Search - David Grisman :: Hot Dawg

A must for any music collection

Sheldon Orviss | 09/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first had a copy of "Hot Dawg" on 8 track many years ago. I later found an lp and will soon upgade to CD form. This is without question an ageless masterpiece. It doesn't matter if you enjoy Bluegrass or not, there is no denying passion in music. I do agree with one reviewer that it's difficult to categorize this as bluegrass. It is a fusion of several influences that meld together like nothing else. It's obvious with a listen or two that all the musicians/artist who contributed had a desire to produce something very special. This album grabbed me from the start. I read back then that David Grisman practiced his Mandolin eight hours a day, and it shows. Grismans' playing is flawless. Include this one in your music collection. It's fun, enegetic and alluring."

Great tunes, but not as coherent an album

frankp93 | Danbury, Connecticut United States | 01/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I remember sitting up until midnight to catch the "radio premier" of the Hot Dawg album on WRVR in New York - a lifetime ago it seems. Shortly after I saw them for the first time, sans Grappelli, at the Bottom Line, with an unknown Pierre Bensusan on his first American tour as the opening act.



After Bill Wolf set the bar so high for sheer sound with the previous album, the production on Hot Dawg still seems a little reverb-heavy with some uneven spots in the mix. My fantasy is to hear the tunes on Hot Dawg re-mastered to sound like the first Quintet album. I thought Rice's guitar lacked bottom and warmth - this was before the shocking disclosure that Tony had used an (gasp!) Ovation for some of the solo tracks. I still recall sniffing at those ads he did at the time for them.



Sound aside, "Dawg's Bull" is one of Grisman's arranging highpoints, the triple-mandolin voicings still shimmer. In retrospect, there are strong latin hints of things to come in the middle-samba blowing section of "16-16" as well as "Janice", one of Grisman's most concise and beautiful melodies. Along with the phrygian half-step 6/8 from one of Grisman's most expansive tunes, "Dawgology", there was a lot to chew on, compositionally. The playing was a very fresh sounding fusion of bluegrass pentatonicism with a good dose of swing vocabulary. Darol Anger's "On Broadway" quote from the Devlin' solo still sticks in my mind after all these years.



So what's the gripe? The first DGQ album had a balance and consistency that all true masterpieces have. Perhaps it's unfair to expect a followup to match it, but Hot Dawg always felt more like a great collection of tracks assembled over time rather than a well-conceived album. I could be completely wrong on both counts, and in this age of resequencing and repeating, the point's probably moot. But I guess that's why we all get to write our own reviews.











"

Dawg Music of the Highest Order

Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 06/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With a recording career that now extends more than thirty years, this is the David Grisman album that I return to most often. It features like-minded musicians Tony Rice (arguably the finest acoustic guitar player on the planet), violinist Darol Anger, and a variety of bassists including Todd Phillips, Eddie Gomez and Buell Neidlinger. The acoustic jazz--or "dawg" music as Grisman dubbed it--swings like Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. In fact, Grappelli plays violin on "Minor Swing" (a Grapelli/Reinhardt composition) and "16/16" (an original Grisman tune). The entire album swings from beginning to end. This is the place to begin your David Grisman collection. Powerful stuff! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"