The email I got from Troy Savings Bank Music Hall bordered on the feverish: David Grisman had just augmented his quintet with a 20-year old violin player named Mike Barnett. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how a player who was just short of fully-legal age could change the game of a major veteran like Grisman? Well, he didn't… and he most righteously did!

Make no mistake: Grisman was the same mad mandolin virtuoso he's been since he came on the scene (by his estimation) "40 or 50 years ago." The hair's whiter and wilder, but he hasn't dropped even a half-step on his chosen instrument; in addition, he was playing in one of the acoustic marvels of the Western world, so conditions could not have been better for him. The thing is, though, Barnett's addition allowed Grisman to expand the set to include material he'd written with fiddle in mind. As such, he informed the SRO crowd that they were going to get "a real comprehensive view of the wonderful world of 'Dawg music!'"

It'd be understandable to believe 'Dawg music' meant bluegrass, since that's basically how Grisman made his bones in his work with the late Jerry Garcia -- first with the outfit Old & In The Way, and then in the documentary Grateful Dawg. He played the title track from the latter project, calling it "something out of the Garcia/Grisman repertoire." Bluegrass was part of this night, to be sure, but that was just one dish on a sumptuous two-set buffet.

The opening instrumental was closer to Eastern European folk music than anything else, and the following piece "Dawg Daze" had a solid jazz base, partly from Grisman's own solos, but mostly from the work of flutist Matt Eckel. When he wasn't dancing to the rest of the band's work, the grinning Californian widened Grisman's color wheel all night long with marvelously lyrical solos and accents; of all the great things he did here, he did his best on bass flute, bringing echoing texture to "Tracy's Tune" and "Opus 38."

As for Barnett (aka the "Plus…"), there's only one thing that can be said: Hoh… lee… SHIT! He's this very cool, very unassuming, curly-haired kid who just happens to channel Vassar Clements and Papa John Creech! His youthful energy is undeniable: Eckel told me afterwards that, even after two monumental sets, Barnett and fellow "youngster" guitarist Grant Gorky were probably still playing in the dressing room. But Barnett's sound has so much history in it, with technique that should easily escape someone in his demographic. He helped Grisman conjure up the spirit of Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys on "The Albuquerque Turkey," and then literally swung it in the other direction on Stephane Grappelli's "Minor Swing." Grisman lauded Grappelli ("The master of String Swing") prior to "Minor," telling the audience that they all needed to check out the legend's work with Django Reinhardt and Le Hot Club Quintet.

Grisman may know history, but he's not stuck there -- and he's not riding on the shoulders of younger players, as many of his contemporaries are. His solos and fills were totally unforced, completely organic, and consistently brilliant. Rather than let his band do the heavy lifting, he seemed driven to do more and better because of them, and his compatriots obviously felt the same pressure. The night had more than a few moments where the band shared smiles and laughs that said, "Damn, man, where'd you come up with that?!" And while almost all the music was Grisman's (including the hot new tunes "Corrado's Mandolin" and "The Hornpipe Dream"), he also happily made space for Gorky's slow smoker "Blues to Dawg." Grisman even got laughs when he started to start the tune, then stopped the band and told Gorky, "You count it off!"

Grisman was playful like that all night long. ("Mandolin players spend half their lives tuning. The other half, they're out of tune!") He was also extraordinarily gracious, signing autographs and posing for pictures with all comers after the show. He's also looking forward, announcing from the stage that his new Web site (acousticoasis.com), would be launched on the following Monday, offering downloads of old, new, and unreleased material. "Download is a very green idea," he told us. Then his grin widened as he added, "Hopefully on more than one level."