Not For Kids Only

For the follow-up to their GRAMMY award-winning eponymous debut album, David Grisman and Jerry Garcia turned to a completely unlikely, yet wholly natural, source of inspiration: children’s songs. The selections on *Not For Kids Only* are drawn from the duo’s vast knowledge of roots music, and many of them were gleaned from old Folkways records by the likes of Pete Seeger, Elizabeth Cotten and the New Lost City Ramblers. “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” and “There Ain’t No Bugs On Me” might seem like odd choices for two aging hippies — one of them a heroin addict — but the grace and simplicity of these songs gets to the heart of what Garcia and Grisman have always been after in their music. Their friendship comes through strongly on “Arkansas Traveller,” and Garcia’s quiet vocal on “Freight Train” should tell you everything you need to know about the goodness in the man’s soul. With flourishes of ingeniously understated percussion (courtesy of drumming legend Hal Blaine), *Not For Kids Only* is in the tradition of classic kids’ collections by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.

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