Billy Strings Shares Note Of Gratitude After Performing At David Grisman Celebration

Billy Strings participated in the celebratory “Dawg At 80!” concert in honor of influential mandolin player David Grisman’s 80th birthday. Days after sharing the stage with the legendary bluegrass musician, Strings shared a heartfelt message of gratitude reflecting on his experience at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.

As reported, Dawg’s son, bassist Sam Grisman, led a core band that included Strings, his bandmate, fiddler Alex Hargreaves, and mandolinists Ronnie McCoury and Dominick Leslie through the first set.

David Grisman emerged near the end of the set and joined various configurations during the evening’s second set. Sam Bush, Danny Barnes, Mike Marshall, Jim Kerwin, Joe Craven, Darol Anger and Tracy Grisman were among participants.

Strings, whose appearance at “Dawg At 80!” was not announced before the show, took to social media to pass along his thoughts about the concert, along with photos of him and Dawg onstage together.

Here’s Billy’s note, slightly edited for clarity:

“It’s taken a few days to slowly float back down to the ground after soaring so high for [David Grisman’s] birthday!!

“It’s hard to find the words to describe the amount of love, respect, admiration and appreciation that myself and so many others have for this man. His music is absolutely groundbreaking.

“Pushing the limits on what is possible for a string band to pull off, mixing elements of bluegrass and jazz and many things in between to create a new acoustic sound that we are all still learning from today. Dawg music. It was a challenge for me to learn these songs and an amazing opportunity to dig deeper and dive further down into the depths of the Dawg vault.

“I was saying to [Alex Hargreaves] that, in theory, we should be light years ahead because we have this music to learn from and to spring ourselves off from, but in reality, we’re still trying to catch up.

“Just listen to [David Grisman Quintet], the tones, the arrangements, the melodies, the mandolins!! It is absolutely beautifully composed music and I still can’t think of anything that tops it when it comes to tones and playing.

“Diving deeper into [Tony Rice’s] playing on this stuff is absolutely mind-boggling. It is insane how good he was. Seriously. Fucking incredible …

“As I stood there on stage seeing Dawg surrounded by his closest friends that he’s made through the many years of music and travel, singing songs with his children and leading a band full of great musicians who look up to him.. the tears came and they wouldn’t stop. I absolutely lost it for a little bit when he sang a brand new verse to ‘Old & In The Way’ and stepped up to sing harmonies with his kids.

“To see the generations in real time playing music together, to feel all the respect oozing out of every heart on that stage. I saw his grey hair, and I wondered if I, too someday, would have this kind of family.

“I wondered if someday I will sing my songs with my son when my hair is grey.. and I realized that that is where my true aspirations are. Not to be famous or sell a lot of records or make a lot of money, but to be surrounded by family and friends and to still play the music we love for as long as we can.

“Heart=swollen, fingers=sore.”