Grateful Dawg

To quote a line from the movie " Jerry was the king of the DeadHeads", and David Grisman's house was a place where he could just get away and be Jerry. As a former DeadHead and member of the 'cult of Jerry' this movie was an opportunity to spend the evening with someone whose loss I still feel. The film is a look behind the scenes at the musical and personal relationship Jerry and David had for over thirty years. Through interviews with musicians who played with Jerry, concert film of Jerry and David in 1991 and video shot at David's home, I got an opportunity to sit and share in the making, the rediscovery and sometimes reinterpretation of a style of music that they both love. Bluegrass and indigenous American music is somewhat out of the mainstream of American culture, the DeadHeads were exposed to it through Jerry's involvement with 'Old and in the Way' and David. Many only knew Jerry as the icon of '60's San Francisco rock, this film exposes a more personal side of Jerry, one of the guys, who loved music above all else, and explored its backwaters seeking that primeval pool of creativity to draw inspiration from. He found it and shared it with us. This film captures it. As it sat watching, I was grateful that someone had been there, with tape recorder and video camera, saving these moments to share with us, to remind us why we loved Jerry so much. It hurt, feeling the closeness, reminded of the loss. But it was a hurt that felt good. We remembered, we'll never forget why we chased tickets, saw shows so many nights in a row, waited for the moment when the next tour would be announced, danced the night away. Near the end of the movie, David Grisman's young son Sam, recalled those times at his house with Jerry and his dad's band, "...when Jerry died, a part of him died with him, but a part of him lives on inside of him...' I could say much the same myself. This is a film I will see many more times in my lifetime, to be replenished from the well of Jerry's creativity and inspiration. Thank you Gillian Grisman for making this film.

Back in June at the Newport Film Festival (Newport RI) I stumbled across this film between two other shows I had been planning on seeing. It turns out that this was the first showing of the film. This documentary was a very pleasing suprise to me. This film uses interviews and such as do most documentaries. What sets this apart is the intimate "home movie" footage that is present in a lot of the film. This shows Grisiam and Garcia simply playing for the family. After the showing of the film we were lucky enough for Gillian Grisiam to be there and to discuss the film. Much of the footage actual was home movies where a camera was "just set on the TV and turned on." Thank you much for this wonderful documentary.

To their friends, family and admirers they were "beards of a feather", hatched from the same "cosmic egg" (don't'cha love hippies?). That's the late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia and bluegrass maestro David Grisman - literally plucking Bluegrass back from the 'Special Interest' bracket to continued acclaim.

In this sweet-natured, hugely subjective documentary, the history of their on-off artistic partnership, including five collaborative albums, is explored via jams, home movies and live footage, and their particular strand of folk-tinged music showcased to varying levels of self-indulgence.

As one would expect, the performances here - whether knocked out impromptu in David's living room or on stage - are virtuoso in range and delivery, with pieces including a cover of Jimmy Cliff's 'Sitting Here in Limbo', Dead classic 'Friend Of The Devil', and a sprawling 17 minute opus called 'Arabia' - "cos there was that Gulf War thing going on at the time..."

Fans of either party (and of banjo and mandolin-based music in particular) will love it: casual moviegoers and record-buyers, possibly less so. Nonetheless, a pleasing enough eulogy for Mr Garcia (who died in 1995).

I wouldn't call myself a Deadhead but I'm a big fan of the Grateful Dead. I enjoyed watching "Grateful Dawg" but I'm too sure if non-Dead fans would have much interest in this movie. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman make great music together and there's a lot of it in "Grateful Dawg". The musical friendship is really cool to watch and listen to. Garcia and Grisman and two cool guys and they tell their story is a nice, causal way. I've seen this movie a couple of times now (I bought a used copy at my library's book sale quite a while ago now.) but I never got around to buying any of their collaboration albums. I'm sure that those albums are good. But even after watching "Grateful Dawg" this afternoon, I still don't think I'll be buying any of their CDs. That said, I enjoyed watching the movie again.

You can say that it's not great documentary filmmaking, however, the two men that this film is about are. Being a young dead-head, I never had the opportunity to go west and experience the Grisman - Garcia energy live and first hand. This film allows me to explore an area that I have always held close to my heart. I could always feel the love and joy of music these two had together in the recordings. With the home movies and live footage that is shown, you can actually see it. Seeing this side of Jerry completely relaxed and hanging out, conjers up memories of why I loved his music so much in the first place. It brought back that feeling that motivates the dead head to chase tickets, go to shows many nights in a row, and feel that powerful energy that only Jerry could convey. He may not be the best vocalist, but he always gave it all he had by putting every ounce of his love for music in his music and that is what matters. I recommend this film to anyone who wants to learn about traditional american music or just see a rock icon show his softer side.