David Grisman (mandolin); Tony Rice (guitar)

As lovely as its sequel TONE POEMS II is, the first TONE POEMS, with Tony Rice on guitar, feels like a more original piece of work. Perhaps the musical communication between Grisman and Rice is simply second nature, Rice having been there at the founding of the first David Grisman Quintet in the '70s. Grisman's contributions as a composer are more significant here, as the mandolin maestro wrote eight of TONE POEMS' 17 tunes.

Whatever the reason, this extravagantly produced release certainly fulfills Grisman's concept--described in the liner notes as "what happens when a vintage instrument collector, a mandolin player, a record producer, and the owner of an independent acoustic record label all happen to be the same person." Grisman and Rice record in stereo with no overdubbing, employing a different historically matched pair of instruments for each duet. TONE POEMS also includes a 36-page booklet filled with detailed color photographs of the various vintage instruments used and historical notes on both their makers and the players who first figured out what to do with them.