# General Mandolin Topics > Mandolin Cafe News Discussions >  Happy 70th Birthday, David Grisman

## NewsFetcher

The Mandolin Cafe has posted the following news release:
Happy 70th Birthday, David Grisman

Friends of David Grisman have gathered on this day to wish him a very happy 70th birthday, March 23, 2015!



---------------------------

NOTE: You may use your board membership to comment on news articles published by the Mandolin Cafe. Your comments will appear here and also will be appended to the end of the news article for public viewing. Standard board membership posting guidelines apply.

----------

Ed Goist, 

GreenMTBoy, 

Perry Babasin

----------


## zebozi

Congrats DAWG! We, Brazilian fans, wish you many blessings and prosperity, with much health and happiness, and especially, want you to keep touching our hearts with your outstanding talent for more 70 years!

----------


## journeybear

I'd like to offer my birthday wishes to one of the most influential musicians in modern acoustic music history, particularly where the mandolin is concerned. It is absolutely essential that a musician with the talent, foresight, and innovative genius embodied by David Grisman should have been brought to life in this world and his creativity have been allowed to flourish. So many of us have benefited from his musical trailblazing there is no telling where we would have been if this had not  come to pass. 

My personal connections to the man other than through the music are rather limited. The last couple of holiday seasons I have been fortunate enough to have done some jamming and even shared a couple of gigs with Andy Reiner, who is a good friend and former roommate of Sam Grisman. A tenuous connection, to be sure, which pales in comparison to others, but I'm grateful for it. I did meet Dawg once, in the performers' area at Winterhawk (now Grey Fox), one year while I was there as a member of the press. One evening at dinner time a few musicians were jamming just to the side of the picnic tables, and I wandered over because it sounded pretty good. I was astonished t see David Grisman in the group, playing absolutely brilliantly (of course), but not overwhelming the other pickers. He was good-naturedly chopping while others took their turns, taking his turn when it came up, then going back to a supporting role, all the while beaming a mischievous grin. Typical jamming etiquette, practiced perfectly by someone who probably could have blown everyone away, but knew how best to proceed so everyone could enjoy themselves. A perfect example of how it's done. I wish I'd had my mandolin with me!

I have just one other story worth telling - not that mine is on the same level as those above, nor surely to follow, but it may be entertaining. I posted this recently on a thread about "Old And In The Way," and this is how I came to hear the first DGQ album. In the winter of 1977-1978 I was living in Berkeley, and went to see the Jerry Garcia Band for the first and only time at some small club. They took a long time to come out for the first set and then took a long break between sets. During the down time the sound guy played the first David Grisman Quintet album - just-released - and with all that time, I got to hear it all the way through nearly twice. I had never heard it before, though I must have read about it somewhere, because I knew what it was. I liked the JGB alright - some of it seemed a bit lopey and loopy, and overall not as adventurous as Grateful Dead - but that Dawg music took me for a ride and really stuck with me. I was well aware of Grisman from his two songs on "American Beauty" and the OAITW album, but this was a whole 'nuther sum'thin' that wasn't no part of nothin' else I'd ever heard before. It really opened my mind to the possibilities of the mandolin.  :Mandosmiley: 

And I'll just add in closing I'm grateful for all Dawg has dome with and for the mandolin ever since. I still pay tribute to him nearly every time I play with my current band, The Love Lane Gang, as we do "Minor Swing," which I learned from him all those years ago. My first band, Tin Can Alley, started up just a year or so after that fateful night in Berkeley, did it too, and also "EMD" - though we certainly didn't do it with the savoir faire and panache of the DGQ. Well, really, whoever could? That was an extraordinary band, befitting the extraordinary talents of its leader. 

Thank you, David Grisman. for your gifts of music and mandolin consciousness. Happy Birthday, and many, many more.  :Mandosmiley: 

journeybear aka Steve Gibson

----------

Marty Jacobson

----------


## MandoTag

I had the amazing pleasure of enjoying Del & Dawg at ISIS in Asheville last night...it truly was a treat! They tore it up for 45 or so minutes then brought Bobby Hicks out for the remainder. What a night! I finally picked up the new Dawg books at the merch table, which he happily signed and personalized. What a mensch! An all around classy, yet hilarious, man. Happy birthday Dawg!

----------


## Oliver A.

Happy Birthday David! I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for taking that small wooden instrument from being relagated to a novelty tunes, hillbilly back porches and drunken back woods campfire sing-alongs and making it what it is today, _a decent living._
(apologies to Mel Brooks)

Seriously Dave, you've managed to unlock a whole new potential for this wonderful but often under rated instrument and expanded it's appeal across a much wider audience. That is some accomplishment.

Thanks for the wonderful music that has made all of our lives richer.

Oliver Apitius

----------


## darrylicshon

Happy Birthday Dawg

----------


## zedmando

Happy Birthday...

----------


## Dagger Gordon

Happy Birthday from me. No-one has done more for the mandolin than Grisman (although Scott Tichenor certainly deserves a mention!) and I love his music.

I've been listening to The Living Room Sessions in the car a lot lately. Effortless playing, beautiful tone, great swinging music.

Have a great day and thanks for all you have done.

----------


## Robert Moreau

Happy birthday David! Thank you for your incredible contribution to the mando-playing universe! May you have many healthy and happy years ahead!

----------


## Michael Lewis

David, Happy Birthday and welcome to the 70s.  Thank you for your gracious gesture of allowing me access to your Loar at Strawberry, and thanks to Larry Cummings for facilitating that.

----------


## Jordan Ramsey

Happy Birthday, Dawg!!!  It's truly been a dream come true to get to know you and spend some time with you over the past few years, thank you for being so open and generous.  A big thank you also to Scott T. for putting this together, really well done!  I was tearful at the end, just a wonderful collection of thoughts about Mr. Dawg in one place (nice Rolodex!).  I'm nowhere near as eloquent as some of the masterful players (and writers!!!) above, so, just like in my playing... I'll steal some licks from Jethro:

This ol' mandolin's been good to me, it got me out of Tennessee (New Jersey? :Smile:  )
I've gone from rags to riches many times
Just a pickin' and a grinnin'... even done a little sinnin'
I've made big money, I've played for nickels and for dimes
And when I put it in the case, and head for my last resting place
Here's what I want my epitaph to say:

"Well, he wasn't funny, and he couldn't sing.  
He didn't prove a doggone thing.
But, boy, that SOB could really play!"

Love you Dawg, all the best!

----------


## Ryk Loske

Happy Birthday David.  Many thanks for all the wonderful music you've created ... you've encouraged .... and very importantly ... the music you're preserving.
All the best,
Ryk

----------


## jmagill

It's around 1977 and the first DGQ album had just come out. A lot of us Chapel Hill musicians had gathered at the 'Pleasure Palace,' a kind of group home/crash pad for many of the area's hottest pickers. We all found seats with our stimulants of choice and settled back as Tony Williamson slowly and reverently placed the album on the turntable. From the first droning notes of "E.M.D." to the final celestial notes of "Dawg's Rag" we were spellbound in absolute silence. A mere clearing of the throat brought a dozen baleful glares down on the perpetrator. We were in Church, and the gospel of Dawg washed us clean, pointing out a new direction that many of us would follow for decades. 

A few years later, when I was gigging full-time and looking for a top-quality mandolin, I ordered a new Monteleone partly because I wanted something different than a Gibson, but also because Grisman played one. I took Monteleone's letterhead to a t-shirt vendor friend and had a handful of t-shirts made with his logo on it, and sent one to Monteleone. When I visited John in his shop on Long Island, he said he had given the shirt away – to David Grisman. 

Soon after, back in Chapel Hill, the DGQ were to play a double bill with the John Ethridge Trio, featuring Martin Taylor and Stephane Grappelli, and I wore my Monteleone t-shirt to the show. A roadie saw it and invited me backstage, where I got to hang with some of the greatest pickers on the planet: Grisman, Grappelli, Taylor, Marshall, Anger, O'Connor, Ethridge on a night I still vividly remember 30 years later.

From his many seminal recordings and unforgettable performances, to Mandolin World News – still the greatest mandolin resource ever published (charter subscriber here, got every issue), to his consistent championing of young talent and obscure old masters, is there anyone since Bill Monroe who has done more for the mandolin?

By now, I've gotten to know Darol Anger and Mike Marshall much better from their numerous appearances on staff at the Swannanoa Gathering, and I keep hoping that I could coax the Dawg east some summer, but even if it never happens, his influence continues to be felt in much of my musical life and in the Gathering's programming. 

Thanks, David, for all you've done for me, for the world of acoustic music, and for the wonderful little instrument we all love. 

Happy Birthday!!!

----------

Dagger Gordon, 

journeybear, 

Mike Black

----------


## Bob Clark

Happy Birthday Mr. Grisman!  Your music sure means a lot to all of us and so many more.  

Best wishes,

Bob

----------


## AlanN

Happy Birthday, David. You've given this pup loads of joy with your music.

How many dawg years is 70?

----------


## Bigtuna

Happy Birthday Dawg! Your music has been the sound track to my life, a style for every occasion.

----------

Glassweb

----------


## diptanshu

happy birthday david! it was wonderful meeting you at the symposium!

----------


## Mark Wilson

Happy Birthday David!  You are my mandolin hero.  Thanks for all the great music

----------


## Timmando1

"Birthday "...a day marking the beginning of something...the beginning of a life that soon lead to the beginning of new mando sounds. As a best friend told me nearing the end of his life..."go play a Dawg tune"
Happy Birthday David!

----------


## Budrow

I was in college in the early 1970's at Middle Tennessee State and was watching PBS and expecting to see Bill Monroe, but this group filled in for the taping and it was the beginning of Mule Skinner. I was hooked and later got a VHS of the show. Happy Birthday Dawg.

----------


## Mike Black

Happy birthday Dawg!  Thanks for being the catalyst of this wonderful mandolin obsession that I have.   :Mandosmiley:

----------


## mvlh

Happy Birthday David! While we had not the pleasure of meeting & rapping, our paths did cross occasionally out at Dead nights at Nickie's on Haight St. I have come to appreciate the mandolin much more fully as a result of our long influence in GD music of course, and Old and In the Way, and I really loved your column in Guitar Player which was always informative, helpful in many ways other than just toward mandolin but also musicianship. So have a great one, many more, and please keep on pickin'!

----------


## UsuallyPickin

Happy Birthday Mr. David Grisman........ I hope you and Sam get to pick .... R/

----------


## John Duncan

Happy Birthday David Grisman! Thank you for all the music.

----------


## AlanN

In further thought, we should be giving you presents, because of all the presents you have given the world:

- the awareness of people like Oscar Aleman, Svend Asmussen, Dave Apollon, Tiny Moore. Speaking for myself, I never would have heard of these musicians without you
- 9th chords on the mandolin
- The tunes

----------


## Don Grieser

Happy Birthday, Dawg! Thanks for inspiring all of us. I think you have the most lyrical and expressive tremolo I have ever heard. 

A few years back I posted an ad in the classifieds here for late 20s mandocello. Among all the replies was one signed Dawg. I thought someone was having some fun with me so I wrote back asking, "Are you really THE Dawg?" and he replied, "Yes, I'm afraid so Don" and it was signed David Dawg Grisman. Easiest sale I ever made and his check had pictures of dogs on it too. I still smile when I think about that.

----------

journeybear, 

Paul Statman

----------


## KyleG_MandolinMuse

Happy Birthday Dawg. Without a doubt, the single greatest influence on my mandolin playing and musical sensibilities.

----------

Paul Statman

----------


## sully542

I started bought my first mandolin in the mid 70's because I listened to you play with the dead. I stopped for a long time but picked it up about again 8 years ago.
  I feel I owe you many happy returns. Be safe, be well, be blessed.
Happy Birthday.

----------


## Glennly

THE reason I picked up the mandolin in the first place.  Happy birthday, and I hope yo keep making music for a long, long time

----------


## TEvans

Dawg.  Your mandolin playing is inspiring to all of us.  And your sense of humor and zeal for life can be easily seen in the way you put yourself out there with no fear of breaking down walls.

Thanks for your genre bending playing, and bringing that mandolin into so many of our lives.  You're awesome.

----------


## Daniel Nestlerode

Happy Birthday David!  And many happy returns of the day as well.
I have benefited from and been inspired by your playing.  Two Soldiers was the first tune I learned on the mandolin.  I was able to get to the Symposium in 2005 and 2006, and I credit those weeks of instruction as the catalysts that made me a proper musician.

Thank you very much!
Daniel

----------


## ajpete

Happy Birthday, many happy returns from Berlin!
I probably wouldn't play this wonderful instrument if it wasn't for your inspiration.
All the best
Pete :Mandosmiley:

----------


## barry

July 22, 1994,  I took my girlfriend (now wife) to the airport to catch a flight for the '94 Chicago Dead shows.  Since I had a local obligations and could not go with her, I went to the Variety Playhouse to see David Grisman as a "consolation prize".  I figured, "Well, he played with Jerry Garcia before, and I own the Garcia/Grisman album, it can't be bad."

Needless to say, it blew my mind.  I went up to the foot of the stage.  Watching him shake his head from side to side as he furiously coaxed an undulating groove out of that little instrument, all I could think was, "I've got to have one of those!"

Thank you Dawg for what will be a lifetime of enjoyment.  

However, you probably do owe my wife an apology for all those Calton cases she is constantly tripping over.

Best,

Barry

----------


## wreded

Mr Grisman,
Thank you for joy you've brought all of us in this mandolin journey.  I've only seen you once, at Big Mountain Ski Resort in Montana, but I've listened to your music almost everyday.

Happy Birthday!!!  And Many More!!

Dave

----------


## Marc Berman

Happy Birthday David Grisman. Thanks for all the music!

----------


## Perry

Happy Birthday Dawg! And thank you for all the great music...a band I'm part of, The Flying Jalapenos once opened for David's bluegrass band at B.B. King's. Normally we plugged in but I convinced the band to play into mics.....twas the influence of the Dawg....

Great Tim O tribute above!

Perry

----------


## Glassweb

Butthead: "uh... it's who's birthday? oh! David Grisman? uh... he's pretty cool... uh, i think... uh hunh-heh-hunh-hunh!"

Beavis: "yeah! he's a dog... henh-henh... and he doesn't suck... hehn- hehn!"

----------


## Steve Lavelle

Happy Birthday Dawg!  You've been a huge influence on my meager mandolin skills, but I also want to applaud and encourage all your work at Acoustic Disc. Thanks for recording all the great artists, and thanks for spending a minute at Floydfest to sign a disc and ask me about my mandolin. You are a class act.

----------


## erico

When I heard your mandolin in Not For Kids Only, I told myself that's how I want to play. So I put down my guitar, picked up a mandolin, and never looked back. Happy Birthday, see you in June. E

----------


## J.Sloan

Happy Birthday "Dawg" !!

----------


## CES

Happy Birthday, Dawg! Thanks for the music, and the amazingly cool way you represent it!! Much respect!!

----------


## Nashville

Met him just once back in '79 or '80. Saw DGQ in concert in Missoula, Montana and Mark O'Connor had just replaced Tony Rice on guitar. Concert was amazing of course, mind blowing. My best friend and I went backstage to meet with David Grisman. I was speechless and could barely utter a word since my universe had just shifted. And the first thing my friend asked him was "Are you and Jerry still playing together?"

Grisman's mood suddenly changed to a bit angry and he replied, "That #$#!@$$%#%, he owes me $5000 bucks and hasn't paid it back..." and he launched into a little rant about Jerry Garcia. Wasn't quite what we expected. But once he vented a bit then we talked a little mandolin music. 

I am so thankful for everything he has done and every note he has played. Long live the Dawg!

----------


## Mandophile

Happy Birthday David,
 For us, it all started decades ago with Rudy Cipolla, and way before that, with your youthful love for playing at Italian weddings! It's good to know that you've got the rootsy thing going on and that you've shared so much of it with all of us. Thank you for your lifetime of devotion to the mandolin, and your profound appreciation for the repertoire by giving it your own special flourish. 
   Best to you and Tracy, 
         from that Sicilian girl, Sheri Mignano Crawford  
*photo from Rudy tribute--with the best of the best. Thank you for inviting me to play on the stage.

----------


## NursingDaBlues

Happy Birthday, Dawg! You've been the greatest influence on me and my mando buddies to make these beautiful instruments sing in ways that non-mando people could not believe possible.

----------


## grassrootphilosopher

Yeah, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY David Grisman! And many happy returns of the day. 

It was in the mid 80ies when I got turned on to your music by my jazz loving cousin. It was Acousticity (out of print?). That was before I had even started to play guitar (had not even thought about playing the mandolin). I´ve come a long way and David Grisman´s music has been a trusted companion. From Muleskinner, Old & In The Way, via  the original David Grisman Quintet record, Dawg Grass/Dawg Jazz to beautiful chamber music like Tone Poems, Tone Poets, Traversata (Beppe Gambetta & Carlo Aonzo), it´s been all good.

Cheers

----------


## Charley wild

Happy Birthday, David! What an amazing journey you have had, please continue!

----------

Paul Statman

----------


## mmukav

:Mandosmiley:  Happy Birthday to you, David. You have inspired me to play an instrument that is both challenging and inspirational. May you have many more Dawg, and "pick on"!

----------

Paul Statman

----------


## Pete Braccio

Happy Birthday, David!

It has always amazed me how some people act as catalysts. You have yourself to be one over and over again. How your path crossed early on with Sam Bush, Jody Stecher, Andy Statman, and Ralph Rinzer is amazing enough, but you also passed by a very young Don Stiernberg on the way to a lesson with Jethro. You were able to see what Mike Marshall had to offer when he showed up from Florida. You gave Ronnie McCoury his instrumental voice. The list goes on and on.

You have a truly significant effect on acoustic music even beyond the amazing music that you yourself have played. And thanks for that can not be expressed in words.

See you in June.

Pete

----------

Paul Statman

----------


## desertnight

I'll never forget the adrenaline rush I got the first time I put the needle to vinyl and EMD. The bass and mandolin groove grabbed me by the shirt and those first notes lifted me. (You all know the ones I mean!) A high school kid transformed.  The Dawg's music has continued to inspire me to this day with his  powerful tone, drive and timing, and compositions and improvisation and subtle beauty. 

The Dawg has taken us all to new places and spawned  generations of musicians  to push their boundaries to their greatest abilities and to discover and develop their own original voices in acoustic music and beyond. 

Thanks Dawg!

The Hard Road Trio
Tim May and Steve Smith

----------

Paul Statman

----------


## Daniel Vance

Happy Birthday David! It was your music with Jerry Garcia that introduced me to the wonders of the Mandolin. So thanks and here is to another amazing year.

----------


## DSDarr

Happy Birthday Dawg!

I remember to this day when I first heard Dawg Music. It was in the early summer of 1979, and I had just turned 22 years old and finished college. I was moving  from the Missouri Ozarks, where I grew up, to Seattle. On the multi-week road trip there, a high school friend of mine turned me on to "Hot Dawg" and my life (musical and otherwise) was never the same after that introduction. I was a fan of bluegrass and roots rock (the Dead, Allman Bros, etc) but at that point I'd never really gotten into jazz or Latin music; certainly not swing or bossa. Thanks to that introduction I got to know the music of Django, Stephane, Jobim, Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Mark O'Connor, Jethro Burns and eventually Jacob do Bandolim, Chris Thile, Don Stiernberg, many of the jazz greats and so many, many more. I got a mandolin, and then a second mandolin, and then an octave mandolin, and yet another mandolin (a slippery slope as we know!) and playing mando and continuing to learn about music is now one of my primary activities.

Thanks again and Happy Birthday! David in Seattle

----------


## Bill Slovin

Happy Birthday Dawg!!  You've been such an inspiration to my musical journey.  Besides being the reason why I even picked up the mandolin, your recordings and your label led me to Choro, all sorts of acoustic Jazz, classical music on the mandolin, and so many more players and styles that I would never have known about.  

I'm forever grateful for you awesome contribution to the music world.  One day I hope to make it out to Santa Cruz for the Symposium.

--Bill Slovin

----------


## Cremona5

Happy Birthday David! Thanks for a ton of great music, old instrument chat and the times you've said, "Here, play this!"

Drew

----------


## Philippe Bony

Happy birthday Mr. David Grisman! I heard (listened thousand times!) Muleskinner first, then Old & In The Way, but... your music really changed my life, back in 1977...
 :Cool:

----------


## Jeff Richards

Mr. Grisman, Happy Birthday from someone who met you for only a few minutes in Boulder after a show, but who was struck by your generosity even during that very brief time .  Thank you for the music and most of all for being such a great example of humanity.

Peace and the very best wishes to you Dawg!

----------


## Toni Schula

Happy Birthday David from Vienna Austria.

----------


## Jeff Oxley

Happiest of birthdays Dawg...and thanks for signing my mando at Floyd fest there 3 or 4 years ago.  You're a true treasure.

----------


## DHopkins

Happy birthday. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.

----------


## Clement Barrera-Ng

Happy Birthday David! 

Meeting you was the single biggest highlight for me last year when I attended the Mandolin Symposium for the first time. You are just such an open, jovial, and knowledgeable person who always have time for everyone, and eager to talk shop. You even passed around Crusher to all of us in your ensemble to pick on. Looking around the room, I know that was a day few of us would ever forget.  Thanks for sharing your talent, your music and your passion with all of us.

----------


## Londy

Happy birthday you ole dawg! Thank you for changing the world to a better place.

----------


## Jackgaryk

Happy Birthday Dawg.

----------


## Gravensteinrhonda

Happy Birthday David!
In appreciation of your mandolin music, scholarship, teaching and advocacy for MAS- Best birthday wishes!
From me, and all my mandolin family instruments,
Rhonda

----------


## bones12

Happy 70th Birthday David Grisman

From the first time I dropped my pizza slice on my lap hearing the elegant tones of Hot Dawg in 1977 in Kalamazoo to the present when I am still in awe over your Acoustic Disc sonic refuge, you have always been our champion of tone, history and the future.   The mandolin owes you a big birthday thanks.   Doug in Vermont

----------


## chasray

It was an honor to see David Grisman in concert earlier this year in Nashville. What a talent! Happy Birthday!

----------


## Marcus CA

The only birthday present that I can offer on this joyous occasion is thanks.  Thanks for releasing the peach album that took music where no music had gone before, with mandolins along for the ride.  Thanks for consistently playing mandolin so creatively and expressively.  It's not just what you play; it's how you play it.  Thanks for spending time putting together and teaching at the Mandolin Symposium.  (I hope to return this year or next.)  Thanks for showing that old dawgs actually do have new tricks.  Here's to many more of all of the above!

----------


## BradKlein

Another birthday greeting, Dawg. We haven't met, but I've enjoyed many shows. And as a former director at NPR for shows including All Things Considered and others - I can say with authority that NPR News would never have sounded the same without the countless bits of Dawg music between stories. Just so perfect, so very often!

All the best, Brad

PS And, 'well done' Scott T. A great tribute to a great player.

----------


## banjoboy

Happy Birthday David

----------


## Django Fret

Happy Birthday, Mr. Grisman and thank you for taking the mandolin to such a wonderful new place.

----------


## Gibson John

Happy Birthday David, I love playing my two mandolins I got from you.

John

----------


## dhmando

David, 
Happy 70th birthday!
There are musicians that work within a framework of a certain genre of music, and then there are artist that amalgamate everything they have heard to create an entirely new music. You, my friend are that kind of musical genius!
I first heard of you from Red Allen and his boys, Harley and Neal. You had produced a landmark album on Folkways Records, "Red Allen, Frank Wakefield and the Kentuckians", you were well respected and it was great! 
Every time I heard your work I was inspired! 
David, you have been so gracious, and incouraging to so many young, aspiring mandolin players though the years, including me! One of my favorite memories was hanging out with you and the Quintet at the Rainbow Music Hall, playing "Stompin' At Decca" on your Fern for Stephane Grappelli!
Thanks for your example of excellence in creating new music while honoring the old masters and traditions and at the same time, bringing in a new generation of fans for acoustic music!
I love you Dawg!
Sincerely,
David Harvey

----------

Glassweb

----------


## Dave Greenspoon

Happy birthday to you!

----------


## Denny Gies

One more Happy Birthday dawg.  You have continued to be an inspiration for my mandolin playing.  Hope you have 70 more.

----------


## Galileo

Happy birthday, Dawg. Thanks for all of your contributions. I still remember hearing the first quintet album and thinking how great this is.

Robert

----------


## JEStanek

David is an inspiration for sure.  Thanks for all you have given us and the music that keeps on going.

Jamie

----------


## bobby bill

Happy Birthday Mr. Grisman.  For better or worse, you are the primary reason I play mandolin today.  And I have to say, as much as I love your music, the bigger influence may be in education - introducing me to the serious side of Jethro, Jacob, Tiny, Cipolla, Apollon, and on and on.

Thank you.

----------


## David Surette

I will join with so many pickers in wishing the Dawg Happy Birthday. Like so many of us, DG was the reason I started to pick up the mandolin, and his music has remained inspirational over the years. I will pick a little Happy Birthday Bill Monroe today in his honor!

----------


## Mark Levesque

Happy Birthday!  Thank you for all the beautiful recordings, historic reissues and for all the inspiration to play.

----------


## Isaac Revard

Thanks for all you've created Dawg! Happy birthday!

----------


## roberto

Feliz cumpleaños, señor Grisman. You're a living legend. Cheers from Spain.

----------


## george cole

Dear Dawg,
Getting to play music with you in the new David Grisman Sextet is the highest honor a guitar picker could ever have. Playing Dawg music whether on a stage, hotel room or around a dining room table is the most fun i have ever had playing music!
Sheila, Val and myself treasure our time with you and look forward to much more!
Happy Birthday with love from all of us,
George Cole

----------


## Phil-D

Dawg gone it, another birthday!  Many more from one Jersey guy to another.

----------


## Cheryl Watson

Happy Birthday, David!

----------


## domradave

I remember standing outside the Bottom Line in New York City before one of your concerts.  You signed my copy of Mandolin World News with your picture on the cover, you signed my book that went along with the Dawg Mandolin series from Homespun, and you signed my copy of Quintet '80 which already had the signature of John Monteleone.  What else can I say?
Happy Birthday!

----------


## mtm

... I had to put some DGQ on after seeing it's Dawg's birthday...  just like the first time (shakes head in awe)

----------


## John Soper

Happy Birthday to the man whose music really opened my eyes to what a mandolin could do for the first time, many years ago.

----------


## Bob Andress

Happy birthday, to the reason I pick.  All my best, David.

----------


## mountain dawg

Happy birthday David and thank you so vary much for the great music you have shared with the world and inspired and help all the young musicians that have been influenced by you an set off on their own paths to great career in music that must be greatly rewarding for you. Thank you also for all the fantastic concerts that I have greatly enjoyed. James

----------


## goose 2

Happy Birthday David Grisman.  I cannot begin to express my appreciation of your music.  I am mesmerized by your picking. I'll often listen to a loop of one of your phrases completely captivated by the tone, the timing, texture, and coolness of it.  You seem to do every time you strike a string. As a picker and a listener I want to tell you that you have made my life much richer! Thank you so very much.

----------


## Skip Kelley

Happy birthday! Dawg, thanks for the many years of wonderful music! You have made the mandolin world a better place! Thanks and God bless you!

----------


## tree

Happy birthday!  My mom was born 22 years ahead of you and she says happy birthday too!

Thanks for inspiring me to keep working to get better - and for supplying me with so many ideas to mine, copy, and try to make my own!  The end of your first pass through I Am A Pilgrim (from Tone Poems), Dawggy Mtn Breakdown, that little bit of Beethovan you did on an album from the 80s (makes an awesome intro to Raw Hide), and your last pass through Kentucky Waltz with Doc, or better yet, the entirety of Doc and Dawg.  I wish you the best of health and continued pickin'!

----------


## morganpiper

Listening to Old and in the Way, was one of the turning points in my musical education, I no longer wanted to be a rock star, I just wanted to play the mandolin, thanks, and Happy Birthday!

----------


## AlanN

I like this, identifying the little dawg licks and snippets that caught our collective ears. 

One was on your solo on Temperance Reel, Tony Rice Rounder LP. When it goes to the Em on the 2nd half of the B part, the move to a brief A note on the E string just killed me. Did then, does now.

Off the same record, the kick to Don't Fall In Love With Me, Darlin'...

And the solo on Kissimmee Kid off OAITW, also the solo to Knockin' On Your Door

And the passage before the Bb on Opus 57 on the first Quintet record. 

And the solo after the head on Janice from Hot Dawg...and the twin on the head throughout.

And...

----------


## Lorenzo LaRue

It was in '78 that a 'friend', whom you know, played EMD, etc. for me :Grin:  :Mandosmiley:  my dog man!!  I had always been an acoustic kinda guy but guitar oriented.  OK, after that 90 degree turn, bought the first mando in '79.  Still goin' with that energy and the inspiration from all the friends that joined with you to carve out a large niche in the music world.some of those folks I've had personal education from, in some of the coolest stuff!  This is how you effected what I play (swing, Django). I am ever 'grateful' for you and the genre you've spawned.  Happy 70th and thanx, man

----------


## Tom Morse

I was working for a rock 'n roll newspaper in Maine called "Sweet Potato" back in the late seventies. Albums (vinyl) arrived almost daily from record companies hoping for printed reviews. Nobody there seemed to be interested in the growing stack of "bluegrass" albums over in the corner, so I grabbed them. One record in that stack was "The David Grisman Quintet." Three weeks later I bought my first mandolin and have been thankful to Mr. Grisman every day since! (And additionally grateful for "Old & In The Way," a complete set of Mandolin World News editions, and the ever-inspirational "Back To Back" with Tiny Moore and Jethro Burns.) Thanks Dawg! Happy Birthday!

----------


## mandroid

I was  in Eugene  Doing my belated GI Bill funded University Time in the 70s  when DG played there ..

----------


## dmoretti

I actually had the honor of attending Dawg's Birthday Bash in CA last week! It did not disappoint! To celebrate a lifetime of music with a true legend and pioneer of his own brand of music was nothing short of a dream come true. To call him a friend is the most important thing to me. I never would have thought the first time I listened to DGQ back in the 70's would get me to this point. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to design for David and his entire Acoustic Disc family. FM

----------

BradKlein

----------


## mandroid

Eric Clapton's 70th birthday just happened Too,  I Heard.

----------


## Jozef

Happy Birthday David!

----------


## tukun

My heartiest respect to Mandolin legend David Grisman.

----------


## journeybear

I do hope David Grisman has had the chance to read all of these testimonials and acknowledgments of what he and his music have done for us and so many others. I know he's busy making even more music for even more people to enjoy in many ways. And I'm sure he knows he has had this effect on a great many people, without being told so. But it would be nice for him to know how much he is appreciated, with guesswork eliminated. Artists, musicians, writers, all creative people do what they do for the sake of realizing their creativity, but there is also a desire to communicate involved, and part of the fulfillment of these creative impulses is the effect they have on others, how they resonate within others. This also helps them attune what they do, as feedback leads to understanding what works or doesn't work for others. I sincerely hope he's getting some idea of how he has affected so many people, even from these few posts.

----------


## BradKlein

Post 100 accomplished above!!! I'm sure word will get to the Dawg.

----------


## mandolin breeze

What beautiful tributes and well wishes to read of a truly beautiful person. Happy Big 70 Mr. Dawg & many more. I can never thank you adequately for your gift of "Dawg" to this world and to me personally. This gift will endure the ages and will continue to inspire, delight and awe forever . . . . . TO THE DAWG!!!!!!

----------


## Nick Royal

Almost time for David Grisman's 71st birthday!

Reading over the other comments, longer and shorter, I wanted to add about being at the Mandolin Symposium for
many of the 12 times, and when John Reischman was there (during Bill Monroe's 100th birthday year) he and David played
"the North Shore" by John, and it was really amazing!  Both mandolinists played with such feeling.

----------


## Mandolin Cafe

Another trip around the sun! Happy birthday, Dawg.

----------

DSDarr, 

oliverkollar, 

pops1

----------


## Mandolin Cafe

Giving this feature from seven years ago a bump. If you haven't read it, get a very large coffee and settle in. It's long.

Happy 70th Birthday, David Grisman

----------

BradKlein, 

journeybear, 

Ranald

----------


## Steve Mead

Happy Birthday David! As with so many others you were my first inspiration to play the mandolin, thank you!

----------


## Mia_white

happy birthday legend.

----------


## journeybear

> Giving this feature from seven years ago a bump. If you haven't read it, get a very large coffee and settle in. It's long.
> 
> Happy 70th Birthday, David Grisman


True that! Not about to repost my first post - says all I've got to say, by and large. 

Yeah, I'm staring down 70 myself, soon enough. But Happy 77th, to the one and only.  :Mandosmiley:

----------


## William Smith

Happy Dawg Day :Cool:

----------


## CES

Daaaaaaawwwwwggggggg! Happy Birthday!!

----------

