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It is challenging, sometimes pretty, but always dynamic and striving. That doesn't mean you'll like it. It is the point of impact made by a visionary musician and composer, David Griman, on generations of musicians to follow him and musicians yet to be.
To say simply that this is a great album, or a great bluegrass album, almost misses the point. It could be argued that the influence of this album is more profound today, over 30 years later, than it was on the music made immediately after it. The definition of "classic" in Webster's on-line dictionary is, "serving as a standard of excellence".
That's how far ahead of its time it was. However, if you care about acoustic music, whether it's folk, bluegrass, classical or jazz, and you are looking for a challenge, it is required listening. It is a node in the History of Music that changed the way other influential musicians thought, composed and played.
Not that the effects were immediately felt.
I just wish more albums were produced with his music This man needs to be shared with more people.
I needed the CD to replace my vinyl copy that I've had since the early 80's As a bluegrass, newgrass and Tony Rice fan - this is simply the best.
It is still beyond bluegrass, with jazzy and Latin overtones in parts, just a little closer to a "roots" sound than the albums after Hot Dawg. This is the original Dawg. Before the Latin beat, the South American guitarist, the flutes and the African drum.
This album more than any other opened the door to new ideas about acoustic music, making it okay for bluegrass musicians to play jazz, funk, or maybe even dabble a bit in classical. Jerry Garcia later joined in the fun by recording numerous dawg tunes.EMD (as Grisman explains, it was written for a bad movie about hot rods entitled Eat My Dust. Ricochet is a great little tune featuring 3 mandolins playing melody and harmony throughout. Minor Swing is a Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli tune done dawggy style.
This is the album that started it all - the whole Dawg Music phenomenon. Likewise many classical and jazz musicians have discovered the pure joy of playing more traditional forms of music upon discovering the genius of some of these artists. I would consider this album the Seargent Pepper of dawg music. As a result artists like Mark O'Connor, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Bela Fleck were later able to launch similar careers further expanding the boundaries of music.
16/16 is named after the time signature which is rarely used in mandolin compositions. Highly recommended. Stephane Grappelli gained widespread exposure in the US by touring and recording with the DGQ in 1979. he was embarrassed to be a part of such a juvenile project so he named it with the initials) is one hot tune offering ample opportunity for fast pickin and fiddlin.
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