David Grisman

Though mandolinist David Grisman is counted among the most influential bluegrass musicians of all time, his influence is ironically in part due to his reluctance to play straight-ahead bluegrass. As a New York City-raised Jew, Grisman was an atypical country musician, and originally found success as part of the early 1960s folk revival scene. He later moved to San Francisco, along the way collaborating extensively with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. In 1975 he formed the genre-bending David Grisman Quartet, which served as a career springboard for a host of now-legendary musicians and combined bluegrass, folk, jazz, and several types of world music. In 1990 Grisman founded the Acoustic Disc label, which allowed him to explore his uniquely un-classifiable “dawg” music without regard for commercial expectations.