Jerry Douglas has his own band and has collaborated with hundreds of other musicians, but the dobro master and 12-time Grammy Award winner calls Alison Krauss & Union Station his home base.
''That's where I work from,'' the Leavittsburg native said during a telephone interview from Nashville. ''What really trips all my buttons is what we do. I love playing with Bela (Fleck), Sam (Bush) and Edgar (Meyer) and all that is instrumentally stretching, but to get a big audience, you have to have some vocal power there, and we've got that with Alison and Dan (Tyminski).''
Next week Douglas brings his home base to his hometown.
Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas (that ''featuring Jerry Douglas'' isn't a tag added to promote the show locally; Douglas' billing is part of the band's official name) will perform Oct. 7 at Warren's Packard Music Hall, and all net proceeds from the show will benefit The Camelot Center, the Warren Family Mission and the Jimmy Franks & Jim Hillman Scholarship Fund at LaBrae High School.
It is one of several benefit shows the band is playing on the second leg on its tour in support of the album ''Paper Airplane,'' released in April.
''We sat down as a band at the beginning of this tour and Alison said, 'How would you guys feel about doing some shows for our hometowns and giving them the money?' I was all over that. My hometown, if I could do anything at all, that would great. I know where I want to do it and when I want to do it and it all lined up.''
Fact Box
WHAT: Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas
WHEN: 8 p.m. Oct. 7
WHERE: Packard Music Hall, 1703 Mahoning Ave. N.W., Warren
HOW MUCH: Only single seats remain for the concert. Tickets range from $29.50 to $59.50 and are available at the Packard box office and by calling 330-841-2931.
Douglas had talked for years with his childhood friend, Max Dade, about doing a benefit for the Camelot Center, a therapeutic horse riding center for handicapped children, with his own band.
''Yeah, the time slipped away from us, and I got busier and busier, but it was still in my head when this came up.''
Even with the drawing power of Krauss and Union Station, Douglas admitted he was worried about ticket sales for the local show.
''It's such a depressed area,'' he said. ''Our booking agent intentionally stayed away from that part of the country (on the summer tour).''
He didn't need to worry. Most of the tickets were snatched up the first week, and only scattered single seats remain for the Oct. 7 show.
Douglas graduated from LaBrae High School in 1974. While many of his classmates went to work at the steel mills after graduation, Douglas went to Nashville, playing with such bluegrass acts as the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe and the New South.
In addition to pushing the boundaries of bluegrass with such collaborators as Fleck, Bush and Meyer, Douglas became the man Nashville and the music industry calls when it needs the distinctive sound of the dobro, which has a metal resonator on a guitar-shaped body. He has appeared on more than 2,000 albums, working with such diverse acts as Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, The Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Elvis Costello, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, James Taylor, John Fogerty, Paul Simon, Sting and Yo-Yo Ma.
Douglas' parents moved back to West Virginia after his father retired from Copperweld Steel, so he doesn't make it back to the area very often.
One of those visits was in 2008, when the Jerry Douglas Band played a free concert at the Warren Community Amphitheatre that was presented by the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County.
''That was great,'' Douglas said. ''We had good weather. There were a couple thousand people. I saw my sixth grade teacher again, all my buddies, the guys I played music with in my dad's band, some of them were still there ... I saw people I didn't dream of seeing there, that I didn't think would have any interest in what I was doing. It was a huge hit. I loved it. I would do it again.''
He also shot a photo with a Packard automobile that became the cover for his 2008 album ''Glide,'' and former Fine Arts Council Director Bobbie Brown gave him a tour of the dormant Robins Theatre in downtown Warren.
''It was like going in the Titanic,'' Douglas said.
He shot some photographs inside the building which he has used as publicity stills.
A more recent visit was less enjoyable, coming home to see a childhood friend who was dying.
''It just broke my heart to drive through Warren and see what shape it's in,'' he said. ''There's always a chance it could all come back, hopefully in the hands of the right people with the right ideas, you can revamp a town. Towns all over the country have retooled themselves, but right now it's the worst of times to try to do something like that.''
He hopes next week's show can make a small difference, both in providing a good a time and in leaving some money behind. Douglas has fond memories of playing in Warren when he still was in high school.
''That was fun for me, playing in the bars with my dad for people who worked all week and came out to have fun. And they sure did.''