Word: grisman
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Fortunately, Furthur isn't the only venue to slake this thirst. Many Deadheads are following some of the Dead's spiritual heirs, like the group Phish, the Dave Matthews Band or the H.O.R.D.E. tour. And there's new--or sorta new--Dead merchandise due soon and often: mandolinist David Grisman, who recorded several sessions with Garcia, plans to release a CD every August for the next few years featuring portions of those recordings. First up: a traditional folk album. In the late fall the BBC will air a special on the making of two of the Dead's best-loved...
Original compositions on this album tend to sound uneventful and sometimes unoriginal, and while it's admirable that Grisman and Rice included string versions of such diverse tunes as the Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grapelli jazz tune "Swing '42," and the perennial Italian wedding favorite "O Sole Mio," neither of these tunes have any relation to American folk music, nor do they sound particularly interesting performed on guitar and mandolin. Sometimes a jazz tune is just plain better when played by jazz musicians on traditional jazz instruments...
Tone Poems is a beautiful, generous album. Grisman and Rice have devoted themselves to preserving and documenting "the sounds of the great vintage guitars and mandolins." To that end, they each play 17 instruments, one for each of the album's tracks, with Rice on guitar and Grisman on mandolin. The care and affection for these instruments is evident in the lavish forty-page liner notes insert. Replete with more than 100 photographs, it is a mini-documentary on the craftsmanship and evolution of string instrument-manufacturing in this country. But all of this devotion takes the focus away from...
This music sparkles with clean, crisp lines, but doesn't bite. Though Grisman and Rice chose many traditional tunes, they've failed to invest them with a sense of rootedness. The songs do not seem connected to their cultural traditions, be it Appalachian string music, Irish jug band music or African-American blues. Even when they play a great tune, as in the traditional "Wildwood Flower," the solos are surprisingly tame to the point of boredom...
...Kudos to Grisman's initiative for starting his own acoustic music recording label, and for preserving and popularizing these viotage instruments, but neither of these accomplishments make Tone Poems any more poetic...