“Old and in the Way” is a David Grisman song, and the band Old & In the Way took its name from it. That group, formed in 1973, put Grisman on mandolin alongside Peter Rowan on guitar, Jerry Garcia on banjo, Vassar Clements on fiddle and John Kahn on bass, with Rowan, Garcia and Grisman sharing the singing. Its existence was short: about fifty shows through much of 1973, and every official release by the band comes from live tapes made in San Francisco that October.
The song is a portrait of a man the world has stopped listening to. People once heeded what he said; now they dismiss him as old and in the way. He left home as a boy believing he had the world at his command, and now he walks the streets alone, likened to a stray dog. The friends and good times he once had are gone, he has no place to call home, and he looks back on better days.
The first release came on the band’s debut album, Old & In the Way, issued by Round Records in February 1975. It was recorded at the Boarding House in San Francisco on 8 October 1973 by Owsley Stanley and Vickie Babcock, and Grisman produced and mixed the record. Further performances from the same Boarding House run came out in 2013 on Acoustic Disc’s Live at the Boarding House, which carries the song twice. Grisman returned to it with a later band on the Acoustic Disc album DGBX (David Grisman Bluegrass Experience), with Keith Little, Jim Nunally, Chad Manning and Samson Grisman.
