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care what everybody else says. They say you write for yourself; you write for people. You don’t do it
to get a hit. You do it because it’s something you have to do and that alone I think inspires people to
sit down and do their own music.

BiTS: I don’t know whether you realise it but coming to Nashville for people like me is like
Americans coming here and seeing [00:20:45]. I made a trip to Nashville about 20 years ago, I guess
it was, and it was like living in a dream, absolutely fabulous.

BF: Nashville has grown so much of the last 15-20 years since I’ve been here and it has evolved and

what I love about it musically is it has allowed for an
expansion of what the definition of country music is. I
love the fact that the singer-songwriter is coming
back. Lyrics are so important and the growth of the
Americana Music Association and the International
Bluegrass Music Association, I think that these institutions are inspiring young artists to come up
through the ranks, not just to become country superstars, but to really hone their craft as musicians

and songwriters and there are so many in the rounds and so many writing opportunities and so
many places to play out and I think that’s my favourite part of it. You can hear so many different
styles of music now and I love to see the youth. I was at the World of Bluegrass in Raleigh a couple of
years ago doing some filming and it was the young kids. It was the 12-year-
olds, the 15-year-olds playing their hearts out on the banjos and the

fiddles and the guitar. It was remarkable how good they were and
the support that they had from people like Jerry Douglas and
Bryan Sutton and Sarah Jarosz and all these artists coming up in
the ranks and they had people mentoring them and teaching
them. I love that and that’s what Nashville is becoming. It really
is. That’s why it’s not just country music, it really is music city.

BiTS: That sounds absolutely fabulous. Bill, have you been badly
affected by COVID-19?
Jerry Douglas

BF: Yes, when it hit we pretty much went into lockdown for a good six to
eight weeks. Fortunately, because of my work and what I do, I was able to do a lot of it from home.

We had to stop filming, but we already had so many shoots in the can that needed editing and I mean
technology is just incredible and I was able to oversee edits from home and Zoom with editors and
our production teams and go over things and we started coming up with shows that the artists could
film a lot of it at home and then we would edit it and they just had to upload the footage. I myself
have been remarkably fortunate that I’ve been able to keep my job and keep working and it was in
March that I finished my album just because I had time and I was recording a lot of it at home and so
I got that wrapped up. The hard part has been watching the effect it’s had for my kids. My daughter

graduated from high school, but she couldn’t have a prom. They couldn’t have their normal
graduation. So many of the activities that a senior will go through were all cancelled and null and
void and her birthday was in April and she was stuck. There was nothing we could do about it and it
was hard for them to understand as youngsters. They didn’t understand why are we not able to go
out? Why are we not able to do things? Then as things progressed, some people they let their kids go

out and do stuff and we were still really cautious about it and it’s hard to judge and I know
everybody over there is going through the same thing. How do you know? It’s so new and it changes

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