To their friends, family and admirers they were "beards of a feather", hatched from the same "cosmic egg" (don't'cha love hippies?). That's the late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia and bluegrass maestro David Grisman - literally plucking Bluegrass back from the 'Special Interest' bracket to continued acclaim.
In this sweet-natured, hugely subjective documentary, the history of their on-off artistic partnership, including five collaborative albums, is explored via jams, home movies and live footage, and their particular strand of folk-tinged music showcased to varying levels of self-indulgence.
As one would expect, the performances here - whether knocked out impromptu in David's living room or on stage - are virtuoso in range and delivery, with pieces including a cover of Jimmy Cliff's 'Sitting Here in Limbo', Dead classic 'Friend Of The Devil', and a sprawling 17 minute opus called 'Arabia' - "cos there was that Gulf War thing going on at the time..."
Fans of either party (and of banjo and mandolin-based music in particular) will love it: casual moviegoers and record-buyers, possibly less so. Nonetheless, a pleasing enough eulogy for Mr Garcia (who died in 1995).
In this sweet-natured, hugely subjective documentary, the history of their on-off artistic partnership, including five collaborative albums, is explored via jams, home movies and live footage, and their particular strand of folk-tinged music showcased to varying levels of self-indulgence.
As one would expect, the performances here - whether knocked out impromptu in David's living room or on stage - are virtuoso in range and delivery, with pieces including a cover of Jimmy Cliff's 'Sitting Here in Limbo', Dead classic 'Friend Of The Devil', and a sprawling 17 minute opus called 'Arabia' - "cos there was that Gulf War thing going on at the time..."
Fans of either party (and of banjo and mandolin-based music in particular) will love it: casual moviegoers and record-buyers, possibly less so. Nonetheless, a pleasing enough eulogy for Mr Garcia (who died in 1995).