Doug Seegers

Douglas "Doug" Seegers (born c. 1952 in Long Island, New York, United States) is an American country music artist, guitarist and songwriter.

Life and Work

Seegers started playing music in New York and Austin, Texas, before moving to upstate New York, where he got married and raised two children. Eventually, Seegers made his way alone to Nashville, where he played on the streets and became a regular at The Little Pantry That Could, a West Nashville charity that holds regular songwriter nights. He basically lived as a homeless struggling musician.^[1]

On 17 December 2012, Aaron Espe an American singer-songwriter and record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee uploaded a live 1 minute 11 second rendition of Doug Seegers singing "Going Down to the River" on his own YouTube account. Espe entitled his upload "Who Is Doug Seegers?". The video did not pick up much reaction though.

Doug Seegers became known to the Swedish public when he appeared during the Swedish TV show presented by Jill Johnson titled Jills veranda on 5 March 2014.^[2][3] Jills veranda was a 6-episode SVT TV series recorded in Nashville, where Johnson and six Swedish artists explore the city. At the time the program was recording, its presenter Jill Johnson, her guest Magnus Carlson and the production team from Eyeworks met Seegers who was sitting on a park bench in Nashville. Just minutes earlier, Johnson, was buying food from a street vendor, and the latter upon hearing she was filming a documentary about music in Nashville, recommended that they give a listen to a street musician just across the street telling her "You have to hear him, he has the most unique voice in country music". Johnson took the advice and headed towards Seegers. Doug Seegers performed his own song "Going Down to the River". Johnson and Carlson loved his performance so much that they returned some time later and offered to record the song with him in Johnny Cash's old studio in Nashville.

Doug Seegers gained instant popularity after the episode was broadcast. His Facebook account was inundated by new Swedish fans and the song "Going Down to the River" was number 1 on Swedish iTunes Charts for 12 consecutive days. The track also appeared on the Jill Johnson album Livemusiken från Jills Veranda Nashville. The album topped Sverigetopplistan, the official Swedish Albums Chart and was certified gold.

Doug Seegers was offered a recording contract with Lionheart Music Group resulting in the release of his debut album also titled Going Down to the River on Lionheart Music Group, and was released on 28 May 2014. The album had collaborations from Emmylou Harris^[1] in a cover of Gram Parsons' hit "She" and Buddy Miller a friend of Seegers’ from his Austin days in "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight". The album was produced by Will Kimbrough. Seeger's album also reached number one in the Sverigetopplistan chart on 5 June 2014, its first week of release and again on the August 14, 2014 chart. It was certified gold. Seegers was engaged on a 70-gig summer tour in Sweden and appeared at Stockholm Music & Arts 2014, a major music festival in Sweden.

In March 2015, he released a joint album with Jill Johnson on Capitol Music Group / Universal Records label titled In Tandem.

Discography

Albums

Appearances on compilation albums

• 2014: Livemusiken från Jills Veranda Nashville (#1 on Sverigetopplistan Swedish Albums Chart)
  • Track 1: "Going Down to the River" – Doug Seegers - 3:17
  • Track 17: "Going Down to the River" – Doug Seegers, Jill Johnson & Magnus Carlson (Bonus track)
  • Track 18: "Gotta Catch That Train" – Doug Seegers (Bonus track)

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

Media related to Doug Seegers at Wikimedia Commons