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Traveling for Less
New Book Discounts
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Grateful Dawg
Grateful Dawg êêê MPAA rating
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Reviewed by Shelley Cameron
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Truckin'
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Director: Gillian Grisman
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A musical feast for fans of Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, the Grateful Dawg, and all other varieties of deadhead. Amid the bits of clowning around and a very few serious moments, this documentary about Jerry and David is mostly lots of full length, unedited, delightful cuts from recording sessions and concerts. The natural pairing of these two is truly a musical friendship and what we see is the two of them in the evolutionary process of making music. Made by Grisman's daughter, Gillian Grisman, it is plainly a loving tribute.
There is little talk and evidently little need for it as they record most everything they play as opposed to the more traditional method of much rehearsal and then finally getting it on tape. Guitarist Jerry Garcia's legendary laid-back style is here on film for all to see. I felt I wanted to know more about Garcia the man but in the end it is pretty clear that what you see is who he is. The physical similarity between Jerry & David is so striking that they look like brothers. Seeing some stills of both in much younger years in the early 1960's seems to reveal that perhaps they grew to look alike out of the harmony in their music.
Mandolinist David Grisman background and personal style is more structured and provides the ying to Garcia's yang that together make this duo work. One of the band members remarks that Jerry loosened David up and David tightened Jerry up. In fact everybody here seems pretty relaxed and the entire film is punctuated by many, many big grins all around. The commentary about the two men comes from insiders around the band rather than from Garcia and Grisman themselves. They simply make music. Pure pleasure to watch.
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