Grateful Dawg (review)

Musicians David (Dawg) Grisman and Jerry Garcia (of the Grateful Dead) first met at a small club in Pennsylvania in 1964, where they were on hand to see the legendary "Father of Bluegrass," Bill Monroe. Garcia had traveled from San Francisco, and Grisman had come from New Jersey. This event led to a friendship that would result in the creation of their "Grateful Dawg" style of bluegrass music, which would introduce a new generation to bluegrass and educate audiences about the traditional types of American music that inspired their style. The film Grateful Dawg chronicles the development of the music of Grisman and Garcia, as well as the interesting working relationship and friendship they shared.

The film documents how, with the formation of their band Old And In The Way in the mid-1970s, Grisman and Garcia developed a form of bluegrass that incorporated contemporary themes as well as a vast array of traditional influences. With Garcia on banjo and vocals, Grisman on mandolin and vocals, Peter Rowan on guitar and vocals, Vassar Clements on fiddle, and John Kahn on acoustic bass, the group enjoyed success with a more mainstream crowd than previously had been experienced by bluegrass musicians. As the film demonstrates, this "Grateful Dawg" style borrowed the instrumentation of traditional bluegrass, ragtime, and other southern-based American music and then added a particularly danceable component with an emphasis on banjo and vocals rather than fiddle and guitar, which was reserved more for solos. Garcia and Grisman were influenced by the music of Lightnin' Hopkins, Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, Lucinda Williams, and, in particular, Bill Monroe, who is quoted in the film as saying that the best thing one can do with bluegrass music is to develop his or her own style. As the film shows, Grisman and Garcia took Monroe's suggestion to heart.

Grisman's daughter, Gillian, directed the film, and as a result it includes rare footage, such as home videos from the Grisman family, which capture personal moments among the musicians. At times, this gives the film an intimate feel, as if one were sitting in the same living room, participating in family moments. At other times, the grainy footage and amateur style just looks like bad filmmaking, with Grisman's home movies of living room jam sessions edited together to capitalize on Garcia's presence in them. Along with the home movie footage, the film consists primarily of live concert videos, interspersed with interviews of family members, friends, and former musicians who had at one time played with the duo.

The film attempts to show that the Grateful Dawg project was a musical outlet for Garcia to express himself in ways that performing with the Grateful Dead did not allow. Garcia was fascinated with traditional American music of all types, from old whaling songs to the traditional sounds from the South that had influenced Monroe. The video presents Garcia and Grisman as reviving certain forms of the American musical heritage that had been largely neglected. Divided into ten sections, the film showcases twelve songs played in their entirety, including a banjo duet, "Sweet Sunny South"; the whaling song, "Off To Sea Once More"; and the children's song, "Jenny Jenkins." In addition, there is a seventeen-minute song, "Arabia," that was composed during the Persian Gulf War and makes use of several different international influences, including Middle Eastern styles and a Cuban bass line.

The film functions primarily as a tribute to Garcia, an uncritical celebration of Garcia and Grisman's music and friendship. Although it introduces the uninitiated to some of the traditional forms of music that helped inspire the Grateful Dawg bluegrass style, the video is too long and insubstantial for academic or classroom use. Grateful Dawg is essentially a fan film with some endearing personal and concert footage that may be of interest to bluegrass and folk song enthusiasts.