Note: This is a special full edition of the David Grier Breakdown Column.
This month I was joined by CBA everyman Ted Kuster as we caught up with master guitarist David Grier over lunch between his busy schedule of house concerts and workshops in San Francisco and LA.
Waitress: Can I start you off with something to drink?
All: Coffee, coffee, OJ and water for all.
TK: Is it your standard practice to fly somewhere, rent a car and drive from town to town?
DG: Depending on the tour, yes. If I’ve got some time in California, I’ll rent a car and drive, if I don’t have to go that far. I rented a Prius so I can drive a lot. The way I put the tours together, most gigs are not that far apart.
DB: Where are you based these days?
DG: Nashville, Tennessee.
DB: So do you play a lot of the festivals in and around Nashville for the summer festival circuit?
DG: I tour everywhere. It’s not a local thing. I was just over in South Africa. I’ve been to Japan, England, Scotland, Wales and the Shetland Islands. I’m going to Italy in a couple of months, so yeah, I travel.
TK: Do you drive yourself around in Italy?
DG: Nah, the promoter picks me up.
TK: Are you going to play with that band Red Wine and their founder Beppe?
DG: I know them, but beats me. I will if they show up.
TK: They have a following around here and have played Hardly Strictly Bluegrass a couple of times.
DB: How was the house concert you did at Ted’s house?
DG: Pretty good. No fights broke out, everybody was nice and seemed to like it, nobody asked for their money back, and nobody broke out a gun and shot anybody. It was great.
All: Food ordered.
DB: You also just did a house concert in LA. Do you see any differences between the crowds there and here in Northern California?
DG: You know, people are people the whole world over. They’re the same. They come and they want to be entertained. They want to hear some music. It was real nice; it was a full house, 60 people or so with a house on a cliff this architect built for this guy specifically. A mansion with big windows where you could see for fifty miles when the fog ain’t in, but beautiful. It was great. The people were normal.
TK: Where are you going in Italy?
DG: It’s a guitar event in Genova that’s gonna happen for three or four nights. It’s me (how’s that for redundant), Bryan Sutton, Pat Flynn and Beppe Gambetta from Red Wine.
TK: You were also in South Africa last year. Tell us about that.
DG: Oh man, I wrote a song while I was there, that was cool. I wrote a melody and I had two lines before I left and finished it while I was there.
TK: A lot of shows?
DG: I had 17 gigs and a lot of time off to sight-see, see people and hang out. I went to the Kruger National Park and saw a bunch of animals. That park’s huge; they say it’s as big as Israel. You can drive ten or twelve hours and still be in the park.
TK: Why do you have so many fans in South Africa?
DG: I really only had one, the promoter, and now I got a bunch. It was cool; it was great. Last year he had Russ Barenberg and he emailed me and asked about me doing it. I was like, “hey man, I don’t even know you,” so I called Russ up and he said, “Oh yeah, you should go, it’s cool,” so I went and it was all right.
DB: Where’d you go?
DG: I went to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Capetown, Durban, and Midlands all in South Africa. They’re corrupt as hell, a lot of people don’t have any money, a lot of people have a lot of money so there’s not much in the middle. It’s crazy.
TK: How were the crowds? Did they get what you were doing?
DG: It’s music, you know, so they can follow it, but I don’t think they were too knowledgeable as far as bluegrass music goes, but everybody liked it.
DB: Who else do you tour with?
DG: A bunch of people, when they call. I’m in a band called Psychograss with Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Todd Phillips and Tony Trischka. I’ve got a new band called Helen Highwater Stringband with Mike Compton, Missy Raines and Chad Cobb. I went out last year with Tim O’Brien; we played Rockygrass and a festival up in Ohio. We went to Denmark and played the Tonder Festival that was good.
TK: That’s pretty awesome, going to Denmark.
DG: Yep, it’s a perfect job. You get paid to travel. I’ve seen a bunch of stuff. I’ve seen Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and the Giant Redwoods. I’ve been all across Canada. It’s all right.
TK: When you were growing up and your Dad Lamar was playing banjo for Monroe, you must have been on the road a lot.
DG: Yeah, he was, but I wasn’t in the band. I was like five years old. We did travel some while he was touring in Maryland, which is where I’m from. We’d go up there and hang out with our grandparents a week or so and take the bus back home with the band. I didn‘t travel with them a lot but it was cool, man. Me and Bill would sit in the front seat and the bus would stop for gas or food or whatever and Bill would buy candy. So he and I would sit in the front seat and eat candy. Other band members would come up and say, “Hey Bill, can I have a piece of candy,” and he’d say, “You’ve got money, buy your own, this is me and David’s candy”.
DB: Nice, so he had your back?
DG: Yeah, that’s also where I learned to count change. He’d accumulate a pocketful of change and he’d give me a handful and of course mom said, “You can’t have that unless you can count it.” So, that’s how I learned to make change.
DB: What do you think Monroe would say to you if he saw you perform today?
DG: “That’s powerful, right there!”
TK: What was that scene like when you were growing up in DC?
DG: It was all right; it was cool. They were all dad’s friends. It’s just like your dad’s friends except my dad’s friends played music. Maybe your dad’s friends were in a bowling league or something, I don’t know, but it’s the same deal.
DB: Did you know Blaine Sprouse in that era?
DG: Yep. He’s from West Virginia and he played in a band with my father when he was like a teenager, so I’ve known him quite a while. One of the first or second albums I did after I moved to town was with the great fiddler Kenny Baker and Blaine Sprouse.
DB: I’ve heard Kenny played pretty good guitar too.
DG: He was a good guitar player. He had a record out where he played guitar, the Puritan Sessions with Josh Graves. It was good.
All: Food is served.
DG: God almighty.
DB: Did you get the chicken and waffle?
DG: Yeah, I guess I did.
TK: What CD’s did you listen to on your road trip to LA?
DG: I went to a store and found a Punch Brothers CD, so I listened to that on the way last night. It was great.
DB: Do you have any more California shows coming up or in the summer?
DG: Yeah, I’m out here ‘til the end of the month. There’s one in Bishop and others. I don’t have plans for the summer out here.
DB: There are a lot of house concerts in the Bay Area but not all that many are bluegrass. They tend to be Americana, singer-songwriter, world music, etc.
DG: This guy I did the show for in LA has a lot of music. A friend of mine Richard Smith who’s a genius finger picker told me about it. He’s great. He played with Chet Atkins on stage when he was like twelve or something. He’s amazing. He’s in Nashville now but he’s from England. He told me about the guy from LA and I met him at IBMA in Raleigh last year and it all worked out.
TK: At IBMA did you run into the three little boys Barefoot Quayle kids from Alameda?
DG: Oh yeah, I know them. I’ve taught workshops and week-long seminars and they’d be there with their mom. They’re cool.
DB: How many instruments do you travel with?
DG: It depends, this trip just one. I only play one at a time.
TK: That’s your Santa Cruz guitar?
DG: Yeah.
DB: You’ve played the Father’s Day Festival in Grass Valley haven’t you?
DG: I’ve played there once or twice. I think with Darol Anger and maybe with Richard Green one time.
TK: Do you ever get to the point where you say you just want to spend two months at home?
DG: Well, I’m self-employed. Every day is at home unless I feel like working. You know, what’s the point of being self-employed if you can’t hang out and do what you want. You can’t grow a big beard, you can’t hang out until four in the morning somewhere, you know. I wear whatever I feel like wearing.
DB: What inspires you to keep at this traveling life?
DG: Meeting cool and intelligent people and seeing the world.
DB: Who else were you exposed to through your dad?
DG: Dad played with Peter Rowan and Tex Logan in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He played with the Strange Creek Singers, which were Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard, Mike Seeger and Tracy Schwartz. He played with Buzz Busby, which was amazing, what a character he was. I dunno, he just played with a lot of different local folks in and around Baltimore.
TK: He had a day job that whole time?
DG: Yeah. He’d go to work, come home, eat dinner, and go to the gig and play five sets. He’d play until two, get home at three, then sleep to maybe six then get up and go to work again. Five sets man, who does that, nobody. I haven’t played five sets in a million years.
DB: How do you structure your workshops? Do you have materials or just wing it based on the crowd?
DG: I just show up and ask ‘em what they want to learn. No reason to talk about stuff they’re not interested in. “So, what do you want to learn? Here ya go”. It’s one o’clock now, we should go.
TK: Yea, just waiting for the check.
DB: You probably were out at John Hartford’s place a lot. Any stories from out there?
DG: Yeah, he used to have New Year’s Eve parties that would last three days from noon to midnight when he’d kick you out, but you could come back at noon. Three days running and different people there; old-time players, country people, bluegrass folks, – three stories out on the river.
DB: I’m sure there were some interesting folks there.
DG: I met this guy Carroll Best, a two-finger style banjo player, at Hartford’s party, melodic. He showed me this tune called Chinquapin Hunting, a beautiful tune, so I learned it then forgot it and nobody around knew it. Carroll was old, so I just hoped he’d show up the next year and he did. He showed me the tune again and I learned it and recorded it on my Panorama CD. His brother shot and killed him.
DB: Panorama is one of my favorites. Who played mandolin on that?
DG: Mike Compton and Sam Bush, but Mike played on that song.
DB: I learned that song from Butch Baldassari’s songbooks.
DG: There’s a couple different ways to play it. It’s really two different tunes with the same title.
TK: Like Shenandoah Valley Breakdown, two different songs. Ok, we’re outta here.
Waitress: Here’s the check
DG: What do I owe?
TK: Nothing I got it.
DB: Hey, he’s management. If they can afford these fancy CBA jackets, he can pay for lunch.
DG: Yea, that’s snazzy.
REFERENCE
• Website: www.davidgrier.com
• Psychgrass Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI0O8TeKJyE
• Hartford’s New Year’s Shindig 1987: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_zYfS_-ShY
• Carroll Best Compilation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs33ymn1wpE
• Beppe Gambetta Website: http://www.beppegambetta.com/calendar.htm
