Live at the Linda

Dreadnought 0701

 

Please find review as published by MAVERICK. David Grier Live At The Linda ***1/2 David Grier defies boundaries as his fingers make the strings on his guitar dance. Seated before an enthralled audience in a small intimate venue, Grier pulls on his vast experience as he threads together a set of 15 superb instrumentals, bridged by excellent stories worthy of repeated airings. A master of his trade, Grier's expertise as a flat-picking guitarist is like that of his peers Tony Rice, Doc Watson and Norman Blake, all good company and similarly his playing knows no boundaries. Mixing bluegrass, old-time fiddle tunes, Americana and the mellow working of the pop hit Killing Me Softly With His Song. Grier, a relaxed and entertaining host lends much to the intimate setting, not least being via his humorous and well told stories. While he hits the road in sprightly fashion on Redwing, The Old Spinning Wheel has a soothing air embracing the tune's Mother Maybelle's guitar style enters my thoughts. When it comes to performing the music of Bill Monroe, his covers of Crossing The Cumberlands/Old Ebenezer Scrooge would top most people's list, today, tomorrow or yesterday, such is his deft sense of touch and the mellow feel transferred to the former and dash to the latter. Among the other big crowd-pleasers, few if any could be better played or chosen than the much-covered Bonaparte's Retreate or his own lazy paced High Atop Princess Cove and gently flowing As It Rolls To The Sea. Then there is his sprint through banjoist Earl Scrugg's Randy Lynn Rag; it is only right he does a banjo tune since he is after all the son of Lamar Grier, banjo player with Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard etc. A class act, and when aided by stories about when he was a boy, the Glass Eye joke plus his recollections of Dolly and his Grammy for his part in the Bill Monroe tribute album TRUE LIFE BLUES, an hour passes before you know it. MH