Longtime Rambler Doug Reid is known around these parts as the King of the Double Stop style of fiddle. Or as Mike Gross, host of “Swingin’ West,” America’s longest running Western Swing Radio and internet show (38 years) calls Doug, the “Fiddle Wizard.” Doug keeps the Ramblers swinging with his impeccable rhythm and his traditional western swing-influenced style of fiddling. In addition to his live appearances with Ramblers for over a dozen years with the Ramblers, you can hear Doug swing out on six of our most recent Rambler recordings frrom “I Rode The T” all the way through to our 2020 release, “God Bless The Mighty Pickle.”
Doug jump-started his music career early with violin lessons at 14 while listening to jazz/swing master Stephane Grappelli. Doug says he’s excited to be at the stage in his career when he can devote himself to the finer points of this lyrical style. Classically trained, he spent many years as a touring side man in country & western bands out of Southern California, Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. He has opened for many major acts in country music. While living in Texas, he studied jazz and composition at North Texas State University and played with several of Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, including Joe Holley and Johnny Gimble.
Doug spent seven years as a feature performer on the Jim Stafford Show, in Branson, Missouri, where he was alternately comedy writer, arranger, Music Director, and head of Special Effects. Doug performed with the Paris Swing Orchestra of New York for four years at the annual Bastille Day Celebration on 60th Street. He returned home to Vermont in 1999 and currently resides in Wheelock in the Northeast Kingdom.
Doug wishes to thank Oren Kronick & Kathy Reilly, proprietors, and Jim Banicki, head luthier, at the ‘Vermont Violins & The Burlington Violin Shop’ at 23 Church Street in Burlington for the loan of a custom built violin Doug played on the “Welcome To OUR Vermont” recording sessions and “for making such a sweet fiddle in our home state!”