New Acoustic Music • Fiddle & Mandolin • The Dawg Alumni
Two David Grisman Quintet alumni whose fiddle-and-mandolin partnership carried dawg music forward into decades of adventurous, genre-spanning new acoustic records.
The Short Version
Who Are They?
Darol Anger (fiddle and violin) and Mike Marshall (mandolin, guitar, and more) are two of the most important musicians to come out of the new-acoustic movement. Both were early members of the David Grisman Quintet, and as Marcel notes, virtually everything they went on to record together has the dawg's fingerprints on it.
As a duo and in a web of groups, Montreux, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Psychograss, the Modern Mandolin Quartet, they carried Grisman's fusion of bluegrass, jazz, classical, and world music forward for decades. They are also two of the most beloved teachers in acoustic music, having shaped countless younger players.
Fiddle and mandolin, the core of the partnership.From the Quintet to a Web of Groups
The Story
Their story is really the story of new acoustic music after Grisman, told through two restless, curious players.
Northern California, the home of the new-acoustic scene.
late 1970s
The David Grisman Quintet
Both Anger and Marshall came up in Grisman's groundbreaking quintet, learning the new-acoustic language at its source.
1980s
The duo and Windham Hill
They recorded adventurous duo and small-group albums, including the new-acoustic touchstone Chiaroscuro, for the Windham Hill label.
1980s–90s
A web of groups
Anger co-founded the jazz-string Turtle Island String Quartet; Marshall explored classical and Brazilian music; together they played in Montreux and Psychograss.
1999
Diary of a Fiddler
Anger's all-star fiddle record drew together a generation of players and earned wide acclaim.
2000s onward
Teachers to a generation
Both became influential educators, and their fingerprints are on much of the modern acoustic and progressive-bluegrass world.
Three Recordings, One Introduction
Start Here
These three are the fastest way to hear the partnership: the Windham Hill classic, the inventive cover, and the live duo.
01 · The New-Acoustic Classic
"Dolphins"
From Chiaroscuro, a shimmering piece of new-acoustic music that shows what the duo could do. Start here.
02 · The Cover
"A Whiter Shade of Pale"
Fiddle and mandolin reimagining a rock classic, the duo's range on display.
03 · Live
Live at Magnoliafest
The two of them on stage, the interplay that decades of partnership produces.
The Catalog
The Essential Records 3 to start with
Three records covering the classic duo material and Anger's acclaimed fiddle project.
1985
Chiaroscuro
The Windham Hill new-acoustic touchstone. Start here.
What Darol Anger and Mike Marshall did was take the new-acoustic language David Grisman invented and prove it could keep growing. Grisman had fused bluegrass and gypsy jazz; his alumni pushed further, into Brazilian choro, classical chamber music, jazz string writing, and free improvisation, always played on acoustic string instruments with a bluegrass player's drive and a jazz musician's harmonic ear. Their duo and small-group records are some of the most adventurous acoustic music of their era.
Individually they are formidable. Darol Anger helped invent a whole approach to jazz and improvised string playing, co-founding the Turtle Island String Quartet, and has been a tireless champion of the fiddle in every style. Mike Marshall is a mandolin virtuoso of astonishing range who has gone as deep into Brazilian music, with partners like Hamilton de Holanda, and classical mandolin as anyone alive. Together, their interplay has the ease of musicians who have been listening to each other since they were kids.
Their influence is felt as much through teaching as recording. Both have mentored a generation of string players, in person and through online schools, and the fingerprints of their open, curious, technically fearless approach are all over the modern progressive-bluegrass and new-acoustic world. When a young fiddler or mandolinist today plays across genres without blinking, they are working in a tradition Anger and Marshall helped build.
Decades of two musicians listening to each other.The Roots of the Sound
Influences
They came out of the new-acoustic world and reached into jazz, classical, and Brazilian music. These are the sources.
The Dawg
David Grisman
The bandleader whose quintet gave them their language, and whose fingerprints are on all they do.
Anger and Marshall are the connective tissue of the new-acoustic world.
David Grisman: the quintet where it all began for them. See the guide.
Tony Rice: their bandmate and fellow new-acoustic pillar. See the guide.
Mark O'Connor: another Grisman Quintet alumnus from the same scene. See the guide.
Sierra Hull: the modern mandolin generation their teaching helped shape. See the guide.
Darol Anger's "Fiddlistics" and Mike Marshall's Brazilian choro records: both deep, rewarding rabbit holes.
The Way to Listen
Listen to the conversation between the two instruments. The whole joy of this music is two virtuosos who have played together for decades, trading ideas like old friends finishing each other's sentences.
