The New Acoustic Collective is a contemporary string band in the Bay area of California, dedicated to the sort of chamber swing and jazz popularized in the 1980s by artists like David Grisman and Tony Rice.
Those old enough to remember the ’80s will recall that while Grisman’s mandolin-based sound had picked up the label of Dawg Music, people struggled to find a term to describe what Tony was doing then with The Tony Rice Unit. It was a bit more jazz-focused, but with elements of his bluegrass background still apparent. My memory is a bit weak as to who coined the phrase, but it eventually came to be known as New Acoustic music.
Inspired by these genres, also launched in California, The Collective will soon release a debut EP called Buckwild. A leadoff single and a music video is available now for one of the tracks, Grisman’s classic E.M.D., from the very first David Grisman Quintet album in 1977 which ignited this new style of string music with a bang. The song got its name as the movie theme for a film titled Eat My Dust, but E.M.D. is much cooler as a name for this raucous tune.
Grisman had it as a mandolin number, but as you can see in the video, New Acoustic Collective leads it off with the fiddle, played by David Boyden, drawing a strong influence from Grisman Quintet fiddler Darol Anger.
The Collective is co-led by guitarist Jason Keiser and bassist Alonzo Sanchez. Also appearing in the video is cellist Nathaniel Grohmann.
E.M.D. is available now as a single wherever you stream or download music online. Buckwild can be ordered as a digital album from the Collective’s bandcamp site.
