Grateful Dawg

I just wanted to say that this is a very nice film for fans of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. There's great music and a very nice portrayal of the long personal and musical friendship of the two great musicians. But great documentary filmmaking...it's not.

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).

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.

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.

A great simple movie about the side many Deadheads did not follow. I was so impressed with the music that I bought two new CD's today! Any music lover will truly appreciate two friends expressing themselves through their playing. I will see this movie again!