Deja Vu

I went to see Doc Watson and David Grisman in concert when they started a tour to promote their Doc & Dawg release. The show was at a venue with which Healdsburg Guitar Festival attendees should be quite familiar. At the time it was called the Luther Burbank Center, now it's called the Wells Fargo Center.

Great show. Doc, Jack Lawrence, and Grisman traded licks on traditional, bluegrass, folk tunes, and even touched ever so lightly on Jazz. They traded licks on EMD, which as I get older and more familiar with Grisman shows I notice is his signature tune.

Two hours of great music in a nice auditorium.

At the beginning of the evening I noticed a number of video cameras aimed at the stage, including one flying in from stage right on a boom. I figured they were filming, and sure enough an annoucement to that effect was made by Grisman. He also mentioed that the video would be availaibe in about a year.

So I made a mental note to pick on up when they came out. ...And promptly forgot for several years. About 3 years ago I came across it and dropped it into my Amazon.com wish list figuring some kind soul in my family would send it to me for Christmas or my birthday. Well as the years rolled by the list grew and the "Doc Watson and David Grisman In Concert" video rolled onto the second page and then fell to the bottom of the second page of my wish list. No one bought it for me.

Until this year when my friend Ken picked up for me as a birthday present. I had always told him I was at the taping of the video, but as I watched it (great footage BTW) I wasn't sure I was right. The stage seemed too small and close to the floor, the curtain wasn't right. And then I found myself trying to remember what year the show happened in. I knew I would be utterly unable to attach a month or date to it from memory.

Well, lucky for me, Vestapol put all that on the video. The credits at the end stated quite clearly, "Filmed March 21, 1998 at the Luther Burbank Center, Santa Rosa, CA" I wasn't going senile after all!

Interesting feeling as I watched it, which intensified once I was sure of the time and place. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing on March 21, 1998, and I did it again on March 28 and 29, 2008. I saw the same show twice almost exactly 10 years apart!

Great video BTW. Jack and Doc in top form, Grisman relaxed and enjoying himself. Lovely versions of "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz", "Kentucky Waltz", "EMD", "Sweet Georgia Brown", etc.

Daniel
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Relevant Pages

  • NBC: David Grisman last night
    ... The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience. ... American Music Band. ... The DGBX is his traditional old-timey sounding bluegrass band; ... Go see David Grisman if you can. ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
  • Re: Shhh #2
    ... > There are 2 guitars PLUS mandolin on Deep Elem Blues. ... David Grisman and David Nelson both play mandolin on this set. ... the best acoustic sets ever. ...
    (rec.music.gdead)