Every "Dawg" has his day. In this case, it was night, Friday night.
The David Grisman Quintet grooved through town and filled Kingsbury Hall with an exciting set of handmade music. The 21/2-hour concert was filled with acoustic music from the rollicking bass fiddle lines to the triple-strummed mandolins.The quintet - David "Dawg" Grisman on mandolin, guitarist Enrique Coria, bassist James Kerwin, flutist Matt Eakle and fiddle player/percussionist/mando-linist Joe Cravin - proved as they have for more than 10 years together (the band was actually formed more than 20 years ago, but this particular lineup is 10 years old) that loud amplified and distorted music only gets in the way with the art.
The mixed-aged audience, which nearly filled the hall, were treated to bits and pieces of jazz, bluegrass, Latin shuffles and traditional Jewish melodies. And to make the evening more interesting, there were quite the number of dancing Deadheads in the audience latching on the the Gris-man/Jerry Garcia relationship. (Garcia was a close friend of Grisman and the two recorded two albums as a duo, and were featured in the bluegrass band Old and In the Way).
There was the funky Latin slide of "Chili Dawg," the folky jam of "Telluride" and the syncopated mosey of "Blue Midnight" that was mixed with the mystical "Dawgma-tism" and the psychedelic, acid-jazz, space-jam of "Free Dawg Night" which was craftily segued into "Dawgnation."
Other tunes the band plucked around included "Grateful Dawg" from the "Garcia/Grisman" album, the old-world sound of "Shalom Aleichem," "Fanny Hill," which was dedicated to Grisman's mentor - the late Bill Monroe - and the provocative "Gypsy Night."
Although the band belonged to Grisman - at one point he said, "They named the band after me, so I couldn't leave" - its members took over the spotlight during some enriching solos in the first encore.
Coria's hypnotic guitar playing brought a rousing ovation from the crowd as did Kerwin's head-bobbing string plucking.
During each tune, Eakle would huff away at atmospheric notes while Cravin either kept time with his bongos, chimes and shakers, or joined Grisman in a mandolin duet or highlighted the work with some violin.
The night wasn't void of humor, either. Right after the intermission, Cravin and Grisman fought a dynamic musical battle on their respective instruments (Cravin winged it on percussion). There weren't any gimmicks or visual tricks, and that's what the music is all about.
By the way, the concert was broadcast on the Internet. Some audience members thought Grisman was joking when he announced it. But it was true. It's a "Dawg's World" out there.