"This much-anticipated event brought hundreds of older fans and curious youngsters out of the woodwork to commune in a fantastic show at a great festival. So we did that DGQ reunion thing, not having played all together since 1979. Big crowd- they packed a ballroom at the Sheraton Tacoma with mostly geezers like us and a few curious youngsters and about a hundred tapers.
I know, it wasn't exactly the original band. We couldn't really do the original band because bassist Joe Carroll died in 1980 or 81. This band was actually sort of an idealized original band, though the group sure wouldn't be what it became without Joe and Bill. They both contributed so much in so many ways.
So it was Todd on bass and Mike on 2nd mando- Tony was there and in really good shape and playing beautifully, stoically putting up with thumb problems. It was hopeful. So there was very little baggage about who could play, who couldn't, etc. The tunes just rolled out of us, my parts just happened, like they're in the DNA now.
We just played down that first Kaliedoscope record, top to bottom, it worked like it was supposed to. People were calling out the next tune from the audience. I would guess that the high level of euphoria in the band was completely amplified by the audience. There wasn't that much separation between the stage stuff and the audience stuff. We were all on a big joy bus celebrating our work and the music. It was especially great for me because all feelings of musical inequality had vanished and and I felt free to express everything I used to struggle to get across back then, and was able to really use Dawg music, that fantastic setting for the fiddle, to the fullest.
David said in rehearsal, "Man, this band has gotten loud!" Of course he hasn't gotten any quieter! Dawg has lost none of the brilliant, unstoppable fire and drive he has always had, but the difference is, everyone else is big and fiery too.
Tony did his unmatcheable grace & power thing, but leavened with the subtle harmonic expansion which he has worked on for so long. Mike did the hardest thing, finding ways to thread through David's unbreakable and untameable rhythm fugues. Mike, as the most resouceful mandolinist in the world right now, is uniquely suited for that job, and created complementary textures to David which boggled the mind. Todd was his usual rock in the middle of a swirling sea of rthyhm. And the band did swirl. We put all our syncopated brains to work in there, with extended solos befitting our extended years. Sometimes it felt like getting caught in a brawl, or a tornado filled with large furniture but it was so exhilharating fighting your way through to the last bar. The Jon Cooper fiddle I recently aquired served well- I was able to carve long melodic trenches like a backhoe through the roil, or use it like a ribbon gun to stitch through everything, and of course the guys were always there to meet you on the one at the end. The textures were a lot richer, too, with more harmonic choices and a clearer sense of emotional arc through most of the tunes. I swear the audience was playing this stuff almost as much as we were- the energy in the room was pretty much all one.
The encores were really fun, we brought out the young inheritors, Chris Thile and Sara Watkins from Nickle Creek and unbroke the circle for a couple of tunes. The last tune had David's 10 year old son, Sam, debuting with the band on string bass while Todd went back to mandolin for a really emotional Dawg's Bull, dedicated to a fellow Taurean, Davids' late ex-girlfriend Janice Bain, who virtually supported the DGQ in its first 2 years (the group rehearsed a whole year in David's house before its first gig) and the Nicklers and everyone all just going at it full blast. Certainly one of the most joyful concerts I have ever played.
But the Newgrange pre-hiatus concert the next night came pretty close. Really emotional, everyone was playing like "these tunes won't get played for a while, so let's really do them". Tim was raring back and pulling out stuff that was amazing even for him. Again, the Nickel Creekers came out for a multiple encore-fest which turned into a wiggle party as Tim, Mike & Chris traded rococo mandolin fantasias ad ecstasium.
Who else was great at W-grass?
Tim & Darryl completely devastated me in their big main-room show, emotionally peeling everything away. I think it really helped my ability to play the later DGQ show. I was in tears practically their whole set.
And truly mind-boggling bluegrass from a revivified Nashville Bluegrass Band, with Mike Compton back in on absolutely slashing Monroe-inspired mandolin, and Dennis Crouch just putting in in the pocket on the bass. The rest of the guys seemed woken right up. Stuart picked up the gauntlet and played some of the greatest bluegrass fiddle ever imagined, much less played. Five totally individuated characters creating a totally original and totally buegrass sound. Absolutely cannot beat it! Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum were so great and also got the ubiquitous Chris up to play & dance. Nickle Creek was, of course brilliant, focused, and one of the few bands deeply exploring tonal texture within the BG tradition.
And the jamming... Have to say a word about the jamming. The "fester in a box" thing was cool, because you could see everyone. We would go floor by floor in the elevator and get a different tune every time the door opened. It was great because everyone seemed to be able to find their own level of jams, from really hot to beginning. I think that's the great strength of this music, that most of the fans play the music too so they're really knowledgeable and even if they're opinionated, it's based on something real. I realize all that noise 24 hours a day might get to some people but I always have my earplugs with me anyway so it's not a problem for me.
Speaking of jams, the mandolin dudes couldn't contain themselves after the DGQ show and Chris, David, Tom Rozum, and Mike Marshall played for at least another hour backstage. The best moment for me was when David introduced an 11 year old Jake Jolliff to Chris, and this kid proceeds to tear up Salt Creek in vintage early Chris Thile style. Chris' eyes bugged out and he was all smiles for the whole tune as they all traded hot licks. These kids today!
Also noteworthy was the debut of John Riechmann's terrific new group, the Jaybirds, featuring Greg Spatz and Jim Nunally as standouts."
Photo by jon seivert, who has been documenting this since the beginning. (Jon's website.)
David Grisman Quintet 25 year reunion at Wintergrass 2001