Rating: 
Summary: great music to watch as well as hear
Review: This DVD is very enjoyable marred only by too much interviewing especially while a hot number is being performed. Great song selection and overall very informative but it seems like the producers just went over the top in cramming in as much interview stuff as they did. It gets distracting. If they had cut the interview and spoken word segments by 50% of what it ended up being (timewise) it'd be a 5 star DVD in my humble opinion. I'd rather hear "Off to sea again" uninterrupted for example, wouldn't you? Anyway, still way worth the price of admission.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Gift
Review: This film is a wonderful gift to those of us who grew up listening to Garcia and the Dead. Grateful Dawg is really a tribute to a great musician and the beauty of friendship and music. As I watched (and listened) I felt a mix of sadness and joy - sadness that Jerry is gone and joy that he was able to spend his last years making the kind of music he clearly loved. To see and hear him again in a different venue was magical. My grandmother died 20 years ago. Recently, I was cleaning out an old trunk and I found some embroidery that she had done and that I had forgotten all about. One was a sampler with a corny but humorous saying on it. I felt as though my grandmother had sent me a gift from beyond. That is how I feel about this film -a gift to an aging Deadhead showing me the direction that Jerry would have taken had he lived and reaffirming my belief that he was one of the great ones. Interesting too that this film would be released at the same time interest in this type of music is high with the recent Grammy wins for "O Brother Where Art Thou?". My first inclination is to pick up some of Grisman/Garcia's cd's to hear more and share this music with my co-workers who listen to music all day long. Thanks David and thank you Jerry for doing what you did. I miss you.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Gift
Review: This film is a wonderful gift to those of us who grew up listening to Garcia and the Dead. Grateful Dawg is really a tribute to a great musician and the beauty of friendship and music. As I watched (and listened) I felt a mix of sadness and joy - sadness that Jerry is gone and joy that he was able to spend his last years making the kind of music he clearly loved. To see and hear him again in a different venue was magical. My grandmother died 20 years ago. Recently, I was cleaning out an old trunk and I found some embroidery that she had done and that I had forgotten all about. One was a sampler with a corny but humorous saying on it. I felt as though my grandmother had sent me a gift from beyond. That is how I feel about this film -a gift to an aging Deadhead showing me the direction that Jerry would have taken had he lived and reaffirming my belief that he was one of the great ones. Interesting too that this film would be released at the same time interest in this type of music is high with the recent Grammy wins for "O Brother Where Art Thou?". My first inclination is to pick up some of Grisman/Garcia's cd's to hear more and share this music with my co-workers who listen to music all day long. Thanks David and thank you Jerry for doing what you did. I miss you.
Rating:
Summary: Jerry Garcia without the Grateful Dead
Review: This is a great look into Jerry Garcia's life outside his more well known life in the Grateful Dead. The duo of David Grisman and Jerry Garcia created some great music that most people have never been exposed to. From folk, jazz, rock and other genres, these two did it all and they did it all very WELL! This dvd gives you some insight as to what Jerry did outside of his more known life in the Grateful Dead. Deadheads and others will love this look into the roots of Jerry and David's musical life.
Rating:
Summary: Hanging out with Jerry
Review: This is such a great film! A real "must see" for fans of Jerry, blue grass, and lovers of music in general. The film gives an insight into Jerry's other musical interests outside of the Grateful Dead and also a real peak at what "hanging out" with Jerry must have been like. Everything is very candid and the love and respect these two have for each other and the music they made shines through. By the end of the movie you'll have a tear in your eye and a smile on your face. This is a great story about the greatest story teller and a movie your whole family can enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Hanging out with Jerry
Review: This is such a great film! A real "must see" for fans of Jerry, blue grass, and lovers of music in general. The film gives an insight into Jerry's other musical interests outside of the Grateful Dead and also a real peak at what "hanging out" with Jerry must have been like. Everything is very candid and the love and respect these two have for each other and the music they made shines through. By the end of the movie you'll have a tear in your eye and a smile on your face. This is a great story about the greatest story teller and a movie your whole family can enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Hanging out with Jerry
Review: This is such a great film! A real "must see" for fans of Jerry, blue grass, and lovers of music in general. The film gives an insight into Jerry's other musical interests outside of the Grateful Dead and also a real peak at what "hanging out" with Jerry must have been like. Everything is very candid and the love and respect these two have for each other and the music they made shines through. By the end of the movie you'll have a tear in your eye and a smile on your face. This is a great story about the greatest story teller and a movie your whole family can enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Dog Gone Good
Review: This movie is so touching. The music is incredible. We get to see and hear the real Jerry Garcia. Understand his love of American music. Jerry Garcia was Americana before Americana and the Magazine No Depression. This was the first day that this movie opened in Boston. I was there. I wanted to run out on the streets and say Hey, come in and you must see this movie that has so much heart. At the end of the movie, I thought the spoken tributes to Jerry Garcia that were being said as the long song Arabia played on was too much. I just could have listened and watched two great people, who also happened to be great musicians, play on their own. Their music stood by itself without needing the spoken words. In the end, it doesn't matter. If you just love music, you will love this movie. If you want to see and hear a warm movie about friendship, you will love this movie. David Grisman should get an Oscar for best documentary 2001.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisman and Garcia - Beards of a Feather
Review: Unlike most of the reviewers here I am more of a dawghead than a deadhead. David Grisman is my musical idol. The man is a creative genius. I bought the DVD because there's very little video available of David Grisman and I knew that this would be a video bonanza for Grisman fans. I'm not disappointed. The only drawback to this movie in my opinion is that it wasn't shot as a documentary but as Gillian Grisman says, it was a hodgepodge of home movies that were simply used to create a documentary a few years after Garcia's death. Still, there is a certain charm to the fact that it wasn't shot as a documentary. The subjects are free to be themselves, not realizing that anyone outside of their inner circle will ever view the footage. It's obvious that Gillian decided to study the art of movie making once she determined that she was going to create a documentary. She went to great lengths to tell the story of her dad and Garcia with an appropriate thread of performance, studio, and interview video. Sure, there are a lot of interview clips, but it is a documentary after all. Personally I didn't find them all that distracting. And for an added bonus, the DVD viewer has the option of viewing the movie with commentaries from David and Gillian. Several outtakes are also added, including Vassar Clements' embarrassing story of how he was playing with Garcia without really knowing who the Grateful Dead are. I'm sure most deadheads will love this flick. I know dawgheads like me will.
Rating:
Summary: Grisman and Garcia - Beards of a Feather
Review: Unlike most of the reviewers here I am more of a dawghead than a deadhead. David Grisman is my musical idol. The man is a creative genius. I bought the DVD because there's very little video available of David Grisman and I knew that this would be a video bonanza for Grisman fans. I'm not disappointed. The only drawback to this movie in my opinion is that it wasn't shot as a documentary but as Gillian Grisman says, it was a hodgepodge of home movies that were simply used to create a documentary a few years after Garcia's death. Still, there is a certain charm to the fact that it wasn't shot as a documentary. The subjects are free to be themselves, not realizing that anyone outside of their inner circle will ever view the footage. It's obvious that Gillian decided to study the art of movie making once she determined that she was going to create a documentary. She went to great lengths to tell the story of her dad and Garcia with an appropriate thread of performance, studio, and interview video. Sure, there are a lot of interview clips, but it is a documentary after all. Personally I didn't find them all that distracting. And for an added bonus, the DVD viewer has the option of viewing the movie with commentaries from David and Gillian. Several outtakes are also added, including Vassar Clements' embarrassing story of how he was playing with Garcia without really knowing who the Grateful Dead are. I'm sure most deadheads will love this flick. I know dawgheads like me will.
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