Jerry Douglas, slide guitar virtuoso, playing Infinity

Jerry Douglas comes to Infinity Hall, 20 Greenwoods Road W., Norfolk, on Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. $49 - $65. 866-666-6306 and infinityhall.com.

It’s not uncommon to find instrumentalists from around the world who say that the model of expressiveness for their music is the human voice, and players often aim to replicate the delicacy and emotion of singing. Few instruments sing with the power and versatility of the slide guitar. Jerry Douglas is a virtuoso on slide resonator guitar, pedal and lap steel guitar.

Douglas is a wizard who draws from bluegrass, Western swing, blues, country and jazz traditions in his playing. Watching Douglas’s dexterity both with his fretting hand and the tone bar, and with his picking fingers, one is astounded. Douglas can coax just about any sound from the strings: percussive raking sounds, warm harmonies, hovering atmospherics, rapid-fire licks, moans, growls, and almost brassy sustains. Sometimes he’s playing bass lines with his thumb, and other times Douglas gets a rolling banjo-like pattern going with the rest of his fingers.

Douglas is a remarkably busy performer and producer. As a member of Union Station, he tours with Alison Krauss often, and he’s recorded on something like 1,600 albums over his career, including working with Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Dolly Parton, Phish, Eric Clapton and more. He knows how to accompany and frame talented vocalists, but he also knows how to make his instrument sing on its own.