It isn’t very often that a musician needs a searchable database to find albums they’ve played on.

It’s a little crazy, isn’t it?

How far in advance do people have to contact you if they want you to record with them? Are you booked up for months?

Most of that work was done on a recording schedule. Here we do sessions as early as 10 o’clock. There’s a session that goes 10-1, then 2-5 and 6-9. I stopped doing the six o’clock sessions first, then I pretty much quit doing all of them. I still do some sessions, but there aren’t as many as there were at one time, just because if I did sessions and traveled, I wouldn’t see anyone ever.

So you don’t do much session work, but are you still appearing on albums?

Oh yeah. I’m still doing records. I’m just picky.

I guess you have the chance to be, which is good.

I did it for a long time. The whole session scene here in Nashville isn’t what it was five or six years ago anyway. There are fewer labels, there are fewer deals, and fewer artists, really. Mostly it comes down to those deals that were development deals for a lot of people, which ended up being masters and becoming records. Those just don’t happen as much anymore.

Isn’t it amazing what’s happened in Nashville? I can’t believe how much it has grown, especially the music community there.

It’s very political, too. It’s completely different than it was 20 years ago, when it was just going day and night. There were people that would go in and play all night long. It was like a big factory, much like Lowell [laughs].

Do you ever have to turn people away? Just, “sorry – can’t do it?”

Yes. All the time. Mostly “no’s” from me. Even friends, and people I used to record with all the time. They just think I’ll come right on over, but I just can’t do it anymore. I’m not trying to keep it all to myself or anything like that, I just have to draw a line somewhere and set a precedent, and back it up. But if something really peaks my interest, I’ll go and do it. Or if it’s my record, or Alison. There are three or four producers in town that I used to work with all the time who, if they call, I’ll check into it and may go do it.

Are there any young up-and-coming artists that you’ve worked with who’ve kept your interest?

Yeah, a few. There’s a guy named Kyle Lenning – he was the producer for Randy Travis – and he and I are producing a guy named James Dupre right now. We’re just sort of developing him, because he’s new to all this, but he’s got a huge following on YouTube. You know, people are getting their music out there in completely different ways now. Record companies aren’t as important as they used to be. If you need a record company, you’re usually an artist that’s already known and just wants to use their facilities, more or less. You don’t want to do all that work yourself. The labels are right there waiting to help you out and take a big cut of your royalties. But if you want, you can do it yourself, and a lot of people are doing it over the Internet, like Radiohead. There are all kinds of avenues to get music out there now that didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago. That’s what’s really changed the industry. Downloads are where it’s headed. There will always be some sort of merchandise – a CD, or an LP. There will always be some hardware out there, but it’s not going to be as dominant.

What artists that you’ve worked with have had a profound effect on your own music?

A lot of them are good friends of mine who’ve been in touch all along. Guys like James Taylor had a profound effect on everyone, but really had a big effect on me. We’re friends, and when you meet someone like that through the years, where everything you thought about them stands up and holds true, then that just reinforces all of that stuff. He and Paul Simon, and Vince Gill’s a good friend of mine. All these people, all these things you do with them, they all get in there and creep out again somewhere along the line. I’d say James Taylor has probably had the most profound effect on me of anyone I’ve worked with like that. Hopefully something that I did stuck with him, too. That’s what you hope for.

What about when you were growing up? What artists were you really influenced by as you were learning how to play music, and the Dobro in particular?

Because the Dobro was really only involved in country music, and especially bluegrass music, [Lester] Flatt and [Earl] Scruggs was my biggest influence, because they had the best Dobro player of all, Josh Graves, with them. He was the only guy I really had to listen to. Then after him was Mike Auldridge with the Seldom Scene in D.C. Soon after that, I started playing professionally with the Country Gentlemen, and moved to D.C., so I saw Mike Auldridge all the time. We became friends, and I became friends with Josh Graves and Earl Scruggs, which was lucky for me. I just happened to be in this generation of players that got to meet the pioneers, and the people that set the molds. I was really lucky in that regard, but that’s what I was listening to growing up. It was predominantly bluegrass music, and Flatt and Scruggs in particular.

What was it about the Dobro that appealed to you, at least initially?

I guess it’s the possibility of all these notes in sequence, because it’s so vocal. You play with a slide, so you can change notes without stopping a note. There are all these things you can do. It’s like a violin. It’s not a staccato instrument, like a guitar has to be, because you can move the note, and it’s such a vocal, cool-sounding, soulful-sounding instrument. That’s what grabbed my ear.

How did you hook up with Alison [Krauss] initially?

I met Alison when she was 14. Ken Irwin from Rounder Records had signed her. He’d heard her at fiddle contests, and ran into her, and saw a lot of potential there, so he signed her up to his record label and brought her down to Nashville, and was looking for someone to produce her records. He brought her to Bela Fleck’s house, and I was actually moving into the neighborhood that day, and between loads, I stopped at Bela’s house, and Sam Bush and Bela were there. She sang for us, and played for us, and sort of auditioned for us. It was kind of crazy. We saw at that point that she was really talented and was going to go somewhere. So I played on the sessions for the first record, and was pretty much the floor director. Ken ended up producing the record, and he would tell me things and I would tell the musicians what he had in mind, and what Alison had in mind. I was sort of the interpreter of ideas, and I ended up producing a couple of records for her after that. So we’ve been friends since she was 14 years old, and I’ve played on every record she’s made except one. We’ve known each other for more than 20 years at this point – and that dates us both. I started playing with the band ten years ago.

She’s doing great things these days. She and Robert Plant were here in Boston not long ago.

Yeah, I’m glad to see her stretching a little bit. She could have stayed right in one place, but I’ve always pushed her to get out of her comfort zone. I’m proud of her for doing that.

Has playing in Union Station and watching Alison grow and become a better performer had an effect on you as an artist?

Well, in a way, I guess, yeah. When I came into the band, she wanted me to be the emcee of the band, because the guy who had left – Adam Steffy – had done that. Alison really just kind of sang and played the fiddle, but didn’t really speak that much. But I said, “I think they want to hear what you have to say. I think your stature demands that you speak out a little bit more.” So I kind of forced her hand there a little bit, and she started talking, and she was interesting, and funny, and goofy, and just developed this stage patter that she’s got, and it works for her. It lets the people know a little bit more about her, and feel like they get to know her a little bit better before they leave there, and that’s all any of us try to do.

It’s a lot easier to just stand in the background and not say anything, or pretend that you’re funny and feed lines to the person up front. You may be really witty, but if it’s not your voice, no one’s going to really know how you feel. When I’m fronting my own band, I’m the guy up there talking. It really puts another weight on your shoulders, and pulls something more out of you. It’s a little harder than just standing around playing. It develops your personality a little bit more. I think we all do that. It gives you a chance to show people that there’s a little more to you – that you’re not quite so shallow.

What’s it like being a producer on a recording versus being a musician? How do the two overlap?

One of the jobs of the producer is to find songs. The major issue there is finding songs for the artist, if it’s not yourself, or writing, or getting with the artist and writing. Usually it’s finding songs from other places and bringing them in – songs that you think will fit the artist, and that the artist likes. You set up the recording sessions, you hire the musicians, and you make sure the bills are being paid. But it’s more like being the director of a movie. Producer is sort of a misleading term. I don’t know how that got started, but I guess it just sounded better than a “record director.” You’re sort of molding and manipulating the picture. That’s what you’re doing.

You’re doing some festival dates this summer. What kind of backup band will you have for these dates?

I’ve had the same band for two or three years now. I just switched drummers. I have drums, bass, guitar and fiddle, and that all changes depending on the song. It may be electric, and it may be acoustic. So these guys can cover all those things, and Luke Bulla who plays the fiddle is a wonderful singer, so we’ve got a lot of songs in the set, too. They’re not all instrumental. I sing some with him. It’s fun. It’s good, and these guys can really play. They’re wonderful players. They push me, and that’s why they’re here.

I read that you’ll be the Country Hall of Fame artist in residence this year.

That’s happening in August and September. The dates are August 19, August 27, September 16, and September 30. The first date is a record release – I have a new record called Glide that will be out on August 19. That’ll be the record release show – Travis Tritt will be there with me, and Earl Scruggs, and Rodney Crowell. Travis and Rodney both sang songs on the album, and Earl played on the record a little bit. My band will be there. We’ll do the record, and throw in some extra stuff, too. That’s the first of the shows.

Who else has been picked in the past?

I’m the sixth person they’ve picked – Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Kris Kristofferson was last year. It’s pretty heady company. There have been six people who have been Artists in Residence. They really started this program after they opened the new permanent Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in downtown Nashville. It’s a beautiful building, and a really nice hall. The Ford Theater is where we do the concerts. There are not a lot of seats, but I want these shows to be special, so I’m calling in a lot of people. The second one will be with Bela, and Sam, and Edgar Meyer, and Bryan Sutton, and we’ll do that crazy stuff that we play, and have fun. The third and fourth shows will be with a big wish list of guests that I’ve sent out feelers for. Alison’s going to do it, and maybe James Taylor, and Paul Simon. I’m gonna’ ask. I just want it to be something that follows my career, and people who’ve had something to do with my career. Just music that I can bring that maybe no one else can bring. That’s the idea.

Any other big projects in the works?

The record coming out is a big deal, and that’s taking a lot of my time right now. The summer touring goes without saying. We’re going to Vancouver next week, doing festivals in Canada – a big folk festival in Edmonton, a blues festival in Ottawa, I’m playing at Rocky Grass out in Colorado with Edgar and Sam, and the big Aspen Folk Festival with Widespread Panic, and John Fogerty, and a whole lot of people like that. It’s a crazy year, but not extremely hardcore, every night playing, which I’ll get to again next year, probably. This year is sort of like the scenic tour, which will be nice. I’m looking forward to the summer – nice and cool.