“Chili Dawg” is a David Grisman tune from the 1980s. His Dawg Works series gathers recordings of his compositions in the order he wrote them, and it places this one in the third volume, which covers 1982 to 1991. Its first recording was made in December 1989 at Dawg Studios in Mill Valley, California, during the sessions for Dawg ’90. Grisman played mandolin, with Matt Eakle on flute, John Carlini on guitar, Jim Kerwin on bass and Joe Craven on percussion.
Dawg ’90 was the first release on Acoustic Disc, the label Grisman started in 1990, and “Chili Dawg” is its second track. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the country instrumental category, Grisman’s first nomination for his own music. In 1993 Acoustic Disc opened its first label sampler, 100% Handmade Music, Vol. 1, with the same track.
The tune outlasted that lineup. A later quintet, with Enrique Coria on guitar alongside Eakle, Kerwin and Craven, played it at the Sunset Center in Carmel, California, on 14 August 2004. That performance was issued in 2005 and chosen for Dawg Works Volume 3 in 2022. The String Cheese Incident also took it up, and their live releases include versions from Chicago on 31 December 2003 and from Broomfield, Colorado, on 2 January 2016. In 2021 Grisman put it among the twenty pieces in Dawg Latin, the fourth volume of his Book of the Dawg series, alongside tunes such as “Dawganova” and “April’s Wedding Bossa.”
