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tkdboyd
Nov-09-2007, 10:58am
Nine Pound hammer break on Manzanita, was it Grisman? It has to be one of the strangest breaks I have heard for that song. Has anyone seen it transcribed anywhere?

A minor pentatonic is what I think he is working from but it is strange and can't quite get my fingers wrapped around it.
Any help or suggestions would be great.
Thanks,

Celtic-Grass
Nov-09-2007, 11:34am
my experience is. if it's really awkward to play, it's probably some odd-ball tuning.

Jonathan Peck
Nov-09-2007, 11:42am
I don't have the liner notes in front of me, but after a listen I'd say that it's Grisman...and that your being very kind. Sounds like he's playing in the wrong key.

Kevin Briggs
Nov-09-2007, 11:44am
I've never liked that break, personally. It sounds like he doesn't quite know what he's doing or something.

Grisman always seems to do a little better when it's his group and his project, and when he memorizes what he's doing before hand. He seems to struggle when he's not working from the standard licks he manages to work into most of his music.

AlanN
Nov-09-2007, 11:59am
Hmmm...Grisman has been pounded for that break for years. Cut the man some slack, someome once said a great jazz solo is hard to play twice. Same for bluegrass. Try Home Is Where The Heart Is for solid grass breaks by Dawg, or Here Today, or Don Stover, or Red Allen, or Tony Rice, or...

You wanna hear a break where it's a bit clueless? Try Roland White on Baby, Why You Been Gone So Long. I could just hear Clarence "Ok, E chord, follow my lead" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

tkdboyd
Nov-09-2007, 12:15pm
I wasn't trying to start a "Dawg Fight" just wondering about the break and if anyone else had played around with that version!

SternART
Nov-09-2007, 12:18pm
Geeze, give me a break.....Guess you've not heard Grisman play straight up BG then? Here Today? Home is Where the Heart Is, DGBX.
He can play VERY authentic licks, culled from immersing himself in all the first generation BG masters. Just because he writes his
own tunes and created a style of music, doesn't mean he doesn't pay homage to the roots of BG when appropriate. Besides Manzanita
is Spacegrass. Listen to Sam's backup fiddle behind Tony's vocals on that cut, or David's mandolin rhythm, I was at these sessions
in the studio, and they were pushing the envelope, having a lot of fun.....true peers....all good friends & among the super pickers of their generation.
There were several versions of the tunes.....one better than the other, with nobody repeating stock licks on their breaks, those boys was creatin'.....
not replicatin'...What a GREAT record. A classic!! They oughta put out 20th anniversary edition, with all the out-takes. Spacegrass.....yeeeeeaahhhhhhh!!!

MNDOLNR
Nov-09-2007, 12:33pm
Isn't there a lyric in 'Cept Old Bill on "Hold On We're Strummin" where Sam comments on Dawg always playing in the minor key? Don't recall the exact wording, but it's pretty apt. I love it that Dawg turns that break on its ear with that minor third...it's his thing! Comes from his ear for klezmer and gypsy scales...just be glad it wasn't a flatted 2nd.

SternART
Nov-09-2007, 12:45pm
Isn't that is a Jethro joke?.....

AlanN
Nov-09-2007, 12:51pm
Grisman does his thing, just like Steffey, Benson, Bibey, Skaggs, etc. I dig the old Skaggs, many folks don't dig the old Skaggs. And I tire of it too, heck I tire of me sometimes!

One of Grisman's best kicks is Don't Give Your Heart To A Rambler from Tony Rice debut Rounder album. To me, that phrasing is da bomb. And his characterisitic flurry on Rattlesnake. Emory Lester reprised that number on one of his early records, and I always felt his marvelous triplet string on there was in strict homage to Dawggy.

MNDOLNR
Nov-09-2007, 12:55pm
Isn't that is a Jethro joke?.....
Aren't they all?

Milan Christi
Nov-09-2007, 1:07pm
Wow - I sure miss hearing Tony's voice as a young guy. Oh yeah - Dawg's solo - as far as the solo goes I have no issues at all. It starts low and stays low for a l-o-n-g time. Not exactly what you might call pyrotechnics but there are definitely no bad notes there - it seems he used his home base a fifth lower than the root and stayed in that "key". Pretty darned creative in my ever-so-humble-opinion. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/blues.gif

Flowerpot
Nov-09-2007, 1:15pm
Yep, it's a strange break, and personally, not one I've cared to duplicate... nobody's saying Dawg don't have the chops, just that, well, that particular solo is kind of "experimental." I'd pick some some other Grisman solos to work on, ones that are more representative of his style, from Here Today or Home is Where the Heart Is, but if you wanna go into left field, don't let me stop you.

(how's it going, Mark? Don't lose that pick, dude.)

Jonathan Peck
Nov-09-2007, 1:20pm
Listening to that break was like accidentally seeing your three hundred pound aunt naked in the shower shaving her mustache....it's just wrong on so many levels. Maybe he was pushing the envelope as you say, but it isn't musical and has zero relationship to the song that he's playing.

I think that when you go that far out on a limb, you're taking a very big risk...but most jazz soloists can come back to the melody at ANY time. To me, he just sounds lost, completely missing all of the chord changes. He also sounds very sloppy and his timing is a little suspect as well.

Most things that are discordant resolve. That break seems to start nowhere, goes nowhere and ends nowhere.

That said...it was probably pretty cool being in the studio hanging with your friends and having a good time. Those guys are all monster musicians and have my complete respect, but that break is just plain bad.

Peter Hackman
Nov-09-2007, 1:33pm
Isn't that is a Jethro joke?.....
Jethro wrote the lyrics, yes.

Perhaps a bit off topic; it's been very long since I listened to Grisman in a BG context (WHATEVER THAT IS ...)
but according to my recollection he liked to superimpose things, like A over G, apart from more obvious blues pentatonics.

tkdboyd
Nov-09-2007, 1:51pm
I still have that pick and am loving it! Ordered a dozen or so different picks from Elderly trying to see if anything replicates it.

I've been pounding out a couple of different breaks for 9# Hammer and Dawg's is most certainly the most peculiar, although Monroe's timing with those down strokes are hard to fit in when people in a jam are playing a slower Merle Travis styled version. I haven't figured out "my approach" yet!

Flowerpot: Hope you and yours are doing well!

tkdboyd
Nov-09-2007, 2:00pm
Grisman in a BG context
The DGBX CD is a pretty good listen; it is basic Bluegrass stuff. It works well for novices like me. For the advanced on this board it would be boring. But can boost my confidence when I can play along with the CD after a few tries vs. listening to Sam Bush's stuff and sitting back and taking a stiff drink and realizing not in this lifetime!

Jonathan Peck
Nov-09-2007, 2:16pm
......although Monroe's timing with those down strokes are hard to fit in when people in a jam are playing a slower Merle Travis styled version. I haven't figured out "my approach" yet!
Hey Mark,

Have you given Norman Blakes version Live at McCabe's a listen? It's not mando, but might give you some new ideas for an approach.

Also, there's a fingering pickin' version on Will the Circle be Unbroken ala Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. There's a great melody break by Roland White on Mandozine which could be adapted to swing to the NGDB version.

Kevin Briggs
Nov-09-2007, 2:23pm
Grisman is great, there's no question. My impression of him is that he is very deliberate. I don't hear him as a master at improv, although he certainly seems to be capable of it. To me, this is an issue, because I value improv.

For example, the banjo player in the group I play in - Mighty Fine - memorizes everything. When we go to learn a new song, he's like, "I can learn that solo quickly." To me, that defeats the purpose of playing. I would HATE playing if I thought I needed to memorize what other people did all of the time. I certainly see it's place, but more as a learning tool rather than an entire approach to playing.

Grisman seems to lean this way, and I've heard him describe his early playign as such. When he was in Old and in the Way, as he put it, he was a perfectionist, and was forced to approach playign music in a different way because of Garcia and Vassar.

tkdboyd
Nov-09-2007, 3:01pm
I have the same problem as your banjo player. If I can't adapt the dozen or so Monroesque licks or the few fiddle tune type arpeggios I am comfortable with, I'll have to pass up a break or destroy the poor tune if I hadn't heard it or memorized it. I am just not that adaptable or tasteful especially simple melodies, two chord tunes are killers for me. I am a product of the eighties long hair, faster the fingers move the better the player mentality. I have learned late in life that quality is better than quantity, I guess at least I now know the problem, now all I have to do is fix it!

SternART
Nov-09-2007, 5:02pm
I'm with our German friend, MC Gitarz on this one!
And of course Mr. Peck is certainly entitled to his opinion.

Jonathan Peck
Nov-09-2007, 5:14pm
Thanks, it's really just that...my opinion, which doesn't really reflect Mr. Grisman's true talent or passion for the instrument. From what I've heard, Mr. Grisman is a class act. Obviously, I have a few things to learn from him.

jmcgann
Nov-09-2007, 5:16pm
They oughta put out 20th anniversary edition, with all the out-takes. Spacegrass.....yeeeeeaahhhhhhh!!!

THAT would be awesome. There is some unique chemistry on that album and in that era. What a classic!

Fretbear
Nov-12-2007, 8:21am
It was a bad break; it wouldn't matter or even be being discussed if it wasn't on the particular project that it was on."Manzanita" is one of the finest acoustic string recordings ever made, for the perfection of it's approach, song choices and players, not to mention the absolutely stellar playing by the sidemen. If you wanted to learn any bluegrass instrument (besides banjo) that recording alone could serve as a primer for how they can (and some would say) should be played. I don't believe that even Tony could have had any idea what an important recording it was going to be. He was done with J.D., done with Dawg, and he throws down with the best players that he knows and leaves off the banjo. Over the years, if I ever started to think that I should give up trying to learn how to play, that recording alone would not allow me to quit.
"If he can't go to heaven, honey, I don't want to go, son......"
"Me and My Guitar"

AlanN
Nov-12-2007, 9:05am
If it was so bad, don't you think T would have axed it? Or Grisman re-do it?

Ronbo
Nov-12-2007, 9:12am
I've always loved that solo.

DMC
Nov-12-2007, 10:00am
Of course the merits of the solo are a matter of taste.

But to suggest the Dawg was struggling with the timing or chords to Nine Pound Hammer? Lol!

Jonathan Peck
Nov-12-2007, 10:14am
Ok, maybe I'm missing the point. So...what is spacegrass? At the time all this was going on, I was more interested in T.V. dinners and big wheels than mind altering substances. In fact, I missed the boat on the whole hippie thing. Is playing around the beat part of it, or is it that your so stoned that that your trying to create some kind of tension in the music that fills the itsy bitsy teeny weenie gaps?

DMC
Nov-12-2007, 10:35am
The term 'spacegrass' is new to me too. I think it's just a tongue-in-cheek label for the whole 'new acoustic' thing. I really like some of that stuff and I'm not a 'smoker' http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

My point was merely that Grisman can play fabulous, authentic, Monroe-style BG when he so chooses. Here he clearly didn't and many people don't like the solo. But I really don't think he was 'lost' on Nine Pound Hammer.

hedding
Nov-12-2007, 10:36am
maybe they were all tired of hearing the same break on nine pound hammer over and over. To me it sounds like a lot of dawg's other solos. Listen to his playing on Bill Keiths record he does some similar interpetations of traditional melodies. I don't understand your connection to them being hippies or being stoned. I think it's they were being adventurous more than anything.


p.s. if you want hear dawg intepret this traditionally listen to his home is where the heart is cd recording where he plays it with doc and jack lawrence. Dawg is the coolest.

Scotti Adams
Nov-12-2007, 11:15am
To me its typical of what Dawg was doing at that time. He stays pretty much to the tune on Blackberry Blossom.

SternART
Nov-12-2007, 11:24am
Fretbear.....Tony wasn't quite done with Dawg music at this point, check out Hot Dawg from a year later, there were two great T. Rice tunes on that one, Devlin' and Neon Tetra, and for you youngsters Hot Dawg was available on 8 track, as well as LP, and cassette, I know some of those formats even predate TV dinners & Big Wheels.....Hot Dawg has Stephane Grappelli on a few cuts, as well as Buell Neidlinger & Eddie Gomez each on bass on a few cuts. Indeed in Spacegrass, or what really started in the band Ook 'n M, which was Tony, Todd, Mike & Darol, as a Quartet...the other guys in the DGQ formed a band to experiment & play at small clubs between the DGQ dates, to work on their own material & just cut loose from more arranged parts of Dawg Music, going into a looser jazz inspired format...the experimenting with playing ahead or behind the beat, or pushing & pulling as a technique, became part of the program, where the beat would go in and out of focus intentionally.....but they all knew where the "one" was & could bring it home whenever they wanted, it created a tension and release effect, along with a more syncopated rhythm which was common in how they played Dawg music. And Jonathan, this comes from the late 50's, early 60's jazz that these guys were ALL listening to, check out the great Bill Evans Trio recordings,or the classic Miles Davis band's recordings etc....... and had nothing to do with anyone being hippies or with mind altering substances. These guys were BIG into jazz, we would regularly go out together to hear the likes of Oscar Peterson with Joe Pass on guitar & Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass, or someone like Dexter Gordon, or Stephane Grapelli with Diz Dizley et al....we'd go see gigs at the Keystone Korner jazz club, or GAMH. Grisman has a huge jazz collection on vinyl & would loan out his records if someone was interested in learning more about jazz.....trust me, these guys weren't listening to Jimmy Martin, Flatt & Scruggs or Bill Monroe anymore for inspiration. More like Dizzy, Bird, Cannonball & Coltrane.

Jonathan Peck
Nov-12-2007, 11:45am
Back in the late sixties, there was a fellow in L.A. named Deenie Clark who used to pull me around in a milk crate with a rope tied to it. Some twenty years later, I looked him up, and he invited me to come and stay at his house until I found a place of my own. In the evenings he would take me out to these small rooms to see some of the names in jazz, and in the morning, I never knew who was going to be in the den taking a voice lesson.

It was a great musical experience, but it was long ago and just a fond memory now. That pretty much is the extent of my exploration into jazz. Thanks' for the explanation Art. It's long overdue that I explore the artists that you mention.

SternART
Nov-12-2007, 12:33pm
Jonathan..try something like Waltz for Debbie, by the Bill Evans Trio......or maybe Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.
I think this one is the biggest selling jazz recording of all time. Shouldn't be too hard to find a used copy.
Or you could add the Acoustic Disc companion route to Kinda Blue......get the Garcia-Grisman jazz CD titled So What,
which is the title cut on Kind of Blue....so you could see how an acoustic band with mandolin might play the tune.
In fact they have a coupla versions of it on there, so you can see how Grisman varies his improvisations by comparing the
different versions. They also play a Cannonball Adderly tune Bag's Groove (a blues), and Milestones, another Davis composition
on there too, but I'd start with the real deal.....then add the mando version to help you "get it". Look into the next few Tony
Rice CD's and you'll find him recording jazz classics like Nardis by Miles Davis, which Tony recorded on his CD titled Devlin.....
or Four on Six, by the great jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery that Tony recorded on his CD titled Acoustics, or on his CD Backwaters,
you find the tune My Favorite Things,by Rogers & Hammerstein, and On Green Dolphin Street, by Washington & Kaper. These popular
tunes became jazz standards & can be found on many jazz recordings, including those by Miles Davis and Bill Evans with his piano trio.
Usually these classic jazz tunes have a great head, and interesting chords to improvise over. I think it is cool to search out other
versions of tunes, especially if one if my musical heros recorded it, try to find what inspired them. Jazz is full of cool musical ideas.

AlanN
Nov-12-2007, 12:41pm
and the DGQ 20 set has Spain, where T quotes the Sonny Rollins tune St. Thomas.

hoffmannia2k7
Nov-12-2007, 12:57pm
I like the Kitchen Tapes Nine Pound Hammer break by Frank Wakefield. I also like that this Grisman break inspired a thread on this board a few decades later.

tkdboyd
Nov-12-2007, 1:45pm
I also like that this Grisman break inspired a thread on this board a few decades later.
I searched for any previous threads and didn't see anything. Could I be looking in the wrong place? Can you post the link?

Peter Hackman
Nov-12-2007, 2:12pm
and the DGQ 20 set has Spain, where T quotes the Sonny Rollins tune St. Thomas.
Spain is there, but the quote is in Waiting on Vassar.

Peter Hackman
Nov-12-2007, 2:15pm
They also play a Cannonball Adderly tune Bag's Groove (a blues), and Milestones, another Davis composition
minor correction: Bags' Groove is by Bags himself, i.e., Milt Jackson.

SternART
Nov-12-2007, 2:23pm
Whoops....Thanks Peter

AlanN
Nov-12-2007, 2:33pm
and the DGQ 20 set has Spain, where T quotes the Sonny Rollins tune St. Thomas.
Spain is there, but the quote is in Waiting on Vassar.
Whoops....Thanks Peter

SternART
Nov-12-2007, 4:19pm
Heeeyyyyy man......stealin' my licks!
I guess that could be taken as a compliment......

Tom C
Nov-12-2007, 4:28pm
Grisman is one of my favorites. Amazing right hand. Grisman's break are full of pentatonics -No magic here. -Especially back in the "Old and In The Way" years.
Even with dawg music. Just pick a break like "Hobo Song" to see.

AlanN
Nov-12-2007, 4:53pm
Hey, gotta keep us lil Dawgies honest!

hoffmannia2k7
Nov-12-2007, 4:58pm
tkdboyd, you were looking to far away when it was right under your nose. This thread was inspired by the Grisman break in question!

Soupy1957
Nov-13-2007, 5:49am
Just in case you haven't seen it, (speaking of the Dawg), here's a video that starts out with Frank Wakefield and his band; the second half is a "jam" between Frank and Dawg (offstage) that will show off Davids' abilities, if there was any doubt..(and Franks' too, for that matter)..After all, if I'm not mistaken, David was a student of Franks! Note the point at which David gets serious, and throws the strap on.

frannkandDawg (http://www.rentalfilm.com/AB9/AB9AVideoH21_320_512.wmv)


-Soupy1957

steelbuddha
Nov-13-2007, 7:20am
Tony wasn't quite done with Dawg music at this point, check out Hot Dawg from a year later, there were two great T. Rice tunes on that one, Devlin' and Neon Tetra, and for you youngsters Hot Dawg was available on 8 track, as well as LP, and cassette...

Art, that post brought back a lot of memories. Caught Grisman twice in Charlotte (once with T. Rice) in 1980-81. Amazing shows. Hard to believe it was that long ago.

AlanN
Nov-13-2007, 7:45am
Then there's the Hot Dawg out takes (if you can find them!)

Klaus Wutscher
Nov-13-2007, 7:49am
Then there's the Hot Dawg out takes (if you can find them!)
MMhmmmm, Hot Dawg Outtakes... wish I could http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

Scotti Adams
Nov-13-2007, 11:36am
Then there's the Hot Dawg out takes (if you can find them!)
Got 'em http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

sgarrity
Nov-13-2007, 11:56am
So I pulled that cd out last night to take a listen to this "terrible" break Grisman played. What's the big deal? It may not be what i woould have played, but it sure sounds like the Dawg to me.:D

SternART
Nov-13-2007, 12:06pm
Man Soupy.....those Frank & Dawg duets at he end of that video are WAY cool!
And steelbuddha.....I'll bet you had both darker & longer hair back in 80-81!
I know I did! I guess those can now be considered the good ol' days!

Soupy1957
Nov-14-2007, 5:37am
I'll bet you had both darker & longer hair back in 80-81!
I know I did! I guess those can now be considered the good ol' days!
Back in the 80's? How about "back in the 60's!" In the 80's I already had two kids and well....you get the picture.
Your youthfulness is showing, SternART! (lol)

-Soupy1957

mythicfish
Nov-14-2007, 7:18am
Certainly ranks with Bill Bruckners's failure to field Mookies Wilson's grounder in the 6th game of the 1986 World Series. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

fwoompf
Dec-08-2007, 12:41pm
So I pulled that cd out last night to take a listen to this "terrible" break Grisman played. #What's the big deal? #It may not be what i woould have played, but it sure sounds like the Dawg to me.:D
I just did this too and I thought it was awesome as heck. I know I can't play like that...Dawg's technique confuses me (in a good way).

By the way, speaking of Manzanita, that's Sam Bush on the mandolin in Little Sadie, isn't it? That's like the coolest break ever towards the end...

AlanN
Dec-08-2007, 1:36pm
That little break to Little Sadie is tabbed out in the not-so-little book Masters of the Mandolin, the Dave Peters chef d'oeuvre.

bradeinhorn
Dec-10-2007, 11:53am
coincidentally, the free itunes sample of this tune encompasses this full break. to me it's just kind of blah, then again, it is probably my least favorite track on the album and version of the tune. a few years back, grisman released one of the last grisman/garcia albums-been all around this world - and it has a great arrangment of this tune. very cool groove to it and hot flute solo.

Peter Hackman
Dec-15-2007, 1:09pm
My impression is that solo never gets off the ground, but I can't analyze what's happening. Sometimes I get so weary of people trying to be hip on basic stuff - that's why the 3rd Flinner-Grier-Phillips (unlike the first two) went to the wastebasket.

None of this detracts from my appreciation of Grisman's musicianship in other contexts.

Dave Gumbart
Dec-15-2007, 10:33pm
Peter - I am curious about a 3rd Phillips, Grier & Flinner disc. I am familiar with the self titled cd, and then Looking Back. Is there another release they've put out recently?

Thought somewhat related to Grisman's break (which I haven't listened to recently): I don't know if it was in Miles' autobiography, or where I read this, but a lot of jazz recordings from (choose your definition of a particular golden age here) were done in one take - mostly since studio time was so valuable, it was not likely a group could go over a piece until they got it perfect. So, you just played your best - sometimes it was magic, and sometimes your solo was the odd duck in the bunch, saved for posterity. Not saying that Grisman's break is one thing or another, just that it was simply the one that ended up on the album. As Arthur has said, it was different each time. That, in and of itself, I think is worthy of admiration.

Dave

Alex Fields
Dec-16-2007, 12:41am
Okay, so this is only loosely related to the original topic, but...

I need to learn a nice version of Nine Pound Hammer on mandolin. My grandpa has played fingerpicking guitar for a long time, and this is his favorite piece to play. He's finding it harder and harder to play because of joint problems in his finger, so I'd like to record he and I playing this really soon before it gets so bad he can't play at all. Just as a memory/keepsake type thing. He plays it in a slow Merle Travis style...I'm sure I can figure something out, at the least I could just play the melody slowly or heck, fingerpick it on mandolin, but if anyone knows of some recordings with this style of guitar on this song that also have a nice mandolin track, I'd like to listen to something for inspiration. Thanks...

Peter Hackman
Dec-16-2007, 12:41am
Peter - I am curious about a 3rd Phillips, Grier & Flinner disc. I am familiar with the self titled cd, and then Looking Back. Is there another release they've put out recently?
No - seems there are only two, and I was referring to the second one.

Strange1
Dec-16-2007, 8:08pm
Been a while since the last post on this thread, but just wondered.... does anyone use an E minor as the second chord instead of a C when in the key of G? With one band we used it all the time and with another band we used it in the chorus only.

Jack

Scotti Adams
Dec-29-2011, 10:30am
Geeze, give me a break.....Guess you've not heard Grisman play straight up BG then? Here Today? Home is Where the Heart Is, DGBX.
He can play VERY authentic licks, culled from immersing himself in all the first generation BG masters. Just because he writes his
own tunes and created a style of music, doesn't mean he doesn't pay homage to the roots of BG when appropriate. Besides Manzanita
is Spacegrass. Listen to Sam's backup fiddle behind Tony's vocals on that cut, or David's mandolin rhythm, I was at these sessions
in the studio, and they were pushing the envelope, having a lot of fun.....true peers....all good friends & among the super pickers of their generation.
There were several versions of the tunes.....one better than the other, with nobody repeating stock licks on their breaks, those boys was creatin'.....
not replicatin'...What a GREAT record. A classic!! They oughta put out 20th anniversary edition, with all the out-takes. Spacegrass.....yeeeeeaahhhhhhh!!!

Thanks Art

Scotti Adams
Dec-29-2011, 11:38am
Geeze, give me a break.....Guess you've not heard Grisman play straight up BG then? Here Today? Home is Where the Heart Is, DGBX.
He can play VERY authentic licks, culled from immersing himself in all the first generation BG masters. Just because he writes his
own tunes and created a style of music, doesn't mean he doesn't pay homage to the roots of BG when appropriate. Besides Manzanita
is Spacegrass. Listen to Sam's backup fiddle behind Tony's vocals on that cut, or David's mandolin rhythm, I was at these sessions
in the studio, and they were pushing the envelope, having a lot of fun.....true peers....all good friends & among the super pickers of their generation.
There were several versions of the tunes.....one better than the other, with nobody repeating stock licks on their breaks, those boys was creatin'.....
not replicatin'...What a GREAT record. A classic!! They oughta put out 20th anniversary edition, with all the out-takes. Spacegrass.....yeeeeeaahhhhhhh!!!

What Art said 4 yrs ago still sticks.