After forty years of playing, singing and writing blues music, singer-songwriter Doug Warner has finally arrived.

With his new CD, Fading Gracefully, Doug has created an exciting new voice in the blues. Every song on this CD was written by Doug and the lyrics express haunting, whimsical and unique metaphorical twists and turns on traditional and cutting edge themes. Not only has he produced this album on his own, but he plays every instrument as well. Slide guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, blues harp, drums and a variety of unconventional percussion sounds drift and meld throughout this CD, painting a picture that is very distinct and yet very familiar. No topic is sacred as he takes on hurricane Katrina, foreclosure, love, stock market woes, love gone bad, Iranian street marches, bank bailout, love, nostalgia, UFOs, love gone bad, Bernie Madoff, Jesus, Moses, Buddha and ragtop automobiles.

Doug plays a 1936 27G Dobro resonator guitar, a 1972 Martin D28 acoustic guitar, hollow body and solid body electric guitars and sings through a vintage RCA 77D microphone just to give the CD an old time flavor. “I wanted the album to sound like it was mostly recorded in one or two takes in somebodies livingroom....so I mostly recorded it in one or two takes in somebodies livingroom.” Bluejay Productions in Southern Oregon, where Fading Gracefully was recorded, is literally the studio/home of owner Mark Johnson. On most of the tunes the lead instrument and vocals were recorded on the same track using the RCA mic. Doug layered on additional instruments on separate tracks like cookin’ up a sweet gumbo stew.

The idea for the CD came about as a result of years of Doug writing songs that didn’t quite say what he wanted to say and didn’t quite connect to the timeless tradition of familiar blues structures the way he felt he could connect. So he spent a full year writing and rewriting until he finally hit paydirt. He began developing songs with rich metaphor, with his own strange sense of humor and with stories and images and rhythms that rolled out like they had been there all along. Here was the framework that Doug Warner could work in and that could showcase his playing as well. The last line of the title song is” ...the years just seem to roll on by when you’re havin’ a good time”. Doug is truly havin’ a ball!

As the full time Producing Director and Artistic Associate at The Camelot Theatre in Southern Oregon, Doug is responsible for Directing and Acting in several mainstage theatre productions a year as well as producing the entire season each year. He has been involved with theatre as a Music Director, and Sound and Set Designer as well, in over thirty years of stage history. Recently he was seen at Camelot as Father Flynn from the award winning play Doubt and will be featured as David Frost in this springs production of Frost/Nixon at Camelot. Doug has been performing on stage in everything from live music, Shakespeare, comedy and drama and last year was musical Director of Spotlight On The Blues at Camelot Theatre which featured some of the hottest performers and musicians in Southern Oregon including blues diva Karen Lovely and Michael Vannice, formerly of the Robert Cray Band.