# Music by Genre > Rock, Folk Rock, Roots Rock, Rockabilly >  David Grisman & John Sebastian Ridgefield Playhouse, CT 10/28/09

## Ronny Stecher

I went to the show last night and had a great time, with the mandolin being my new obsession there's no one I've heard that I'd rather share the room with than Mr.Grisman and he didn't let me down.

They say "blessings sometimes come in the form of tragedy" and that theorum was in play here as I'm half a dummy and got these tickets by accident.

I had 2nd Row seats for Steve Martin and he bailed on the NJ show finding out on the night of at the front door of the venue. I got an Email a couple days later for Mr. Grisman & Mr. Sebastion for the Ridgefield Playhouse and did a ticket search and up popped 2nd Row tix, I thought Wow, Karma, Bam, I'm in, I got the tix assuming they were in Ridgefield, NJ as I didn't sign-up for no out of state Email info. I was willing to give them away at one point and man am I glad that didn't happen. I reached out to multiple folks to join me and between work stories, week night, going to see the yankees, and blah, blah, blah, I wound up bringing Mom up to baby sit and took the wife (even tho this ain't her musical cup o' tea).

Well both the Mrs. & I had a great time. I plopped in Grisman & Garcia's Shady Grove along with Old And In The Way for the almost 2 hour rainy ride over to Conneticut's Ridgefield Playhouse. The night had a lot of possibilities as I had seen Sebastian play harp only on Hubert Sumlin's 77th Birthday Bash @ BB Kings in NYC and figured I get some Mando blues with John on harp while David sang most tunes, Wrong! Sadly David only sang solo for Shady Grove while John sang the majority of the tunes.

I was right with the blues aspect and concert prep choices as the ~1:40 minute show was blues laden with a very Shady Grove'ish feel. Very intimate with stories abound of how the met in '62 and were in college together. They talked of the Washington Square Park early days where they'd be hanging/playing on different sides together and apart, They talked of NYC's vibrant music scene. John talked of his 1st meeting of Mississippi John Hurt and how he showd him how to play ala Mr. Hurt (one of my alltime acoustic blues favorites/ I love the frolicing ragtime sound he developed), He gave a little example. Nice sharing of they're life's experiences. Hurt's Coffee Blue's line about "Lovin' Spoonful" was the origin of the band's name. Just as on Shady Grove the music is flawless, but the vocals are weathered slightly (great none the less), the same was eveident here with John's vocals at times showing the years.

The music was special and timeless, education watching them runs with David playing a variety of mandolins including a 4 string bandolin that John accompanied him with a guitar banjo. John played acoustic on most songs and harmonica on some a a couple times both. Great musicianship.

They played most of the 2007 I'm Satisfied, opening the the show with the title track and also included Deep Purple, John Henry, Dawg's Waltz, Coffee Blues, & Coconut Grove. They closed with mandolin versions of Lovin' Spoonfuls Daydream and Summer In The City and chatted with the folks in the lobby after the show where I got to show my appreciation for their work, Great show. Attending was a blessing indeed, For those interested here's some tour links and a couple pic's I took...

http://www.davidgrisman.com/tour.html

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