapt to such varied musical settings so easily.
“It seemed somewhat natural when I was younger,” Jorgenson suggests. “As I get older and I have more legacy and more history, it does take a lot of concentration. I just have to have the right equipment and the right instruments and stay up to par, because my own bar is pretty high. I’m not happy with myself if I’m not as good as I can be.”
Jorgenson never had any doubt as to the path he would take. “I always knew that that’s what I wanted to do, and I was inspired,” he says. “I would go see bands from a young age as much as I could, and I wanted to be up there doing what I saw those people doing. And since my father was a university music professor, he allowed me to play in his wind ensemble even when I was like 11 or 12 years old. And so I was always around people that were much more proficient than I was, and it made me strive to not stand out as bad, and also it kept my ego in check because I never considered myself the best one in the room ever.”
That said, Jorgenson proved he was an overachiever.
“Yeah, we can say that,” he agrees. “And I’m musically restless too. I mean I love so many different styles, and I’ve spent time honing my skills, so it’s really fun for me to be able to use them. I try to incorporate as much as I can into each ensemble. Some people know me from Elton John. Some people know me from the Desert Rose Band. Some from the Hellecasters. Some from gypsy jazz. Some from bluegrass. Some as a session player. Once someone discovers you, that’s kind of the box that they want to keep you in. I’ve found that there’s been some crossover, but not that many follow me into bluegrass or into gypsy jazz or into rock or other things that I do. It’s a pretty small percentage.”
As far as bluegrass itself is concerned, Jorgenson recognizes its growth in populist appeal. “I think the jam band crossover from Jerry Garcia and Old & In the Way and that element had a lot to do with it, through bands like Leftover Salmon and the String Cheese Incident, and now Billy Strings,” he suggests. “They’ve tapped into that jam band audience, which is massive. Plus, the kind of introduction into that world that’s come from players like the Punch Brothers and Sierra Hull, the young urban players who prove you don’t have to be from Missouri or North Carolina or wherever to play this music. It probably has a lot to do with YouTube and Instagram and the availability of people to see music everywhere.”
As far as what the Clayton Center audience can expect, here again, Jorgenson gets right to the point. “Herb and I have played and sung together now for 40 years,” he notes. “And so we do have a particular simpatico and a particular vocal sound, and we’re very focused on the playing as well. We do some of our own material, some Herb’s written, some that I’ve written, some songs from other writers that you wouldn’t expect in bluegrass, like Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris and Guy Clark and things like that. Our audiences are usually drawn in by the songs, but overall, I think we’re actually more traditional, not jam grass or anything else. It’s the instruments, the sounds, the vocal harmonies. We bring a legacy more in line with the Seldom Scene and the Country Gentlemen and Country Gazette and maybe the Osborne Brothers — a little bit from that school of bluegrass. Still, the bulk of the set is more song-oriented.”
The ultimate question remains — does he ever get awestruck in the presence of these marquee names?
“I don’t get intimidated too much,” he maintains. “It’s more like I get inspired and excited. As a support player and a sideman, the trick is to always try to figure out how you can best support the artist and the song, but still put a little bit of your own stamp on it. That’s a really delicate balance, but they wouldn’t have wanted me to play on it if they didn’t want something I could bring to it. That’s the challenge, and the fun is to rise to that challenge and hopefully bring something that nobody else brought to that artist before.”
Who: John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band (J2B2)
Where: Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre, Clayton Center for the Arts, 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026
Tickets: ClaytonArtsCenter.com
