Grateful Dawg

Charting the friendship and musical kinship between David Grisman and Jerry Garcia, this low-key documentary reminds us that the pair were, as one acquaintance notes, "beards of a feather"--musicologists with a passion for unearthing old time traditional music, and sharing a love of bluegrass. From whaling ballads to children's music, Grisman and Garcia "played acoustic music on a very high level." Nearly two decades ago, they anticipated the success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack when they formed Old and In the Way, which introduced a generation of Deadheads to the joys of bluegrass. Directed by Grisman's daughter, Gillian, this documentary features the usual talking heads and priceless performance footage along with informal pickin' sessions and footage from the duo's 1980s reunion at the Mill Valley, CA Sweetwater Saloon after a more-than-a-decade-rift. Recommended. (K. Lee Benson)